Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Bei Bei.
After the stories of the Moon Lady, the Cowherd and the Weaver Fairy and the little boy Nezha, today we have another one of those folk tales that every Chinese knows.
The tale of the eight immortals crossing the sea.
The names of the eight immortals will be new to you, but some familiar characters will show up in the story.
One of those is the Dragon King, who was much feared for his control of water.
The concept of the Dragon King supposedly came from outside China.
In Buddhism, there are the semi-divine deities, Naga, which are half human, half serpent beings.
When they came to China, they became the dragons.
The combination of the dragon and the naga became the dragon kings, who are in charge of different bodies of water.
A river or a big lake could all have a dragon king living at the bottom in its dragon palace.
The little boy Nezha whom we've talked about in the past was not the only one who had fought with the dragon kings.
The eight immortals did too.
Now let's get to the details.
The eight immortals lived in a place called the Penglaixian Mountain.
Now, I don't know about you, but just about every Chinese is envious of the lifestyle of the immortals, who are called 神仙 in Chinese.
神 means gods and 仙 means celestial beings or fairies and immortals.
Why are people jealous of them?
Well, because they didn't have to work or do anything in particular.
They didn't have to get married and have kids.
They didn't need to worry about whether or not their resumes look impressive enough or even their insurance needs to be renewed.
They just drank sweet wine all day long without a care in the world.
So when a Chinese refers to the lifestyle of a 神仙, they're talking about this carefree lifestyle of the immortals.
But once in a long while, the immortals did have things that they had to take care of.
One day, one of the eight immortals, Tie Guai Li, or Mr Li with the iron cane, remembered that the birthday of the Queen, Mother of the West, was coming up.
There would be a celestial feast in heaven They've got to go to celebrate.
There was no better wine and not to mention the juicy peaches.
Remember the peaches of immortality?
And, of course, being able to wish the queen mother a happy birthday was enough of a reason to join the party.
There was one problem, though.
This mountain. on which the eight immortals lived was in the middle of the ocean.
How could they cross the vast expanse of water?
They might be able to float around for a bit on clouds and whatnot.
But I guess these immortals are not hardcore supernatural deities.
They could pull off a few tricks with mild magical power here and there and live for a long time, but that's probably about it.
So the eight got together, trying to figure something out.
One of them, named Lu Dongbin, suggested that they should use their magic treasures to help them cross the sea, each in his or her own way.
Everyone nodded and thought this would be a good idea to show off and have fun especially.
The famous show started.
First came Iron King Lee, who threw his wine gourd into the water and it grew to a great size, as big as a boat.
Iron King Lee sat across the gourd and served away.
Second in line was Han Zhongli, who threw his banana leaf fan high into the air and expanded in size too, till it was like a magic carpet.
After them went Lv Dongbin with his sword, Zhang Guolao on his donkey, He Xiangu, finally a female, with her lotus flower.
Lan Cai He with his flower basket, Han Xiang Zi with his flute, and Cao Guo Jiu with his jade plate.
Their treasures all turned into boats of some sort, on which their owners rode the waves.
It was a great show, while it lasted.
But if things went that smoothly, there wouldn't be much of a story to tell.
Eight do-nothing immortals playing a few magic tricks?
There's got to be some conflicts and sparks.
Sure thing.
This is where the Dragon King and his nothing-but-trouble sons came in.
So, as the immortals were showing off their treasures on the surface of the sea, the spectacle was watched from the bottom of the sea tube.
Two sons of the east sea dragon king, most likely idle and looking for trouble, were very much excited by what was going on upstairs.
They slithered away from the crystal royal palace, which was filled with treasures from the sea colorful corals, swaying seaweeds and seashell chandeliers.
But there was one thing that they did not have, And that was fresh flowers.
That's why, when the two sons of the dragon king surfaced and saw Lan Cai He's flower basket and all the pretty blossoms that they had never seen before, they went wild.
We gotta have those.
And being the sons of a dragon king, they always had what they wanted.
So just when the eight immortals were sailing smoothly and feeling smitten with their magic shows, a huge whirlpool started spinning from the bottom of the sea, ready to suck down the flower basket.
And why not just take the rest of the treasures too?
The eight immortals fought with all their might to escape the pull of the whirlpool, and most of them did.
But when things calmed down, there were only seven of them left.
Lan Cai He, along with his flower basket, was gone.
The sea was as still as a mirror, and Lan Cai He was nowhere to be seen.
Iron King Li soon guessed what had happened.
