Lan Caihe ()"Lan Caihe." Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lan-CaiheDorothy Perkins. Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture. Page 140. is a Chinese mythological figure, and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. Lan's presence in this group makes Lan one of the more familiar of the hundreds of other Taoist immortals. Lan Caihe is the only one of the Eight Immortals whose gender is ambiguous. Lan is not generally thought to be based on a historical person, but is traditionally said to have been born sometime during the Tang dynasty (618 to 907 CE), and lived as a homeless street entertainer, who wandered all over China, singing philosophical songs. Stories vary about how Lan attained immortality and became one of the Eight Immortals. Lan's emblem is a basket of flowers, and so this immortal is considered the patron of florists and gardeners.
Name and epithets
According to the Hsiu hsiang Pa Hsien tung yu chi, epithets of Lan Caihe include "the Red-footed Great Genius," Ch’ih-chiao Ta-hsien incarnate. Lan was also called the "foot-stomping immortal," which was a reference to the genre of music that Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below.
Sometimes Lan Caihe's personal name is said to have been Mu Dan Xian Nu (not to be confused with a famous general with that name who died in 606 CE). As such, the name "Lan Caihe" is understood to be a chosen name, or a name in religion.
Gender Different writers and artists portray this immortal as an intersex person,E.T.C. Werner. Myths and Legends of China. London: George G. Harrap & Co. 1922. Page 293. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15250/15250-h/15250-h.htm#d0e4611 a man, a woman,Rachel Storm. The Encyclopedia of Eastern Mythology: Legends of the East : Myths and Tales of the Heroes, Gods and Warriors of Ancient Egypt, Arabia, Persia, India, Tibet, China and Japan. Anness Publishing, 1999. Page 181. a man who looks like a woman, an androgynous person, or someone who appears as—or dresses as—different genders at different times.
Chinese theatre portrays Lan as wearing feminine clothes, but speaking in a masculine voice, that is, by a male actor wearing a feminine dress without attempting a feminine style of speech.Land of the Dragon: Chinese Myth. Time-Life Books, 1999. Page 111. The Kai yü ts'ung k'ao (陔餘叢考) holds the view that Lan was male, and having him dress as a woman in contemporary plays was a "highly ridiculous" error.
He Xiangu is always described as the only woman among the Eight Immortals, which suggests that Lan Caihe is not a woman. According to the Xiu Xiang Ba Xian Dong You Ji () (東遊記), Lan Caihe was a man who could not understand how to be a man.Randy P. Conner, David Hatfield Sparks, Mariya Sparks. Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol, and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Lore. Cassell, 1997. Page 212. This could explain why Lan Caihe is sometimes seen as a woman or otherwise.
Appearance
As an immortal, Lan's apparent physical age is uncertain, and varies from one depiction to the next.W. Percival Yetts. The Eight Immortals. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. London. 1916. Page 805. https://www.sacred-texts.com/journals/jras/1916-21.htm Depictions most often show Lan as a young person of about sixteen, or a young adult. Lan was more often an old person in earlier depictions, but tends to be a young person in depictions from the past century or two. Legends describe Lan as failing to visibly age over the decades, even before attaining immortality. In connection with this, Lan represents eternal youth and innocence.Joslyn Art Museum, Jing Pei Fang, Judith Rutherford. Elegance of the Qing court: reflections of a dynasty through its art. Joslyn Art Museum, 2008. Unpaged.
Lan Caihe is a wandering musician. These immortal's musical instruments appear in depictions in art and have an important role in stories about Lan Caihe. Lan's musical instrument is the clapper (sometimes translated as castanets), of which there are many types in China. The type used by Lan were sometimes said to be , or else the , which are apparently both types of . Usually clappers are wood or bamboo, but some legends say Lan's were jade.Amy G. Poster, Layla S. Diba, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Journey through Asia: Masterpieces in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2003. Page 76. Lan's clappers were three chi longChen Yaoting. Gou Bo, translator. "The Eight Immortals." Taoist Culture & Information Centre. n.d. Retrieved 29 January 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20090129062317/http://eng.taoism.org.hk/daoist-beliefs/immortals-immortalism/pg2-4-8-3.htm (about 72 centimeters; the length of a chi varies from one time period to the next). Others of the Eight Immortals also carry castanets, including Cao Guojiu, and Zhang Guolao.Stacey Pierson. Song Ceramics: Art History, Archaeology and Technology. University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004. Page 108. Because of this, sometimes archaeologists dispute which of these immortals is being represented by a figure identified only by its holding castanets.
