MDDM: 65 Eight Immortals

[Samuel Moyer]

630-7 "And what may that slender Blade of Planetary Surface they took away, not be concealing?...the eight immortals, Victory over Death.  Histories ever Secret....  

The Eight Immortals

http://www.fortunecity.com/business/influence/1805/id14.htm
http://www.chinapage.com/8-immortal.html
http://www.godchecker.com/temple/gotw/


The Eight Immortals referred to eight Daoist Immortals who were popularly worshiped by Daoist sects as well as ordinary people. They were Zhong Liquan, Zhang Guolao, Lu Dongbin, Li Tieguai, He Xiangu, Nan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Chao Guojiu. The Eight Immortals of Daoism had nothing to do with other similar callings such as the Han dynasty's Eight Gentlemen of Huainan, the Tang dynasty's Eight Drunken Immortals and the Eight Immortals of Ancient Sichuan. The Daoist version of the Eight Immortals came into being during the Song and Yuan dynasties. 
For most Chinese people, the Eight Immortals represented eight factors in their daily life: men and women, old and young, the rich and the poor, the noble and the lowly. In addition, the things the Eight Immortals held in their hands -- castanets, fan, stick, sword, calabash, duster and flower basket -- were popularly found among and used by ordinary people in later period. It shows that the Eight Immortals were very close to the daily life of Daoist believers as well as to ordinary Chinese people. That explains why stories about the Eight Immortals could be so popular and influential in Chinese society.
 http://www.eng.taoism.org.hk/daoist-beliefs/immortals&immortalism/pg2-4-8-3.asp




This is an interesting paragraph (starting at 630-7)  because of the list that Captain Zhang gives us...  Fountain of Youth, Other Eden, Eight Immortals, Victory over Death... (eternal life)  Seven Cities of Gold (never wanting?) Defeat of Wrathful Dieties (no war? no disease?)


Briefly on the Seven Cities of Gold:

According to legend, sometime during the Moorish invasion of Spain, seven bishops together with their congregations, sailed west seeking to escape the infidel. By the 16th century the seven cities they purportedly founded became the "Seven Cities of Gold" and were thought to be somewhere in the New World. 
Another legend with a life of its own was that of Sierra Azul, the Blue Mountains, which were heavily laden with silver. If that were not enough, there was the story of Dorado, the golden man who would cover himself with gold dust and then bathe in a lake as an offering to his gods. http://www.neta.com/~1stbooks/colony4.htm

Sam

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