Han Xiangzi- Chinese GodDeity"The Flute Immortal"

The Orphan and the Poet

Han Xiangzi was born Han Xiang, grand-nephew of the Tang poet and essayist Han Yu. His father died when he was three, his mother when he was seven. Han Yu took the boy in and raised him as his own, expecting him to study the classics, pass the imperial examinations, and bring honor to the family name.

The boy wanted none of it. While Han Yu composed manifestos in defense of Confucian principles and classical prose, his nephew played the bamboo flute in the garden and wandered into the mountains looking for Daoist hermits.

The Peach Tree

His search led him to Lü Dongbin, who became his teacher and guided him in Daoist cultivation. As a test and a gift, Lü Dongbin took him to the celestial gardens of Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, where peach trees bloomed once every three thousand years.

Han Xiangzi climbed one of the trees and reached for the fruit. He lost his footing and fell. In the instant before he struck the ground, he achieved immortality. Whether the fall was accident or final trial, the Han Xiangzi quanzhuan does not settle. He did not die. He came down from heaven a different creature than the boy who had climbed up.

The Flute

The dizi he carried could make peonies open in dead winter and calm wild animals mid-charge. One tradition says the flute was fashioned from golden bamboo given to him by the Dragon Girl; another that it came from the Dragon King's household. When Han Xiangzi played, rivers slowed and birds landed on his shoulders.

The Prophetic Flowers

Han Xiangzi returned to his uncle's household with his new powers. At a banquet before Han Yu and assembled guests, he made peonies bloom from bare soil and wine pour endlessly from an empty pot. Then he coaxed flowers to blossom whose petals bore verses in ink, prophesying Han Yu's exile to the remote southern frontier.

Han Yu dismissed it all as tricks. He told his nephew to stop embarrassing the family and return to serious study.

The prophecy came true. Han Yu submitted a memorial to Emperor Xianzong attacking the imperial reception of a Buddhist relic, the finger bone of the Buddha. The emperor nearly had him executed. Instead, Han Yu was exiled to Chaozhou, eight thousand li south of the capital.

On the road into exile, crossing the snow-covered Blue Pass (Lánguan), Han Yu found his nephew waiting for him. Han Xiangzi had come to comfort the man who had raised him. The poem Han Yu wrote at the pass was addressed to his nephew: "One sealed memorial to the morning court, and by evening, exiled eight thousand li to Chaozhou."

Crossing the Sea

When the Eight Immortals crossed the Eastern Sea to attend a celestial gathering, each rode their signature object instead of clouds. Han Xiangzi cast his bamboo flute on the waves. His music drifted over the water. The surface calmed beneath the group, and sea creatures rose to listen.

When the Dragon King attacked them for trespassing, the flute's piercing notes shattered the formation of his aquatic soldiers.