Alot of People had approached me of whether is there a record of the Various Groups of Eight Immortals aka Ba Xian in our Taoist Contexts and Yes, I can reply to you all.
If you will to visit Jin Fu Gong (金福宮) located at Jurong West Street 91, you will be able to see the 3 sets of Paintings on the Various Ba Xian Groups. And I can said that, the Painting is Fabulous and Accurate.
In here, I will do a quick introduction on the 3 Groups of Commonly Seen Ba Xian in our Taoist Contexts:
Group One: The Superior Ba Xian (上洞八仙)
福星。禄星。寿星。Fu Lu Shou, the Three Immortal Lords of Prosperity, Fortune & Longevity.
张仙。Zhang Xian aka Lord Zhang. The Lord who is in-charge of Protecting Babies from being attacked by Heavenly Dog (天狗).
东方塑。Dong Fang Shuo. The Han Premier and also, the Taoist Cultivator who gain Immortal-hood. Always being seen carrying an Immortal Peach.
廣成子。Guang Cheng Zi. An Ancient Taoist Priest, in some Contexts, known as the Disciple of Yuan Shi Tian Zun (元始天尊).
彭祖。Immortal Peng. A Taoist who gained 800 Years Old Life-span from Lord Bei Dou (北斗星君).
骊山老母。 Immortal Lady Li Shan. The Female Immortal who got the Authorization from Xi Wang Mu (西王母) to do training on New Female Deities & Immortals.
Group Two: The Cultivated Priests Ba Xian (中洞八仙)
In this Group, most of them were Taoist Priests who gained Enlightenment after their Life-time Cultivation & Training. Some of them even got Immortalize by Taoists of the Newer Generation.
And this is the Most Commonly Group of Ba Xian that we can see nowadays.
钟离权。Zhong Li Quan
吕洞宾。Lv Dong Bin
李铁拐。Li Tie Guai aka Tie Guai Li
张果老。Zhang Guo Lao
何仙姑。He Xian Gu
蓝采和。Lan Cai He
韩湘子。Han Xiang Zi
曹国舅。 Cao Guo Jiu
Group Three: The Immortals, Priests & Human Ba Xian (下洞八仙)
In this Group, you will see a combination of Deities, Immortals, Priests, Humans & some said Enlighted-Demons.陈抟。Immortal Chen Tuan. A Cultivated Priest who was the Teacher of many Famous Generals & Deities.
鬼谷子。Immortal Gui Gu Zi. A Cultivated Priest with Supreme Spiritual Skills of Predictions.
王乔。Immortal Wang Qiao. In records, there are 3 Wang Qiao but All of them are equipped with Good Spiritual Skills & Magic Power.
刘海。Immortal Liu Hai. A Taoist Priest or some said Immortal. Born in Tang Dynasty.
和合二仙。Immortals He He. Man-created Characters, some said Cultivated-Demons and some agreed that this Pair of Deities will be imported from Buddhism Context. Appeared in 2 Young Boy form, on them, they carried a Basket & Lotus.
李八百。Immortal Li Ba Bai. Gained a Life-span of 800 Years and this was why he got a Name of Li Ba Bai. Born in Three Kingdon Era. Hometown in Si Chuan Province. A Cultivated Priest.
麻姑。 Fairy Ma Gu. A Priestess. Some said she was the Disciple of Xi Wang Mu (西王母). Always seeing her carried an Immortal Peach.
icic but i think there are pple getting confuse with the second grp of ba xian by calling them shang dong ba xian which i ur context - is zhong dong ba xian.
ReplyDeletebtw ur can have a look at shang dong ba xian in jurong west ext jin fu gong, they have a set of shang dong ba xian at the top of the roof =) just to share =)
Hahahaha.. Yes, alot of people had mistaken the 2nd Group as Shang Dong Ba Xian, which is not very correct.
ReplyDeleteShang Dong Ba Xian are made up of High Position Deities, Immortals and Cultivated Priests, whereas Zhong Dong are all Humans that being Immortalize.
hi bro, u mentioned we can find the three sets of ba xian in jin fu gong, so far i only manage to see one set - shang dong ba xian. zhong and xia dong are at??
ReplyDeleteYou just look around, I remember seeing them on the Ceiling, unless I mistaken the one in Woodlands and the one in Jurong West.
ReplyDeleteI think the Jin Fu Gong only got the Shang Dong set, above the main entrance then the both sides is the 36 generals, if I am not wrong...I don't remember there got the Zhong and Xia Dong sets... :)
ReplyDeleteThen maybe we have to proceed to Jin Fu Gong at Woodlands to see the other 2 sets le.
ReplyDeleteYep...to reconfirm...haha... :)
ReplyDeletetrue true, will drop by the temple in March :P
ReplyDelete