Lu's fame as a god is firstly due to his being one of the "Eight Immortals"--gods of happiness popularized in traditional folklore as paying obeisance to the Queen Mother of the West. Symbols of good fortune and longevity, they are widely loved among the people. Most traditional homes will have a portrait of the Eight Immortals in their living room along with an altar, and on festive occasions an embroidered version of the Eight Immortals will be hung from the lintel. Their mischievous likeness can also often be seen on the pillars and roofs of temples.
Worshipped by Confucians, Buddhists and Taoists: The Eight Immortals occupy an important place in folk culture and their story can be found as early as the stories of the T'ang and Sung dynasties. They were used even more so as a subject of the Yuan dramas. Although popularized by tradition, just exactly who the Eight Immortals are, however, had been a subject of constant change until the Ming writer Wu Yuan-tai decided in his Eight Immortals Journey to the East, that they are Han
Chung-li, Lu Tung-pin, Li Tieh-kuai, Chang Kuo-lao, Han Hsiang-tzu, Lan Tsai-ho, Tsao Kuo- chiu and Ho Hsien-ku. This selection has lasted down to the present day.
Out of the homogeneous Eight Immortals of folk culture, only Lu Tung-pin enjoys being worshipped in the temple on his own. The three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism all have a place for him. The Confucians call him "Immortal Teacher Master Lu," or "The Pure and Bright One"; the Buddhists "True Buddha Wen Ni"; and the Taoists "All-Assisting Ruler," "Master Lu," or "Immortal Duke Lu."
"With there being no divisions between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism today, some welcomed deities have often come to be revered by all three," points out Juan Chang-jui, director of the anthropology department of the Provincial Museum, Lu Tung-pin and Kuan Kung are both examples of this.
Li Feng-mo, director of Chengchi University's Chinese department and an expert on research into Taoism, however, feels that, "Although the followers of Buddhism and Taoism cannot be separated, Lu Tung-pin is basically a Taoist deity and certainly not worshipped in orthobox Buddhism. All the cases of temples and shrines in the Buddhist scriptures do not mention Lu Tung-pin."
Master of Alchemists: Within Taoism, Lu Tung-pin is one of the Five Masters of the Pill and Cauldron Sect, (Tung Hua Ti-chun, Han Chung-li, Lu Tung-pin, Liu Hai-ch'an, and Wang Chung-yang).
"A general orthodoxy can be seen in Taoism, and the Pill and Cauldron Sect falls outside it," points out Li Feng-mo, Orthodox Taoism takes talismanic writing as most important, while the Pill and Cauldron Sect sees alchemy as being paramount. Alchemy is also divided into outer practice, including converting cinnabar and physical exercise, and inner practice, including disciplining of the vital ch'i essence of life. Because of this, the Pill and Cauldron Sect, as well as cultivating morality, stresses the training of the body, ch'i and spirit.
In fact, no matter whether "inner" or "outer," all such disciplines were already in existence before the rise of the Eastern Han dynasty. Thus it was that Emperor Chin Shih-huang sent 5000 boys and 5000 girls to the fairy islands of Peng Lai in search of the sages' red elixir of longevity. After the flourishing of Taoism, the art of smelting cinnabar became even more advanced. "The Taoist Cauldron Sect did not only come to develop into a number of sects, but at the same time its influence on the masses of society was large. Many lay followers took its way of alchemy as a method of upbringing," points but the deputy general secretary of the ROC Taoist Council, Chang Cheng. The fashionable method of physical training now known as "Outer Pill Kung" is in fact the basic Kung Fu of the Taoists, which has become separate from Taoism and is now a popular method of physical exercise.
It seems then that all the gods believed in by the Chinese people can be categorized within the grassroots religion of Chinese Taoism. "In fact, the public 'temple' Taoism preached outside the home only worships the Three Pure Masters of the Tao, with each one's sect, such as that of Hupei's Wu Tang Shan, being one of Taoism's base camps," says Chang Cheng. "As for the local deities, such as Kuan Kung or Matsu, they are generally revered in folk-Taoist shrines."
Refusing to Go to Heaven until He Has Helped Others: Because many of the gods of Taiwan came to the island with the early refugees from Fukien, most of them are local deities rather than those of orthodox temple Taoism, and are thus worshipped by their followers within the home. It seems that the reason why Lu Tung-pin, one of the Five Masters, should be everyone's favorite is that his celebrity status is so high. "There are a lot of stories about Lu, and many apparitions and traces left behind, so people on the whole worship him as a god," is how Chang Cheng explains it.
