Nor is there any mention in them of the Isles of the Blest.[1]
The foregoing summary of the rationale of hsienship conveys my impressions after reading a number of Taoist biographies or hero-tales, and I venture to think it represents the popular view, which is the one we are concerned with in dealing with folk-lore. How far back such ideas existed side by side with "Primitive Taoism" it is impossible to say. I am inclined to think that their antiquity is generally underestimated. An any rate they were probably coeval with, if not earlier than, the notion of the island Elysium—a question to be discussed later.
Lao Tzŭ lived in the sixth century B.C.; Chuang Tzŭ some two hundred years later. Between them in time appears the dim figure of Lieh Tzŭ, whom many regard as a creation of Taoist imagination. Even if there was no such actual person, it is likely that a large part of the book connected with his name was written as early as the fourth century b.c. Probably some of its passages are of a later date, and perhaps the following description of the Isles of the Blest is one of them—a view that may be thought to find support from the silence on that subject observed by Chuang Tzŭ, and from the fact that elsewhere in the Book of Lieh Tzŭ emphasis is laid on the futility of attempting to prolong the allotted span of life.[2]
- ↑ Unless Ku-shê chih Shan, alluded to in the first chapter of Chuang Tzŭ, may be regarded as an island paradise. The inhabitants are called shên jên, spirit-like beings, a term hardly synonymous with hsien, though the description of them is consistent with the recognised characteristics of hsien. The passage runs as follows: "Far away on the Isle of Ku-shê there dwell spirit-like beings whose flesh is [smooth] as ice and [white] as snow, and whose demeanour is as gentle and unassertive as that of a young girl. They eat not of the Five Grains, but live on air and dew. They ride upon the clouds with flying dragons for their teams, and roam beyond the Four Seas. The shên influences that pervade that isle preserve all creatures from petty maladies and mortal ills, and ensure abundant crops every year."
- ↑ v. L. Giles, Taoist Teachings, p. 15.
