Han Zhong () was a Qin dynasty (221 BCE-206 BCE) herbalist ("Method Master") and Daoist ("Transcendent; 'Immortal'"). In Chinese history, Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, commissioned Han in 215 BCE to lead a maritime expedition in search of the elixir of life, yet he never returned, which subsequently led to the infamous burning of books and burying of scholars. In Daoist tradition, after Han Zhong consumed the psychoactive drug for thirteen years, he grew thick body hair that protected him from cold, acquired a photographic memory, and achieved transcendence. He is iconographically represented as riding a white deer and having pendulous ears.
Terminology The present Chinese name Han Zhong combines the common surname and given name or .
( or ) has English translation equivalents of: "1. name of one of the 7 major states in Warring States period, comprising the area of present-day southeast Shanxi and central Henan, originally part of the Jin state. 2. a surname."(Kroll 2017: 151) In modern Standard Chinese usage, the word commonly translates "Korea", such as or .(Bishop 2016: n.p.)
( or ) has English translations of: "1. end, finish, conclude … come to the end of life; death, demise. 2. all the way to the end, through to the finish; all of, the whole, complete(ly) … 3. in the end, finally, after all, in conclusion. …".(Kroll 2017: 611) ( or ) can be translated as: "1. multitude, throng; manifold; numerous, legion; throng(ing); sundry, diverse … the crowd, common run, mass of; average, normal … 2. in everyone's presence, public(ly)".(Kroll 2017: 613)
Although scholars generally believe Han Zhong () and Han Zhong () were variant writings of one person's name, some suggest they were two individuals; the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) Transcendent Han Zhong () and the Western Han dynasty (202 BCE-9 CE) Han Zhong ().(Zhang and Unschuld 2014: 173–174)
Two honorific names below for Han Zhong are and .
() is usually limited to the name: 1. ~ , sweet-flag (), sweetly scented wetland grass, used apotropaically; sometimes ref to cattail () or bulrush ()."(Kroll 2017: 41)
() occurs within several Chinese plant names: "1. sweet-flag (), also ~ , a wetland grass, used apotropaically; the latter also cattail () or bulrush (). 2. ~ , purple willow, purple osier (), deciduous shrub that produces small purple catkins in early spring. 3. ~ , Chinese fan palm, fountain palm (). 4. ~ , rose-apple (). ...".(Kroll 2017: 350)
A modern dictionary of Chinese botanical nomenclature lists five terms: , , , , and .(Fèvre and Métaillé 2005: 737)
Han Zhong in Chinese literature The Chinese classics present Han Zhong as both a historical personage and a legendary persona. The textual examples below are roughly arranged chronologically.
Chuci The 3rd-2nd centuries BCE ("Songs of Chu") mentions Han Zhong () in two poems about shamanistic spirit journeys. The compares him with Fu Yue, a legendary minister under the Shang dynasty king Wu Ding (r. c. 1250–c. 1200 BCE), I marveled how Fu Yue lived on in a star; I admired Han Zhong for attaining Oneness. Their bodies grew dim and faded in the distance; They left the crowded world behind and withdrew themselves.(Hawkes 1985: 194) The poem says, I heard South Land music and wanted to go there, And coming to Kuaiji I rested there awhile. There I met Han Zhong, who gave me lodging. I asked him wherein lay the secret of heaven's Tao. Borrowing a floating cloud to take me on my journey, With the pale woman-rainbow as a banner to fly over it, I harnessed the Green Dragon to it for my swift conveyance. And off in a flash we flew, at a speed that made the eyes dim.(Hawkes 1985: 254) In addition, the 's enigmatic (Heavenly Questions) section refers to marijuana and perhaps calamus. "Where is the nine-branched weed ? Where is the flower of the Great Hemp ?";(Hawkes 1985: 128) alternatively, "The nine-jointed calamus, And blossoms, where do they grow?".(Field 1986: 49)
Two poems mention white deer: "Green cyprus grass grows in between, And the rush-grass rustles and sways. White deer, roebuck and horned deer Now leap and now stand poised.";("Seven Remonstrances", Hawkes 1985: 245) "Floating on cloud and mist, we enter the dim height of heaven; Riding on white deer we sport and take our pleasure."("Alas That My Lot Was Not Cast", Hawkes 1985: 266)
Records of the Grand Historian
Sima Qian's 1st century BCE Records of the Grand Historian mentions Han Zhong as one of five Method Masters who the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (r. 221-210 BCE) selected to lead maritime expeditions seeking legendary Daoist Transcendents and elixirs of longevity.
In 219 BCE, Xu Fu () or Xu Shi () from Qi and others submitted a memorial to the throne requesting to search for the Transcendents who reportedly lived on three hidden islands in the East Sea, Penglai (), Fangzhang (), and Yingzhou (). The emperor ordered him to take a flotilla with "several thousand young men and maidens" and locate these supernatural islands.(Needham 1976: 17)
In 215 BCE, during Qin Shi Huang's fourth imperial inspection tour of northeast China, he commissioned more naval expeditions searching for Transcendental drugs. First, when the emperor was visiting Mount Jieshi (, in Hebei) he commanded Scholar Lu (), from Yan, to find the Transcendent Xianmen Gao ().(Needham 1976: 18) When Lu came back from his unsuccessful mission overseas, he reported on "matters concerning ghosts and gods" to the emperor, and presented prophetic writings, one of which read: "Qin will be destroyed by ."(Dawson 1994: 72) Understanding in its usual meaning, the emperor ordered General Meng Tian to lead 300,000 troops on a campaign against the Xiongnu barbarians—however, was eventually understood as a reference to the emperor's youngest son and hapless successor, Prince Huhai (, r. 210-207 BCE), whose name was written with the same character.(Dawson 1994: 154) Second, the emperor directed Han Zhong (written , cf. below), Master Hou (), and Scholar Shi () to search for legendary Transcendents and their "drug of deathlessness" ().(Nienhauser 2018: 145) Their explorations never returned to China and were presumed lost.
