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. 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. 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 ?"; alternatively, "The nine-jointed calamus, And blossoms, where do they grow?". 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."; "Floating on cloud and mist, we enter the dim height of heaven; Riding on white deer we sport and take our pleasure."
Records of the Grand Historian 's expedition searching for
Mount Penglai, Japanese
ukiyo-e by
Utagawa Kuniyoshi,
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. 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 (). 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 ." 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. Second, the emperor directed Han Zhong (written , cf. below), Master Hou (), and Scholar Shi () to search for legendary Transcendents and their "drug of deathlessness" (). 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." 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". 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. 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 ." 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. ( 475-221 BCE) 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." Xu set sail on a final expedition but never returned. Later tradition has it that he settled in Japan. 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."
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. 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. 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). 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 .
Baopuzi Ge Hong's c. 318 (Master Who Embraces Simplicity) mentions Han Zhong () twice and medical five times. The "Gold and Cinnabar" chapter lists famous
elixirs of longevity, including the , in which calamus is not an ingredient. " Varnish honey and cinnabar . Fry. When taken, it can protract your years and confer everlasting vision. In full sun you will cast no shadow." "The Genie's Pharmacopeia" chapter says, "Han Chung took sweet flag for thirteen years and his body developed hairs. He intoned ten thousand words of text each day. He felt no cold in winter, though his gown was open. To be effective, sweet flag must have grown an inch above the surrounding stones and have nine or more nodules . That with purple flowers is best." This chapter quotes the apocryphal for the
Classic of Filial Piety, "Pepper and ginger protect against the effects of dampness, sweet flag sharpens the hearing , sesame protracts the years, and resin puts weapons to flight." It also describes magical , notably the , a mythical flying animal, "resembling a sable, blue in color and the size of a fox" found in southern forests. It is almost impossible to slay, except for suffocation, and cannot be killed by burning, chopping with an ax, or beating with an iron mace, but "It dies at once, however, if its nose is stuffed with reeds from the surface of a rock ". "The Ultimate System" chapter mentions ancient herbal cures about which people are skeptical, including, "sweet flag and dried ginger check rheumatism". A lost fragment of the original text, which was preserved in the 624 (Collection of Literature Arranged by Categories), connects Han Zhong () with the : "This is what Han Zhong consumed in order to merge with heaven and earth, prolong life, and communicate with the spirits."
Shenxian zhuan (1464–1538)
Ge Hong also compiled the c. 4th century Daoist (Biographies of Divine Transcendents), which mentions Han Zhong in cases of two calamus-eaters. First, in the hagiography of the Han-dynasty Transcendent Liu Gen (), Han Zhong presented Liu a scripture about expelling the
Three Corpses, supernatural parasites that live inside the human body and seek to hasten the death of their host. Liu explained to his student Wang Zhen () how he met Han Zhong and became his disciple. I once entered the mountains, and in my meditations there was no state I did not reach. Later, I entered
Mount Huayin. There I saw a personage riding a carriage drawn by a white deer, followed by several dozen attendants, including four jade maidens each of whom was holding a staff hung with a colored flag and was fifteen or sixteen years old. I prostrated myself repeatedly, then bowed my head and begged a word. The divine personage said to me, "Have you heard of someone called Han Zhong ?" "Truly I have heard that there is such a person, yes," I answered. The divine personage said, "I am he." Liu recounted his multiple failures at studying the Dao without an enlightened teacher, and pleaded for help. The divine personage then said, "Sit, and I will tell you something. You must have the bones of a transcendent; that is why you were able to see me. But at present your marrow is not full, your blood is not warm, your breath is slight, your brains are weak, your sinews are slack, and your flesh is damp. This is why, when you ingest medicinals and circulate pneumas, you do not obtain their benefits. If you wish to achieve long life, you must first cure your illnesses; only after twelve years have passed can you ingest the drug of transcendence." Han Zhong then summarized various methods of achieving Transcendence, the best of which will allow one to live for several hundred years, and said, "If you desire long life, the first thing you must do is to expel the three corpses. Once the three corpses are expelled, you must fix your aim and your thought, eliminating sensual desires." Han presented Liu with a manuscript of the , which says, The ambushing corpses always ascend to Heaven to report on people's sins on the first, fifteenth, and last days of each month. The Director of Allotted Life Spans ( ) deducts from people's accounts and shortens their life spans accordingly. The gods within people's bodies want to make people live, but the corpses want to make them die. When people die, their gods disperse; the corpses, once in this bodiless state, become ghosts, and when people sacrifice to these ghosts obtain the offering foods. This is why the corpses want people to die. When you dream of fighting with an evil person, this is the corpses and the gods at war . Following the book's instructions, Liu synthesized the elixir, ingested it, and thereby attained Transcendence. Second, in an exception to the usual Chinese master-disciple secret teachings about consuming calamus to achieve Transcendence, Wang Xing () was a peasant who happened to be on