Because Master Lu once swore that he would not go to heaven unless he had helped everyone in the world, the tales of his apparitions are uncountable. In the Myths of the Pure Bright Lord, edited by the Yuan-dynasty Taoist Miao Shan-shih, there are recorded 108 mysterious traces of Lu Tung-pin. In the Pure Bright Pavillion of Shansh's Yungle Palace, there can still be seen thirty-seven wall paintings showing Lu becoming an immortal and assisting others to cross over, such as The Transformation of Ho Hsien-ku, the Transformation of Ts'ao Kuo-chiu, or The Transformation of Fu Tung-lao.
Wandering in the world of men, Lu Tung-pin has left his traces everywhere. The exquisite Holy Relic Rock on T'ien T'ai Mountain in the Peng Hu Isles is believed by the local people to be a foot-print left behind by the god.
The stories of Lu Tung-pin apparitions are many. While laymen and the masses seek good health and longevity, rulers have looked to him even more for everlasting youth. Because of this, even the historical emperors were all very reverential towards Lu Tung-pin, a case in point is Emperor Cheng-tsung of the Sung, who named him "Wondrous True Taoist"; following this, Emperor Wu Tsung added the title "All Assisting Lord." In the Yuan dynasty, he also attained the title "Pure Bright Regulating Lord," so that his position in the Taoist pantheon became something akin to the Prime Minister.
Apart from this, Lu Tung-pin has the best "curriculum vitae" among the Eight Immortals, with all the legends having it that he was a high official. A fact which "might well be related to the popular reverence felt for him," says Li Feng-mo.
The yellow Sorghum Dream: There are many kinds of stories concerning Lu Tung-pin's background. One version is that his family name was Li and he was a high official of the T'ang dynasty. Because of the turbulence of the time, his sons both died early, leading him to reject the mundane world and retire from public life. Husband and wife then went to live in a cave in the mountains, giving rise to the name "Lu", which is a Chinese character composed of two ideograms signifying the mouth; "Tung", which means "cave"; and "pin", meaning "guest" or "visitor".
Later, based on selections from folk tales in the Tales of Taoist Lu, it came to be said that his ming name was Yen, and his given tzu name was Tung-pin. When he was sixty years old and becoming a high official, Lu came across Han Chung-li, another one of the Eight Immortals, in a Changan inn. Led to the Chung Nan Mountains, he followed the Tao and became an immortal.
There is another noteworthy story about the process through which Lu Tung-pin became an immortal: it is said that when he first met Han Chung-li and saw his long beard and wise eyes, blue hat and white robes, and saw that he was a lofty person with disdain for the material world, the two hit it off immediately. After happily talking, they decided to meet the next day and go to Han Chung-li's Taoist hut to chat things over.
When Lu Tung-pin paid his visit, Han Chung-li was cooking yellow sorghum. As he waited, Lu dozed off. In his dreams he passed through a life of fifty years--from success in the civil service examination, rising up in official status, marriage to a lady of the court, sons and grandsons until suddenly, at the height of his prowess, he got mixed up with a plotting faction and was heavily punished. With his home disbanded, his wife gone and his children dispersed, he was left alone in bitter poverty, riding his horse in the wind and snow . . .
Lu finally awoke to find Han Chung-li still standing there cooking. Han smiled and said: "The sorghum isn't cooked yet, and you already have a white beard in your dreams." Lu Tung-pin suddenly realized that life is no more than a dream, a fleeting moment. So he took to the Tao and followed Han Chung-li to cultivate the Way on Heron Peak in the Chung Nan mountains. This is the source of the saying, "yellow sorghum dream."
Today the most famous Lu Tung-pin place of worship, Taipei's Chih Nan Temple, normally has devotees requesting dreams from the Lu Tung-pin and passing the night in the special pilgrims dormitory. The master of the temple, Wang Sheng, points out that early gold miners normally came here to seek dreams. As you can imagine, what they were after were dreams of making a fortune. The irony is that Lu Tung-pin's dream was of renunciation of fame and fortune and of being at ease with the world, while his followers are busily involved in doing business and even requesting "dreams of riches" from him.
Splitting-up at Chih Nan Temple?: Once he became an immortal, the image of the unfortunate Lu Tung-pin changed dramatically to become in folk legend a straightforward, lovable, and at times mischievous immortal. Today the incense sticks at the Chih Nan Temple are abundant and the devotees are many. However, there is also a long-standing taboo: according to legend, if new lovers go to the temple then they will become quarrelsome and might even split up.
