Eight Immortals: He Xiangu

He Xiangu is possibly the only female of the Eight Immortals. Some will say that she is the only female of the Eight Immortals, others will claim that there is another female within the group. He Xiangu is the only certain female of the Eight Immortals and also known as Female Immortal He or Immortal Woman He. She also owns a talisman that is a long-stalked lotus flower with the ability to improve both physical and mental health. He Xiangu is often pictured with her lotus flower but is also pictured with a musical instrument called the Sheng or with a bird called the fenghuang. He Xiangu is the patroness of the home, family life, virgins, unmarried women, cooking and housekeeping.

He Xiangu is the daughter of He T’ai who lived in the prefecture of Guangdong and was notably born with six long hairs on the crown of her head. When she was about fourteen He Xiangu had a dream where she was instructed to eat powered mica in order for her body to possibly become immune to death. He Xiangu did eat powdered mica and vowed to stay a virgin.
Over time she gave up ordinary food, eating fruits found on the mountains where she one day found a peach that she ate. It is said that this peach He Xiangu ate is the very peach that made her immortal.

He Xiangu’s parents arranged their daughter a marriage not long after she ate the peach she found. He Xiangu didn’t voice her opinion on the matter except the wedding day. He Xiangu was later found to have been missing from her bedchambers and had left a poem on a screen to which her parents did not understand.

A few years after this incident a Taoist priest who had came down from Luofu Mountain went to the He’s house. He Xiangu’s parents learnt that an apprentice by the name of He Xiangu instructed to bring her shoes back and this is how He Xiangu’s parents learnt that He Xiangu herself was studying Taoism.

It is said that Empress Wu summoned He Xiangu, but while on the way to see Empress Wu it is said He Xiangu disappeared. During the Jing Long period (about 707CE) He Xiangu  ascended to Heaven during daylight.

He Xiangu is also said to have met Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals, and successfully tried to bring He Xiangu into the Tao. Lu Dongbin apparently also gave He Xiangu a Peach of Immortality.