When she reached Wu Ti there were only four peaches on the tray, and she lifted one up and began to eat it. The peach was her symbol, as the apple was that of Aphrodite. Tung Fang So peered at her through a window, and when she caught sight of his smiling face, she informed the emperor that he had stolen three of her peaches. Wu Ti received a peach from her, and, having eaten it, became an immortal. A similar story is told regarding the Chinese Emperor, Muh Wang.
In her “Jade Mountain” Paradise of the West (the highest peak of the Kwun-lun mountains) this goddess is accompanied by her sister, as the Egyptian Isis is by Nephthys, and the pair are supposed to flit about in [[140]]Cloud-land, followed by the white souls of good women of the Taoist cult. Her attendants include the Blue Stork, the White Tiger, the Stag, and the gigantic Tortoise, which are all gods and symbols of longevity in China.
Among the many stories told about Tung Fang So is one regarding a visit he once paid to the mythical Purple Sea. He returned after the absence of a year, and on being remonstrated with by his brother for deserting his home for so long a period, he contended that he had been away for only a single day. His garments had been discoloured by the waters of the Purple Sea, and he had gone to another sea to cleanse them. In like manner heroes who visit Fairyland find that time slips past very quickly.
The Purple Sea idea may have been derived from the ancient Well of Life story about El Khidr,[15] whose body and clothing turned green after he had bathed in it. Purple supplanted green and blue as the colour of immortality and royalty after murex dye became the great commercial asset of sea-traders. Tung Fang So may have had attached to his memory a late and imported version of the El Khidr story.
MOUNTAIN VIEW WITH SCHOLAR’S RETREAT
From a Chinese painting in the British Museum
The reference to Wu Ti’s dew-drinking habit recalls the story of the youthful Keu Tze Tung, a court favourite, who unwittingly offended the emperor, Muh Wang, and was banished. As the Egyptian Bata, who similarly fell into disgrace in consequence of a false charge being made against him, fled to the “Valley of the Acacia”, Keu Tze Tung fled to the “Valley of the Chrysanthemum”. There he drank the dew that dropped from the petals of chrysanthemums, and became an immortal. The Buddhists took over this story, and [[141]]told that the youth had been given a sacred text, which he painted on the petals. This text imparted to the dew its special qualities. In the Far East the chrysanthemum is a symbol of purity. The chrysanthemum with sixteen petals is the emblem of the Mikado of Japan.
A Chinese sage, who, like the Indian Rishis, practised yoga until he became immortal, engaged his spare moments in painting fish. He lived on the bank of a stream for over two hundred years. In the end he was carried away to the Underworld Paradise of the Lord of Fish, who was, of course, the dragon-god. He paid one return visit to his disciples, riding like the Chinese “Boy Blue” in the dragon story, on the back of a red carp.
Another Chinese “tree-cult” favoured, instead of the peach tree, a cassia tree. This cassia-cult must have been late. The peach tree is indigenous. “Of fruits,” says Laufer, “the West is chiefly indebted to China for the peach (Amygdalus persica) and the apricot (Prunus armeniaca). It is not impossible that these two gifts were transmitted by the silk-dealers, first to Iran (in the second or first century B.C.) and thence to Armenia, Greece, and Rome (in the first century A.D.).” In India the peach is called cinani (“Chinese fruit”). “There is no Sanskrit name for the tree (peach); nor does it play any rôle in the folk-lore of India, as it does in China.” … Persia “has only descriptive names for these fruits, the peach being termed saft alu (‘large plum’), the apricot, zard alu (‘yellow plum’).”[16]