He probably had dealt with the brats of the Dragon King before.
He said to the others, this must be someone from the dragon palace.
We must go there.
The sons of the dragon king probably weren't smart enough to think about identifying their captive.
They took the flower basket and threw Lan Cai He in a cave.
They were smart enough, though, to present these fresh flowers to their father.
Just when the Dragon King was feeling satisfied with his son's filial piety, the seven immortals arrived at the Dragon Palace.
The sons heard the commotion and knew right away what that was about.
They rushed out with their shrimp soldiers and crab generals to stop the noise from reaching their father.
But young as they were, They totally underestimated the challenge.
And one of the sons was killed on the spot.
His throat pierced through by the sword of Lv Dongbin.
The other son was hit in the arm by Han Xiangzi's flute.
The shrimp soldiers had to run for help now.
They rushed to the dragon king and reported the casualties.
His precious princess.
One killed and one wounded.
How could this be?
The dragon king was so mad.
He turned back into a dragon and flew out of the sea.
The waves he stirred up were so high that the sky was darkened and everything started spinning too.
The sea turned into this super speed blender with the eight immortals, as The Immortals were used to a good life.
They couldn't take this.
Lv Dongbin got out his sword, and while shouting, You've gone too far!
He threw his sword into the water.
The sword turned burning red, with red light shining like fire, and the surrounding water started boiling like a hot pot.
The fire grew hotter and hotter, and the entire East Sea would be boiling soon if no one was to stop this.
That was not good.
The Dragon King could fly up to the sky, but the shrimp soldiers and crap generals, they couldn't.
In fact, they will make the perfect ingredients for a seafood hot pot.
The eight immortals survived all of this, of course.
But the flower basket still couldn't be found.
The immortals decided it was much better to just go home.
They could always pick more flowers later.
The immortals returned home and all fell asleep from exhaustion.
Immortals are not supposed to deal with anything so hard.
They needed to recover, but that was not to be.
The Dragon King of the East Sea again called out his buddies, the other three Dragon Kings.
They were working on channeling water from all the other seas to submerge the Penglaixian Mountain, home of the eight immortals.
This was not going well, all for a little flower basket.
Han Zhongli, that's the one with the banana leaf fan, was really mad now.
He suggested, let's move the Thai mountain here to fill the East Sea.
So the eight immortals all got on their little clouds and flew to the Thai mountains.
They pulled it out of the ground, roots and all, and dumped it into the empty East Sea.
Okay, maybe their magic wasn't that mild.
I underestimated their potentials.
Just when things were getting really out of control, the Antarctic fairy happened to pass by on his way to the birthday celebration for the Queen Mother.
Remember the birthday that started all this?
He was shocked by what he saw.
Where is the water in the East Sea?
Why is the Thai mountain here?
I almost bumped into it.
And then he saw the two sides locked in battle.
Stop, everybody, just stop, he shouted.
Finally, there was someone to interfere.
The Antarctic fairy listened to the stories from both sides and he probably thought to himself What a lot of fuss about nothing.
Those spoiled brats of the Dragon King, they might as well be dead.
But of course, he wouldn't say it out loud.
He was there to mediate.
He said to both sides, The trouble started with the Dragon King and his sons, but the eight immortals were a bit impulsive too.
Where will all the water from rivers go, now that you've filled the East Sea?
Anyhow, the fair fairy worked wonders and the Dragon King and the eight immortals agreed to let things pass.
The Dragon King even returned the flower basket and Lan Cai He used the Ling Zhi mushroom.
Remember that from the episode about immortality?
So he used the mushroom and revived the dead son of the Dragon King.
Yup, that's how powerful that mushroom was.
Anyhow, in the end, things all returned to normal.
The Thai mountain was moved back to where it belonged, and the fairy and the eight immortals remembered that they had a birthday party to catch, and all went their way.
The stories of the eight immortals are very popular, especially about the part where they were crossing the sea.
There's a popular saying the eight immortals crossing the sea, each showing off his or her own magic trick, meaning that everyone has his or her own talents and skills.
In our next episode, I'll share stories about a few immortals who are even more closely integrated in people's lives.
So hope to see you then, and bye for now.
This is a China Plus podcast.
Special thanks go out to Sanlian Zhongdu for their help in creating the content for this show.
If you like the podcast, please give us a rating and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen.
If you've got any questions or feedback, please feel free to contact us via email at podcast at cricomcn or find us on Twitter China Plus Pods.
