User Profile

Customize

immortalotus

Add Friend
Add Note
Track User
Send Message
Send V-Gift

Immortal Lotus

eat and live forever

Created on 2009-05-18 17:20:45 (#20179705), last updated 2009-05-18

0 comments received, 0 comments posted

Plus Account [Gift]

2 Journal Entries, 2 Tags, 0 Memories, 0 Virtual Gifts, 10 Userpics

Basic Info

Name:	He Xian Gu
Location:	China

Bio

Hé Qióng (何瓊 Hé Qióng), Immortal Woman She or He Xiangu (何仙姑) is the only female deity among the Eight Immortals.

She was from Yong Prefecture in Tang Dynasty, or from a wealthy and generous family in Zēngchéng County, Guangdong. He Xian Gu was born with six long hairs on the crown of her head. When she was fourteen years old, she had a dream in which her spirit-guides instructed her to eat powdered mica, as a way of transforming her human body into the body of an Immortal. When she did this, her need to eat regular food gradually decreased, until eventually she stopped eating regular food completely.

Part of He Xian Gu’s daily routine was to wander in the mountains, gathering fruits and herbs for her mother. She is said to have moved with such lightness that it looked like she was flying. The Empress Wu dispatched a messenger to summon her to attend at the palace, but on the way there, she disappeared.

One day during the Jīng Lóng period (about 707 CE), she ascended to Heaven in broad daylight, and became a Hsien (Taoist Immortal). She is known to carry a large ladle, whose bowl is made of bamboo. This bamboo bowl is filled with objects associated with Immortality: peaches, sprigs of pine and bamboo, and magic fungus. Sometimes instead of the ladle she carries a lotus flower on a long stalk; at other times a fly-whisk, or a basket of wild fruit and herbs. The lotus flower, as well as the fruits and herbs in her basket, have the power to improve ones physical and mental health. Sometimes she is seen with a Sheng (reed-organ) and/or a fenghuang bird.