Hexiangu is the only female among the eight immortals. She is a beautiful woman who often holds lotus flowers. Readers who still don’t know how hexiangu became an immortal. The following China story net Xiaobian will reveal hexiangu’s path to becoming an immortal. Let’s go on~
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Hexiangu has many believers among the Han and some ethnic minorities. Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, there have been many records of her deeds, second only to lvdongbin among the “Eight Immortals”. However, the origin of this female immortal has not been decided yet. Probably because there was no such person in history.
There are also many legends about hexiangu’s hometown. In addition to Zengcheng, Guangdong, Tongcheng, Qimen, Anhui, Wuping, Fujian, Changhua, Zhejiang and other places have traces and rumors of the local “hexiangu”.
The deeds of hexiangu are recorded in Ouyangxiu’s postscript to the ancient records of the Song Dynasty, Weitai’s Dongxuan transcripts, and Zeng Minxing’s Duxing magazine. Some people say that hexiangu was the daughter of Yongzhou people in the reign of song Renzong. When she was a child, she met an immortal and ate Xiantao (or xianzao), so she stopped eating and could predict the misfortunes and blessings. The villagers thought she was an immortal and built a temple for her. Many literati and bureaucrats went to visit her and asked her what was wrong with her.
In the general guide to immortals of all ages, it is recorded that LV Dongbin once met the female he of Lingling, fed her golden elixir and taught him Taoism. Later, he introduced her to Zhong Liquan. She became an immortal and specialized in sweeping the leaves of flat peaches in langyuan. Lingling is the seat of Yongzhou, so some people think that the “he’s daughter of Lingling” is the prototype of hexiangu.
In folklore, most people believe that hexiangu was from the Tang Dynasty. As for the process of her becoming an immortal, there are many different versions.
There is a saying: there is a he erniang in Guangzhou who makes a living by weaving shoes. At the age of 20, she suddenly went to Luofushan temple to collect red bayberry for the monks in the temple. However, Luofu Mountain has no bayberry, and the monks do not know how these bayberries came from. Four hundred miles to the north of Luofu Mountain, there is a Xunzhou mountain temple. In front of the temple, there is a Myrica rubra tree, dozens of thick. Once a monk of Xunzhou temple came to Luofu Mountain and said that a fairy came to their temple to collect plum blossoms on a certain day. When the monks of Luofu Temple heard that it was the day when he erniang collected plum blossoms for fasting, people knew that she was a “Fairy”. During the Kaiyuan period, the emperor sent envoys to Guangzhou to visit he erniang, but she suddenly disappeared on her way to Beijing and disappeared from the world. Later, some people thought that he erniang was hexiangu.
There is another saying that hexiangu, whose real name is hexiugu, is the daughter of Hetai, a tofu maker in Zengcheng County, Guangzhou. Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty was born on the seventh day of March in the summer calendar. When she was 13 years old, she went to the mountain to collect tea and met a Taoist (some say LV Dongbin). The Taoist priest gave her a peach (or mica slice) to eat. From then on, she was not hungry or thirsty. She knew everything about the world. Later, during the reign of emperor Jinglong in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, she became an immortal in the daytime.
It is said in the strange trace of immortal Buddha that hexiangu is the daughter of a man named Hetai in Zengcheng, Guangzhou. She was born with six hairs on her head. When she was 16, she dreamed that the immortal told her that eating mica powder could live forever. So she followed the immortal’s instructions, ate mica and swore not to marry. She often traveled to and from the valley, walking like a fly, and gradually stopped eating grain.
According to folklore, when Wu Zetian heard about hexiangu’s reputation, she sent messengers to invite her to Luoyang, the eastern capital, to discuss Buddhism and Taoism. The emissary and hexiangu came to Luoyang together. While waiting for the boat to cross the Luoshui River, hexiangu suddenly disappeared. The emissary was very frightened and ordered people to look around, but he couldn’t find any shadow. The people were so scared that they sat beside the Luohe River in a daze. At dusk, they saw hexiangu descending in the air. They told the emissary: “I have gone to the Forbidden Palace to meet Tian Tian. You can go back to the imperial court and resume your life.”
The envoy was skeptical and returned to the Luoyang palace. After inquiring, he Xiangu came to see Empress Wu that day and had a long talk with her in the palace, which surprised the ministers.
It is said that hexiangu talked about the art of immortality with Empress Wu in the palace. She persuaded Empress Wu to live a long life first by keeping her lusts low and refusing to speak; Secondly, we must do more good deeds. We must prohibit torture, implement benevolent policies, cultivate virtue and accumulate blessings. At the same time, she also talked about the way of governing the country and stabilizing the country. We must be close to virtuous officials and far away from villains. We must never use a different surname as the emperor’s heir.
In order to reward hexiangu for her kindness, Wu Zetian specially ordered the construction of a majestic fairy hall at Fenghuang terrace in the south of Lingling city as a place for hexiangu to preach and spread Dharma. It is said that hexiangu often sits on the stone steps in front of the hall after preaching, peels and eats a kind of round fairy fruit, and throws the fruit stone around. Later, lychee trees grew around the hall. The lychees on these trees were all green green lychees. People call them “on the Phoenix Terrace, lychees are green”. Hexiangu also wrote a poem entitled “Phoenix Terrace”:
The Phoenix mica is like a smallpox, which is refined into a lotus white cloud bud.
Laughing maniacs have no idea where to find the pill.
Hexiangu also wrote a poem titled “Magu peak”:
Magu laughs that I love the hustle and bustle of the world. It’s a long way from the immortal world.
Fly to Cangzhou to get the moon, ride the Yellow Crane and listen to the flute.
It is said that shortly after writing this poem, one day in the first year of emperor Jinglong in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, hexiangu rose in the daytime on the phoenix platform and became an immortal. When she flew away, a shoe on her foot fell to the ground. The next day, a well suddenly appeared in this place. The well water was clear and sweet, and it smelled like a bow shoe. Local people built a hexiangu temple near the well.
It is said that hexiangu also appeared during the Dali Period of Dai Zong. Someone saw her enjoying the cool under a litchi tree in Xiyuan temple and hanging a green silk belt on the tree. This place is called “hanging green garden”. The fruit of this litchi tree has a green ribbon, which is the famous “hanging green litchi” in Zengcheng. About this strange tree, qudajun of the Qing Dynasty has recorded it in Guangdong Xinyu and Zengcheng county annals. Later, people built a hexiangu family temple here. The temple is still in use today. There is a couplet on the gate: “a thousand years of footprints are left in the Danjing well, and hundreds of generations of clothes are used to worship the ancient temple”. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Please inform us if your original copyright is infringed, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.