Lan Caihe sometimes uses cymbals as well. Sometimes Lan uses a flute, but a flute is more common in depictions of the Immortal Han Xiangzi. Some art of the Eight Immortals show more of them holding instruments, so presence of an instrument is not a certain method to distinguish one immortal from another. In most art of the Eight Immortals, Lan can be recognized as the one that carries a basket of fruit and/or flowers. Sometimes Lan carries the basket in hand, and other times, slung on a hoe over the shoulder. This basket is Lan's distinctive emblem, and is connected to how Lan is the patron of florists. Lan's basket contains plants and medicinal herbs associated with longevity, including: the magic fungus (lingzhi mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum), which resists decay, and in Traditional Chinese medicine is used to prolong life;W. Percival Yetts. The Eight Immortals. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. London. 1916. Page 781-782. https://www.sacred-texts.com/journals/jras/1916-21.htm sprigs of bamboo and pine, which as evergreen plants, symbolize longevity; flowering and leafless plum, because they show vitality in blooming in early spring from seemingly lifeless branches; chrysanthemums; and heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica) with red berries. As with the emblems of each of the Eight Immortals, sometimes Lan's basket is depicted by itself. As a motif, Lan's basket is popular in decorations for the Chinese New Year, and represents riches and abundanceDenis Low. Chinese snuff bottles: from the sanctum of enlightened respect. Asian Civilisations Museum, 2007. Page 30. Lan's flower basket, along with the emblems of the rest of the Eight Immortals, appear in such places as on a Qing dynasty 19th century imperial dragon robe.
Lan's flower basket must be distinguished from the giant lotus flower typically carried by one of the other Eight Immortals, He Xiangu.Dorothy Perkins. Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture. Page 295. He Xiangu sometimes carries a giant ladle with its bowl full of flowers, looking similar to a flower basket.
Lan Caihe wears feminine or masculine clothing at different times.Eva Wong. Tales of the Taoist Immortals. Page 31-32. Sometimes Lan Caihe wears gender-ambiguous clothing. During Lan Caihe's initial mortal existence as a homeless musician, Lan wore a tattered blue gown or dress. This long blue gown is called lan shan (), which is traditional attire for men since the Tang dynasty.Chinese Literature, Essays, Articles, Reviews, Volumes 17–19. Coda Press, 1995. Page 35.Jie Yu. "Ming Dynasty Hanfu." Perfect Costume (blog). Created 7 November 2011. Retrieved 1 January 2020. https://perfectcostume.blogspot.com/2011/11/ming-dynasty-hanfu.html The gown was fastened with six black wooden buttons, and a waist-belt more than three inches wide. (Some English sources mistranslate this part of the description as a "wooden belt.")
Lan wore a shoe on one foot, the other foot bare. The one bare foot is also associated with the 5th–6th century Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma, for whom it symbolized survival beyond death. (Bodhidharma was seen after his own death, walking along carrying a shoe. Then, when people opened his grave to check if his body was there, they found his grave contained only his other shoe.)Alan Watts. The Spirit of Zen. New York: Grove Press. 1958. Page 32. It's possible that imagery of these two unrelated figures came to be conflated in art. In Lan's case, the one bare foot may represent freeing the soul, as well as disregard for convention. Having a shoe on only one foot could also have a purpose in the genre of music Lan performed, "stomping songs," which are described further below.
The ragged clothing and one bare foot, carrying castanets and a string of cash, are Lan's appearance as described in the Huan Chu version of the Liexian Zhuan. Some depictions of Lan diverge significantly from anything described above.
Early life as a mortal Scholars believe that only three members of the Eight Immortals are based on real people who historically existed: Lü Dongbin, Zhongli Quan, and Zhang Guolao.National Geographic Society (U.S.). National Geographic Essential Visual History of World Mythology. National Geographic Books, 2008. Page 340. Scholars generally don't believe that Lan Caihe is based on an actual historical person. However, one view is that this immortal may have been based on an actor whose stage name was Lan Caihe, and otherwise went by Xu Jian, during the Five Dynasties period (907–960 CE). (Explaining Doubts in Chinese Culture). , 1999. Page 65.
Lan Caihe is said to have lived sometime during the Tang dynasty (618 to 907 CE), like others of the Eight Immortals.Stephen Little, Shawn Eichman, Kristofer Shipper, Patricia Buckley Ebrey. Taoism and the Arts of China. Page 321. Other traditions say Lan lived later, during the Five Dynasties period. The earliest stories about Lan were told as far back as at least the 10th century CE.
Lan's air of mystery extends to time period as well as place of origin. Even the Huan Chu version of the Liexian Zhuan says "Where [Lan Caihe] came from is not known."
During Lan Caihe's career as a mortal, Lan was a homeless wandering musician and street entertainer. Lan entertained people in different towns and villages, visiting no longer than a month. Lan drank in wine shops and restaurants, entertaining the patrons with songs.
Lan's songs were improvised on the spot, while drunk (or believed to be drunk), and performed in a "half-crazy" way. Lan's voice was famously beautiful, but Lan's songs and attire were so strange that people thought this person was mentally ill, so some onlookers said slanderous things. Lan's songs frequently denounced life and its pleasures, warned that life is short,Margaret B. Duda. Four Centuries of Silver: Personal Adornment in the Qing Dynasty and After. Times Editions, 2002. Page 117. talked about immortality and the immortals, and urged everyone to seek the Tao (the Way). This made the songs "unintelligible to ordinary mortals." Some ballads attributed to Lan survive today.
One of Lan's songs went: "In singer Lan Caihe's eyes, how long can your life last? Good-looking faces are just like the green trees in spring, how could they keep this unchanged forever?" Another of Lan's songs also described physical aging and the brevity of mortal life, as follows:
Another song attributed to Lan Caihe in the T'ai p'ing kuang chi refers to the swift passing of generations: