HE XIAN-GU

[Chinese] One of the Ba Xian, and the only female among them. She lived during the Tang Dynasty and spent her life as a hermit in the mountains. A spirit appeared to her in a dream when she was fourteen. He told her to grind a stone known as the "mother of clouds" into powder and eat that powder. She would then become as light as a feather and attain immortality. She followed these instructions and also vowed never to marry. Soon after she was able to fly from one mountain peak to the next, gathering fruit and berries for her mother. She herself had no longer any need of nourishment. One day the emperor summoned her to his court but she disappeared along the way and became an immortal. According to another myth she had lost her way in the mountains while gathering tea. There she met a scholar (rumored to have been Lu Dong-bin who gave her a peach to eat. After that she never felt hungry again.