Chasing Immortality

MC: Good evening everybody. If you are just joining us, welcome to Jade Nights and this Terracotta Warriors exhibition. So this is our second talk of the evening. If you caught the talk before, it is the same one, repeated with a few more little facts thrown in there. But if you didn't catch the talk before, over the next 30 minutes Doctor Qian Gong, Course Coordinator of the Chinese Major, Bachelor of the Arts at Curtin University, is going to be taking us through why ancient civilizations were so obsessed with life and the after-death. Please enjoy.

Dr Qian Gong: Good evening everyone. It's my great pleasure to be here, to share with you some of my understanding of the ancient Chinese belief of immortality. I have to, first of all, a little, say a little caveat here. I'm not archeologist nor a historian. So I'm standing here, really, I mean, my research field is Chinese, contemporary Chinese media and culture studies. So, yeah, please forgive me if, if, if anything I said is a bit of a hearsay, and, and, yeah, I, I truly invite you to be in dialog with me if you know something more than me.

Okay. So, yeah, I'm, before I came to West Australia, I worked as a feature writer in China's national English language newspaper, China Daily for a decade. So there, to say that I have no knowledge of archeology is not entirely accurate either because when I worked there, one of the bits I covered was actually archeology. I was told when I started working there, I was told that if you want to get into, you know, front page, you should really try to get hold of archeology as your bit. So I tried very hard and got it. So when, when the second Terracotta Warrior tomb, these are the guarding tombs of the main mausoleum, when the excavation was officially launched in 1994, I was actually there to cover the event. So I do have a feeling of special connection with the Terracotta Warriors, and it's beautiful to see them up close in WA. So, yeah, here's an article that I wrote, while, in 1994, while I was there, to cover the events.

So the idea of immortality, I don't know about you guys, you know, now, you know, getting to, or should I say, an older age, I, you know, this, this question, is constantly on my mind, much more than when I was, you know, like in my 20s or 30s. So it's a, it's an eternal topic. Yeah. I'm sure, you know, lots of people, yeah, wonder about it as well. And now these days, there's talk that you can actually become immortal. If, if computer chip is connected to your brain and, you know, start to, to, to, to and also your, your, your social media footprint, is taken down, downloaded, and then they could recreate a sort of you, but I often wonder, do I want to live forever or not? Checked with my, my daughter and, and she's a teenager, she said no, definitely not. I said, why? And she said, oh, it'd be so boring to live forever. I guess because she's young, you know, like, she, she might change her idea later on, when she was my age, okay.

So, really, the only thing that's currently considered immortal is this giant octopus. Apparently, it can regenerate itself, so being in a state of forever living on, like restoring itself, and other than that, we haven't had, you know, any living being hasn't had the luxury of living forever.

So immortality in the Western culture, if we talk about the mainstream, which is the Christian culture, the idea is if you believe in God, then when this physical body actually perish, you would be, your soul would be salvaged, and in the, with the God in heaven and you actually become immortal. But Christianity, is not the main, you know, it's not indigenous in China, and the Chinese, ancient Chinese had very different ideas about immortality. But the idea of immortality is universal and in ancient China, many people do believe it was possible to live forever, either by never dying, or living for an extremely long time. And they, immortality wasn't just about the body staying alive but also about the soul, or spirit, continuing on. The idea of immortality in ancient Chinese history is also quite complex. We need to deal with several schools of thoughts and beliefs. So there's Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, ancient worship of ancestors, and a cosmopology, and also metaphysics. In the very ancient Chinese mythology called Shanhai jing, the Classic of Mountains and Oceans, of Seas, there's, there's already this idea of being immortal, so basically, you know, it's like the body could be preserved and at a certain time could be, regenerated and, you know, become a new being, you know, that's, you know, that’s the, the photo, I mean, the, the drawing of that, and that idea really reminds me of the, recently there's a very successful sci fi called Three-Body Problem written by Chinese author Liu Cixin. Have you heard of that? And it's, yeah, it's turned into TV series on Netflix as well. And in, you know, one of those periods in the Three-Body Problem, when the three suns turn out all at the same time, the earth become, becomes extremely dry and heat, you know, like, really hot, and then all the humans will be, become, you know, like, dried up and could be wrote like a piece of paper. And then when, the, the other two sun disappeared, there's the good time. And then, the bodies that this, this piece of paper, dried human body could be thrown into the sea and be regenerated into, human being again. So I, I when I was watching that, I kind of had, suspected that Liu Cixin must have drawn some inspirations from, Shanhai jing, you know, the ancient Chinese mythology. Okay, so here you have the dried body there and, you know, like this, this, this emperor rehydrate, and then, you know, every time turned back into a human being again. In the Shanhai jing there's also this immortal tree, so there's a record of a certain kind of tree called Immortal Tree. And, and it is said if a person eats the fruit, the leaves and the fruit and they can achieve immortality. And this classics was written before the Qin empire, before this, this, you know, the empire, you know, the Terracotta Warrior age. Yeah, so it was really ancient.

