Eight Immortals

What it is

These are eight legendary figures of Chinese mythology, called xian, which means immortal. Taoists honour them, and they belong to everyday Chinese culture as well. Tradition gives each of them a personal power, and holds that this power can pass into a vessel, a ritual object. A vessel of this kind is believed to give life or to destroy evil. Art and story usually show the eight as a set, and sometimes alone when one figure is being honoured. When the eight vessels stand for the whole group, they are called the Covert Eight Immortals. Their names and emblems are known well beyond Taoist circles.

Where it comes from

Taoist immortals were already honoured in the Han dynasty, but this particular group is later. It appears in the Jin dynasty, and wall paintings and sculptures in Jin tombs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries show eight Taoist immortals together. The phrase Eight Immortals spread more widely once the Taoist writers and artists known as Complete Realization (Quanshen) became popular. The group is first described in the Yuan dynasty, and one suggestion is that the name came from the Eight Immortal Scholars of the Han. Yuan, Ming and Qing writers returned to the eight again and again, in plays, novels and poems.

Tools and materials

Each immortal is tied to an object called a vessel (法器). Belief holds that the owner's power passes into it, and that such a vessel can give life or destroy evil. Taken as a set, the eight vessels are named the Covert Eight Immortals (暗八仙), and artists use them as a shorthand for the whole group. Paintings also give each figure a personal emblem: a lotus flower for He Xiangu, an iron crutch and a calabash bottle for Li Tieguai, a fan for Zhongli Quan, a flute for Han Xiangzi.

What it is for

People read the eight as signs of prosperity and long life, which is why they appear so often in art. Li Tieguai is linked with medicine and with easing the distress of the sick and the poor. Zhongli Quan is connected with death and with making silver and gold. The vessels are held to give life or to undo evil. By legend, the temple in Xi'an was built to shield its region from divine thunder. Some martial arts and qigong exercises take their names and their training ideas from the group.

Who does it

Taoists revere the eight, and temples keep images of them. The Eight Immortals Palace in Xi'an, once called the Eight Immortals Nunnery, holds a set of statues in its Hall of Eight Immortals. Shrines to them stand in many parts of China and in Taiwan, and the Xian'gu Temple in Singapore centres its devotion on He Xiangu, the woman of the group. Outside the temples, most people who venerate them treat them less as gods and more as folk heroes and saints.

Peoples and places

The group belongs to the Chinese-speaking world, often called the Sinosphere. China is the home of the stories and of the temples, among them the Eight Immortals Palace in Xi'an and the Eternal Joy Temple at Ruicheng, whose wall painting is the best known early image of the eight. Shrines also stand in Taiwan, and Singapore has a temple devoted to He Xiangu. Written and staged versions travelled too, from Yuan plays to a Singapore television series of the late 1990s.

What people believe

The eight are xian, immortals, and Taoist tradition places them among its sacred figures. Across the Sinosphere they are shown as deities, yet many of those who honour them do not quite see them that way, and for such people they are closer to folk heroes and saints. In some branches of Chinese folk religion they stand for the link between the living and the dead, since the spirits of the dead are thought to be near whenever help is wanted, and their existence is likened to that of ghosts. The Queen Mother of the West is popularly believed to have granted them their powers.

Compare and confuse

The same eight appear under several names. English writing before the 1970s sometimes called them the Eight Genies. Stories that show them fond of wine gave the joking title Eight Drunken Immortals, or Jiu-zhong Ba Xian. The set of their eight vessels is the Covert Eight Immortals. In Vietnamese they are Bát Tiên, and the group has Korean and Japanese names as well.

Today

Veneration continues. Shrines in China and Taiwan keep the group in view, and in Singapore the Xian'gu Temple is given to He Xiangu. The eight also live on in entertainment: Jackie Chan's Drunken Master films use eight drunken forms credited to them, a Singapore television series of 1998 and 1999 drew on the novel Dong You Ji, and they appear in games, graphic novels and an animated show. A 2026 film was to be based on the story of their crossing of the sea. Qigong sets and martial arts styles still carry their names.

Questions people ask about Eight Immortals

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle

• Eight Immortals on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data