In 213 BCE, Qin Shi Huang approved his Chancellor Li Si's proposal to suppress intellectual dissent by burning most existing books, except those on divination, agriculture, medicine, and history of the state of Qin. The rules were draconian, "Anyone who ventures to discuss will be executed in the marketplace. Those who use the ancient (system) to criticize the present, will be executed together with their families. … Thirty days after the ordinance has been issued, anyone who has not burned his books will be tattooed and sentenced to hard labor."(Nienhauser 2018: 147).
In 212 BCE, the emperor became resentful that Han Zhong and the other Method Masters had repeatedly lied about being able to obtain longevity elixirs, which culminated with the mass execution of 460 scholars in the infamous burning of books and burying of scholars.
First, Scholar Lu blamed evil spirits for causing the failures to find "magic mushrooms, elixirs of long life, and immortals" , and suggested, "I hope that Your Highness will not let anyone know of the residence wherein you stay; then the elixir of long life may be obtained".(Nienhauser 2018: 149) Then, Scholars Lu and Hou secretly met and concluded that since Qin Shi Huang had never been informed of his mistakes, and was becoming more arrogant daily, his obsession with power was so extreme that they could never seek the elixir of longevity for him.(Nienhauser 2018: 149) Therefore, they absconded, and when the First Emperor learned of it, he was enraged. "I have eliminated those books which I earlier confiscated from the world and judged useless, and recruited only the literary men and practitioners of methods and techniques in great number, with the desire to bring about the great peace, and, with the practitioners of methods, to seek wonderous drugs by means of alchemy . Now I have heard that Han Chung has never reported back after he left, and Hsu Fu and his associates have spent cash countable only in myriads, but the elixir is yet to be found. I am only told every day that they accused each other of embezzlement. I respected and treated lavishly Scholar Lu and his like. Now they have slandered me to substantiate my lack of virtue, I will have someone investigate all the masters in Hsien-yang, to see if any of them has spread phantom rumors to confuse the black-haired ."(Nienhauser 2018: 150) He had the Imperial Scribes interrogate the various Masters, who accused and implicated one another to save themselves. The emperor selected 460 of those who had violated prohibitions, and had them trapped and executed.
Finally, in 210 BCE, the last year of Qin Shi Huang's life, Xu Fu and the remaining worried that the emperor would punish them for their failures to find longevity drugs, and made up a fish story. Xu told the emperor, "The elixir from Penglai was obtainable, but we were constantly troubled by large sharks , and therefore were unable to get there. We would ask for someone skilled at archery to accompany us, so that, upon seeing the sharks, we could shoot them with automatic crossbows."(Nienhauser 2018: 153–154) Xu set sail on a final expedition but never returned. Later tradition has it that he settled in Japan.(Twitchett and Loewe 1986: 78)
Following the Records of the Grand Historian, subsequent official Chinese dynastic Twenty-Four Histories retell Han Zhong's story. For instance, 111 CE Book of Han mentions him in the "Treatise on Sacrifices". "When Ch'in Shih Huang first unified the empire, he indulged in the cult of immortality. Thereupon, he sent people like Hsu Fu and Han Chung to sea, with unmarried boys and girls, in search of as well as drugs. But (these people) took the opportunity to run away and never came back. Such efforts aroused the resentment and hatred of all under heaven."(Yu 1965: 95)
Liexian zhuan Although the 2nd century CE (Collected Biographies of Transcendents) does not mention Han Zhong, it records calamus as one of 29 psychoactive plants consumed by Daoist adepts.(Chen 2021: 18–19) Two hagiographies describe calamus-root subsistence diets. Shangqiu Zixu () was a master of grain-avoidance fasting who was fond of blowing the thirty-six-pipe mouth organ () while he herded pigs. At age seventy he had neither married a wife nor grown old. When people asked about the essentials of his way of life he would say, "I only eat old thistles ( ) and calamus () roots , and drink water. In this way I don't get hungry or old, that's all." When the noble and wealthy heard of it and tried eating this diet, they could never last through a year before quitting, and claimed there must be some secret formula.(Mather 1976: 434-435) Wu Guang ( or ) was a Xia dynasty loyalist who supposedly refused to serve two Shang dynasty kings four centuries apart. After refusing to work for King Tang of Shang (r. c. 1617?-1588? BCE), he committed suicide by drowning, yet miraculously reappeared to deliver a similar refusal to King Wuding of Shang (r. c. 1254-1197 BCE).(Bokenkamp 2015: 293) According to traditions, Wu Guang's ears were seven long (comparable with Han Zhong's pendulous ears), loved playing the , and subsisted on calamus roots (). This uncommon term ; with "leek; chives", is related with literary Chinese .(Bokenkamp 2015: 295)
Baopuzi Ge Hong's c. 318 (Master Who Embraces Simplicity) mentions Han Zhong () twice and medical five times.