Lu Dongbin's Yellow Millet Dream
A woodcut of Lu Dongbin, one of the famous Eight Daoist Immortals.
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At the moment when his mother gave him birth an unearthly perfume pervaded the house, and strains of celestial music were wafted from the sky, and a white crane from heaven flew down between the curtains of her bed and was seen no more. Even when a newly-born infant his frame was strong as metal, and his muscles hard as wood. The crown of his head formed a high dome resembling a crane's; his back was arched like that of a tortoise; his eyes were as brilliant as those of a phœnix; and his eyebrows extended on either side to meet the hair round the temples.[2]
After his remarkable childhood, Lü Yan decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and become a member of the imperial bureaucracy. However, despite his aptitude for poetry, philosophy and spiritual cultivation, he could not seem to pass the entrance exam.
After failing twice, he started to doubt whether this was, indeed, the path that would bring him the most happiness. Stopping at an inn on his way home, the despondent Lü encountered a jolly obese man who invited him to sit down and share his supper. The future immortal agreed, but no sooner had he seated himself, he abruptly fell asleep.
HIS DREAM:
In his dream, he took the imperial exam and excelled, and was thus awarded a prestigious office and soon promoted to the position of vice-minister. He then married the daughter of a prosperous household and had a son and a daughter. He was promoted again to be the prime minister. However, his success and luck attracted the jealousy of others, causing him to be falsely accused of crimes, which led to the loss of his office and his banishment to a distant rural village. His wife then betrayed him, his children were killed by bandits, and he lost all his wealth. As he was dying on the street, he woke up.
His smiling dinner companion looked at him and commented: "you have lived an entire life in less time than it took your millet to cook." At this, Lü Yan realized that his new friend was no ordinary mortal, and, when questioned, the old man admitted that he was, in fact, Zhongli Quan, a xian who was already over six hundred years old. Seeing for the first time the utter contingency of worldly achievements, Lü pledged that he wanted nothing more than to follow Zhongli's example and learn the path of spiritual attainment. In honor of this resolution, Lü Yan rechristened himself Lü Dongbin ("the guest of the cavern") as a means of constantly reminding himself that the "cavern" of mortal existence was not his true home.[3]
