Poem: Immortality (Chang Sheng ~Xian)
We return to exploring the Chinese cultural realm through Guqin music and poetry. This time, about Chang Sheng — Long Life, that is Immortality ~ Xian.
The Immortals:
Xian is the realm that separates the Tian — the Heaven, where the real Gods live, and the Di — the Earth. It consists of different types of immortals, who achieve immortality through the cultivation of their spirits and the performance of good deeds and sacrifices.
The Eight Immortals live in a group of five islands of the Bohai Sea, including the Pinglai Mountains. Their power can be transferred into eight vessels that bestow life or destroy evil.
Immortals live in mountains where the air is clean and pure. They don’t eat cereals and appear only to those who follow the path and perform rituals. They change forms and appear as ordinary humans who search for potential prospects for immortality. They wear wings and fly fast through the air. They are immune to heat and cold, untouched by the elements, and subsist on air and dew. They are impervious to the chaotic world and anxiety of humans. They possess innocent faces and smooth skin like children.
Immortals are closer to the demi-god or ghost realm than the deity realm. They rise from the Di and end up as Shen. The five types of immortals are:
Guixian — the Ghost immortals, who have too much yin and can drain the essence of the living, like the fox spirit.
Renxian — the Human Immortals, with the balance of yin and yang, and have the potential to become a ghost or an immortal. They suffer like a normal human and need food, clothing, and shelter, but don’t age or fall sick.
Dixian — the Earthly Immortals, who have pure yang, have immortal bodies, and don’t suffer human needs like food, drink, clothing, or shelter. They stay on earth till they shed their human form.
Shenxian — Spirit or Divine Immortals relinquish their earthly bodies and become vapor form, and can take the shape of any object. They are supernatural but remain on earth to teach the divine ways to humans. The Eight Immortals belong to this class.
Tianxian — Heavenly immortals are invited to the celestial realm through a decree and they oversee the earth’s realm. they can travel back and forth between the earthly and celestial realms.
The Essence of Immortality:
Immortality is not longevity, but becoming invisible. The only true immortal is Nature — the Heavens. The people who become immortals are those who are invisible — like the air, moving in stealth — like a breeze, moving from heaven to earth and back — like water, taking any form and shape, and for these, one should be fluid and be part of nature’s cycle.
Since we have explored Zhuangzi in one of my stories ‘Menelaus’ and also earlier in this series, let's see what Zhuang Zhou has to say about Chang Sheng.
When his wife died, Zhuang Zhou (Chuang Tsu) was found beating a tub and singing. When asked about the reason for not displaying sorrow, for his wife has birthed and raised his children, and lived a full life with him, he retorts thus: Do you think I did not grieve like others? I did. But I realized that there was a time before she was born, and before that, she had a body, and before that, she had a spirit. One change, she has a body; another change, she is born; and another change, she is dead. This is like the four seasons: Winter (post-death, spirit), spring(birth), summer(life) and autumn (death). If I grieve her fall (death), then I show that I am unaware of her journey (fate).
In another parable, Chapter 11, an interaction between Cloud Chief and Big Concealment:
If the Cloud Chief continues his play with the strands of Heaven (intervenes in the natural process), things will go wrong, says Big Concealment. He has to stop. Cloud Chief asks for advice. Big Concealment advises him to do nothing — just rest and let things be, by way of inaction. He is not supposed to intervene or ask questions, but be silent and soulless. Join the great unity with the deep and the boundless (Nature) and be a thing among things. Things will transform themselves and will return to their root, one by one. That is called ‘mind-nourishment’. This is the way to immortality.
A person seeking to be immortal should become a quail, simple and invisible; a little fledgling at its meal; and a bird in flight that leaves no trail behind. If the world has its way, he may join the chorus; if the world is loses its way, he may become a hermit and pursue virtue in solitude. If he is weary of the world, he should leave it to ascend to the immortal realms.
Being nothing and invisible is the sign of purity, that an immortal may pursue. One of the virtues is to soak his mind in the timeless notes of Guqin. The notes smoothen the imperfections of the human world and open the souls into the divine realm.
Poem: Immortality
For the question that hangs with every soul
Whose Immorality, Ren ( human), is the original sin.
Long life and Immortality is the goal
A journey from the yang to the yin
From the earthly (Di) to the Heavenly (Tian)
A wholesome realm of immortality (Xian)Beware of the ghosts — they are (Gui’s) galore
Full of yang, and they stay that way;
The perfect balance of yin and yang
Humans (Shen) have to choose their realm
Yet, serving their body’s needs
Of shelter, thirst, hunger, and covering
Vulnerable to earthly elements.For the realm above, the true earth (Di) beckons
Dipping their souls in virtue, soaking in yin
Austerity, abstinence, and absence from the earthly chaos
Remaining on earth, yet impervious to their elements
A journey beckons them above and beyond
For which they shall shed their biological vessel.They melt into vapor, transcending realms
Two-way journeys between heaven and earth
Transforming into shapes that they ( Shen-Xian) wish
Far away in the snow-clad Pinglai Mountain,
Among the five islands of the Bohai Sea
The Eight Immortal Spirits (Bo-Xian) reside in peace.Above the clouds and somewhere
Truly in the Heavens, the Tian’s reside
Summoned by a celestial decree
Overseeing the earthly realm
The final frontier of true immortality.Beyond the four human needs —
Water, food, clothing, and shelter
Untouched by the earthly elements
They don’t shiver or swelter
They eat the air and drink the dew
Visible only to the virtuous few
Impervious to the chaotic human din
Innocent child’s face and shimmering skin.Ask Zhuang Zhou who wrote Zhuangzhi
When his wife died, what was he to be?
Beating the tub and singing along aloud
While his wife lay dead amid the vast crowd
She who bore his and reared them so well
Must he not grieve and in memories he dwell?He laughs like mad, but he says words wise:
I did grieve but I thought about her twice
When she got a body and then she was born
A time before that, she was just a spirit
Birth and death, like nature’s four seasons
Why would I grieve then, give me a reason.When the Cloud Chief meets Big Concealment
His deeds, Big C says, are big disappointments
Twisting and turning of heavenly strands
Wrongful and disastrous, where lay human hands
‘One wise word’ — The Cloud Chief pleads
‘Mind nourishment — that is all one needs!’‘Rest in inaction and things will transform
Smash your body, ego, shape, and form
Let go of your sight, hearing, and senses
And watch Nature’s magic from the fences.
You are just a thing among things, remember
Merge with the boundless and become its member
Be blank and soulless and shut off your mind
Dump all the questions that your curiosity may find
The ten thousand things will return to their roots
Nature knows to sow, reap, and ripen its fruits.’The essence of immortality is to be invisible
Be still like a quail and eat like a fledgling
Fly between realms, leave behind nothing
Shapeless like vapor and formless like water
Merge with the chaos, if the world has its way
Seek solace in solitude, if the world loses it;
Play the Guqin, dear Ren, to find your rhythm
The vibrations of its strum shatter the earthly realm
A day, you will be weary of this weird world
Aspire to ascend, and begin the journey to immortality.~Ashok Subramanian © 2024
“You’re not Dostoevsky,’ said the citizeness, who was getting muddled by Koroviev. Well, who knows, who knows,’ he replied.
‘Dostoevsky’s dead,’ said the citizeness, but somehow not very confidently.
‘I protest!’ Behemoth exclaimed hotly. ‘Dostoevsky is immortal!”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