Some people say that this is because Lu Tung-pin's own sons and wife died early and his home suffered so many disasters, so how can he be expected to help other people to have a happy marriage. Other people say that Lu Tung-pin is really humorous and childish, and likes to play games with engaged couples. In the end, it is probably best for ardent lovers to keep a respectful distance from the temple. So the Chih Nan Temple does not tend to see many courting couples.
The problem is that if, out of all the Lu Tung-pin temples on Taiwan, only the Chih Nan Temple has this taboo, and if it is really put down to Lu Tung-pin's mischievousness, why should the Chih Nan Temple have been so singled out?
Yuan Ch'an-jui has an explanation. Japan has its "Narita divorce," and Taiwan has its "Chih Nan split-up." Many Japanese go abroad for their honey-moon only to find that it is hard not to end up quarrelling after the hardships of travel. By the time they get back to Narita airport they want divorce. Following this reasoning, Chih Nan Kung is very high up on a hill and people are very tired after climbing there. Could it be this that makes strong words and splitting-up so easy? Of course, this is mundane reasoning; probably only Lu Tung-pin knows the real reason.
In Taoist pictures you can see his "seven-stars sword," which cuts off greed, lust and worry. Carrying a wisp and with the air of the literatus, this frail intellectual Lu Tung-pin seems to be at odds with the crafty immortal of the folk tradition. That he should be the patron saint of barber shops is another case in point.
Master of the Shaved Head: The story goes that Emperor Tai-tzu of the Ming dynasty had a carbuncle on his head that could not be cured. Every time the barber came to court he had to be very careful not to cut the carbuncle and incur the emperor's wrath in the form of decapitation. So the "All-Helpful Lord" became a barber himself and went to the court to cut the emperor's hair. The miracle was that as he cut away, the Emperor's malformations were cured. The happy Emperor wanted to reward Lu well, but the immortal insisted that he only wanted a small red flag, which he placed in front of the barber's shop before ascending back to heaven.
Appreciating Lu Tung-pin's help, the barber shops made him their patron saint and these days you can still see his image in their shops. According to the barbers guild, about 70-80 percent of their 2,000 members have a Lu Tung-pin icon. Every April 14th (according to the lunar calender), it is Lu's birthday and the union determines which shop to put Lu Tung-pin's statue in for that year.
Last year Fu Ching-chien, of Sanchung, held the statue for a year. It is said that the fortunate holder of the statue will have domestic peace and prosperity for that year. "There was no obvious difference in trade, but it makes you feel better!" were Fu Ching- chien's feelings.
Seeking Immortality Through Worship: No matter whether these stories and traces of appearances are true, their wide spread has ensured the position of the "All-Helping Lord" as a revered figure in folklore through the ages.
At present there are more than 6,800 temples of folk religion in Taiwan. Fifty-nine of them are registered as Lu Tung-pin temples. That is not the whole account, however, as Lu appears in many other Taoist shrines of which he is not the main deity. Although his own temples might not be so many, Lu is thus very widely worshipped.
In common with most deities, Lu Tung-pin's followers are in search of solutions for their problems and some guidance. "The only really unique thing about Lu Tung-pin is his alchemy. Because he can transform cinnabar, many of the people who go to his temple are in search of longevity," points out Li Feng-mo.
What is puzzling is that the main area in Taiwan for Lu Tung-pin's temples is the north. Here we find that Taipei city has the most, with fourteen temples, while Taipei County has eleven. It seems that the more materialistic the area, the more reverence there is for casting off the mundane world and for this pure and selfless god. It is hard to know whether such a phenomenon is really salvation or irony.
[Picture Caption]
As well as being one of the Five Masters of the Taoist Red Cauldron Sect, the All Assisting Lord Lu Tung-pin is also one of the Eight Immortals of folk tales.
The Eight Immortals are gods of happiness, and auspicious colorful depictions of them are hung from the lintel on festivals and joyous occasions. (photo by Diago Chiu)
Lu Tung-pin is the one carrying a wisp in this relief of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Ocean.
The devotees at this Eight Immortals cave have thoughtfully provided the gods with a table and chess board for their enjoyment.
Carrying his seven- star sword the All Assistant Lord has the bearing of a great and true follower of the Way. (photo courtesy of Chih Nan Temple)
The Eight Immortals are gods of happiness, and auspicious colorful depictions of them are hung from the lintel on festivals and joyous occasions. （photo by Diago Chiu）
Lu Tung-pin is the one carrying a wisp in this relief of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Ocean.
The devotees at this Eight Immortals cave have thoughtfully provided the gods with a table and chess board for their enjoyment.
Carrying his seven- star sword the All Assistant Lord has the bearing of a great and true follower of the Way. （photo courtesy of Chih Nan Temple）
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