mother dreamt that a green dragon issued from her bosom, and that two angels came to her house, holding in their hands a bronsce censer. An eccentric child from his youth upwards, at the age of ten he got hold of the writings of Eo Hung, and forthwith b^^n to *'pound drugs** with a view to discovering the secret of immor- tality. He was handsome, 7 ft. 4 in. in height, an omniYoroijp reader, and an excellent performer on the lute. Before he reached manhood he was appointed by the Emperor Eao Ti of the Ch4 dynasty to be tutor to the Imperial princes. In A.D. 492 he resigned - his ofiBce and retired to the mountains, where he built himself a retreat and called himself the ^ ^ ^ it Hermit of Hua-yang. His abode took the form of a three-storey tower, on the top floor of which he lived himself, lodging his disciples on the middle floor, and visitors on the floor below. Among the former was the Emperor Wu Ti of the Liang dynasty, before he mounted the throne; and after his accession in 502, he offered to make T'ao his Minister. The latter however would not re-enter the world. On matters of importance he was frequently consulted by the Emperor, from which
he acquired the sobriquet of the |lj ^ ^ >tS I^ii^i^^i' ^^ ^^^ Mountains. He passed his long life in alchemistic and similar researches, practising the peculiar system of breathing which is supposed by the Taoists to conduce to immortality, and trying to live without food. His chief amusement was to listen to the breeze blowing through the pines, to which end he had his court- yard thickly planted with those trees. Author of the yj j^J ^ , a treatise on the manufacture of famous swords, and also of an im- portant work on materia medica, entitled ^ ^ j||J |^. Canonised
T«ao K'an Jii^jfi {T. db tf )• ^D- 259-334. Son of a mUitary 1897 official stationed in Kiangsi, who died leaving the familj in great poverty. One day vhen ^ ^ Fan K'uei came to see them, and