Mount Song and overheard the giant spirit of Han Zhong telling
Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE) where to find the best plants. Wang Xing was a native of
Yangcheng who lived in Gourd Valley. He was a commoner who was illiterate and who had no intention of practicing the Way. When Han Emperor Wu ascended Mount Song , he climbed to the Cave of Great Stupidity, where he erected a palace for the Dao and had
Dong Zhongshu,
Dongfang Shuo, and others fast and meditate on the gods. That night, the emperor suddenly saw a transcendent twenty feet tall, with ears hanging down to his shoulders. The emperor greeted him respectfully and inquired who he was. The transcendent replied, "I am the spirit of Mount Jiuyi . I have heard that the sweet flag that grows atop rocks on the
Central Marchmount here, the variety with nine joints per inch, will bring one long life if ingested. So I have come to gather some." Then the spirit suddenly vanished. The emperor said to his attendants, "That was not merely someone who studies the Way and practices macrobiotics. It was surely the spirit of the Central Marchmount, saying that to instruct me." And so they all gathered sweet flag for him to ingest. After two years the emperor began feeling depressed and unhappy, so he stopped taking it. At that time many of his attendant officials were also taking it, but none could sustain the practice for very long. Only Wang Xing, who had overheard the transcendent instructing Emperor Wu to take sweet flag, harvested and ingested it without ceasing and so attained long life. Those who lived near his village, both old and young, said that he was seen there over many generations. It is not known how he ended up. The eminent Tang poet
Li Bai (701–762) wrote "The Calamus-Gatherer of Mount Song" ()", which refers to this story about Emperor Wu of Han. A divine person of ancient visage, Both ears hanging down to his shoulders, Came upon, on
Song Marchmount, the Marshal One of Han, Who considered him a Transcendent of Mount Jiuyi. "I have come to gather calamus. Ingesting it, one can extend one’s years." Thus saying, suddenly he disappeared; Obliterating his shadow, he entered the clouds and mist. At his injunction the Thearch was not, after all, enlightened – His final return was to the fields of Lush Mound. "Lush Mound" translates
Maoling (), the mausoleum of Emperor Wu of Han.
Shangqing School tradition links Han Zhong with the provenance of several scriptures, such as the . The manuscript originated with Donghai Xiaotong (, Young Lad of the Eastern Sea) who gave it to his student
Zhang Daoling. He transmitted it to Han Zhong (),
honorifically called the , who gave manuscript, partially written in ancient
tadpole script, to the Transcendent Yue Zichang ().
Other texts ,
Ming dynasty painting Several classics record that
King Wen of Zhou (r. 1152–1050 BCE) loved to eat pungent calamus. The 239 BCE says, "
King Wen enjoyed pickled calamus. When Confucius learned this, he wrinkled his nose and tried them. It took him three years to be able to endure them.". The 3rd-century BCE
Legalist classic compares King Wen eating calamus pickles and Chu Dao (), a minister of
King Kang of Chu (r. 559–545 BCE), eating water-chestnuts, neither of which is considered tasty; thus, what a person eats is not necessarily delicious. The c. 139 BCE uses calamus to exemplify things that bring small benefits but great harm, "Calamus deters fleas and lice, but people do not make mats out of it because it attracts centipedes." Some early accounts of Han Zhong, such as this
Music Bureau poem, refer to his iconographic white deer, which he usually rode or sometimes hitched to a flying chariot. The Transcendent One, astride a white deer: His hair is short, but his ears so long! He leads me up Grand Floriate Mountain, Where we pluck divine herbs, gathering Redflag. Arriving at the Master’s gate, We present the drugs – a jade cask full. The master ingests these drugs: His body is healthy in but one day. It strengthens his hair, changing white to black; It extends his years, lengthening his fated span. . . The early 11th-century
Song dynasty says that Han Zhong () achieved spiritual Transcendence after eating . (
Metal Essence Excrescence) grows on
Mount Hua. It has a white
cap, and white birdlike clouds growing above the stem. Its flavor is sweet and pungent. It should be picked on a day in October, and dried in the shade for 100 days. Anyone who eats it will live for 8,000 years. After eating this excrescence Han Zhong became a Transcendent. . Later hagiographies add information that Han Zhong was a native of
Deyang district (modern
Chengdu,
Sichuan), studied the Dao with Tianzhen huangren (, August One of Heavenly Perfection), transmitted the , and at the end of his life ascended to heaven in broad daylight. ==Calamus in Chinese culture==