The most eccentric of the Eight Immortals is Zhang Guo Lao – known as Elder Zhang Guo. Zhang Guo Lao was a master in the arts of alchemy and qigong, had penetrated the secrets of longevity, and was famous for his herbal infusions, which had potent healing effects. He wandered about (sometimes upwards of 1,000 miles per day) on a white donkey which – when he wasn’t riding – he shrunk to the thinness of paper, folded up and stored in his cap-box. When he was ready to ride again, he anointed the shrunken donkey with his saliva, in order to “reconstitute” it back to its normal size. In the following description, rendered by Perceval Yetts, we learn about the emblems associated with Elder Zhang Guo:
“This member of the group is easily recognized by his pao pei, a curious object which to Western eyes resembles a diminutive golfer's bag containing two clubs. Actually it is a kind of musical instrument called a "fish-drum", composed of a cylinder, often of bamboo, over one end of which is stretched a piece of prepared fish or snake skin. What look like two projecting golf clubs are the ends of long slips of bamboo used as castanets. They may be carried in his hand. Another attribute, distinctive of this hsien, is the white donkey upon whose back he rides. The association existing between the two is so close that frequently when Chang Kuo is represented unmounted (his ass presumably being tucked away in his cap-box), a miniature image of the animal may be seen amid a curling wreath of vapour emitted from the open end of his drum, or from the mouth of the calabash that forms part of the outfit of every hsien.”
When his disciples opened Zhang Guo Lao’s tomb after death, they found it empty ...