So talk about different schools of thought about immortality. Yeah. I want to start with the Taoism, because to me, it wasn't, you know, Chinese always average and never Chinese, usually, believe in both Confucianism and Taoism, and they practice both. How do they practice? When you are doing just fine, you know, you are getting promotion, you're earning good money, we believe in Confucianism. It's all about, you know, being enterprising and achieve, achieve, right. Be a good person, and that. But when, when, when things turn downhill, we start to believe in Taoism. It's like, yeah, it's all good, we are in, in harmony with nature. And, and we don't care about this hustle bustle in the world, you know, like, we just, like, achieve this internal peace. Yeah, that's the best, yeah. Chinese very practical like that, yeah. But I think that Taoism has, it's really unique and indigenous to Chinese, Chinese culture and has a, enormous influence on, every single Chinese being. I think Confucianism, you can still see there's a, a likeness to maybe, you know, Christian ideas of, you know, like living in this, in this mortal world. But, and Taoism is really different so that for Taoism, it's not the core of its value, its the union with the Tao. Tao is the way, translated, and its that basically how the nature operates the, the, all the rules of nature, right. And for, for you to be a good Taoist, you try to achieve harmony with nature and go with the flow and carefree. Don't try to control things, yeah.

So for, for Taoism, immortality means freedom from death. In the spiritual sense, it's not so much about this, mortal being. Right? So there's a very good story in Huainanzi, one of the main stories to figure in Chinese history, in his writing, that every Chinese now knows is called, Zhuangzi Meng Die (Zhuangzi Dreaming of Becoming a Butterfly). So then that's the story goes that Zhuang Zhou one day was asleep at night, and when he was sleeping, he had this dream that he became a butterfly and, you know, kind of carefree, light and, you know, fluttering through wind and trees. And then he woke up and he had a moment of confusion. He's like questioning, am I the Zhuang who is dreaming of, dreaming of being a butterfly? Or could it be, the butterfly actually having a dream about being Zhuang? So the, the, the whole story, you know, the idea about this story is really saying that, you know, this, this harmonious existence with nature, be at one with nature, and the idea of immortality is not really about the, the lasting, you know, the eternity of the physical body, but the flow. Okay, so that's the Taoist idea. And to achieve actually immortality, to achieve that everlasting stage, the Taoist’s practice several things. They include Neidan, which is called internal alchemy, yeah. So basically, a human being is treated as having the spirits. And then you have, of course, the Qi, right. And, and, and then you have Shen, yeah. Jing, Qi, Shen, which, well, how do you say, yeah, spirit essence, which is Jing and the Qi, the virtue energy, Qi, yeah. Okay. So you have to practice this, like through meditation, breathing exercise and a certain diet. And, of course, you know, be very undisturbed by the outside world, and to achieve that kind of internal peace. Okay. When you achieve that state of mind, you become, you can become immortal.

And that's, that's the internal, Neidan. But there's also the Waidan which is, they believe in potions, create potions. So this is the scientific part of Taoism. The Taoists are scientists, you know, they are chemists, they spend their time trying to create this magic elixir, or pills, magic pills. When you eat, eat it or drink the elixir, then you can achieve the state of immortality, right. And then you know that this little gourd, this gourd is often, you know, it's the image of the container that contains the elixir or the pills. So this is called Weidan, the external elixir of immortality.

So I have over here this image of a creature. Can anybody tell me what, what that thing is? The monkey, yeah. So he's the magic monkey and one of the most beloved creature mythology, mythological, creature in, in classical Chinese literature, yeah. Journey to the West. And the monkey is, of course, has this image of a rebelling, rebel, he's a rebel, you know, he does not care about rules. Whatever. So one day he went into the, the room of this Taoist priest. The highest reigning Taoist God who actually trying to make this magic pills in this furnace, right? By putting in mercury and gold and jade, all this heavy, all these things that could kill you, into this furnace and trying to create something that make you last forever. It's, it's quite interesting right, the idea. So the monkey came across that and he pulled this thing, a pill, out and he had a taste and wow, you know, crunchy and yummy. So he started to eat all of them up. And so when he was captured by the, the Taishang Laojun, the god, the Taoist God, they shut him up in this furnace and turned the temperature really up. But when, when he jumped out, he, he's, he's black, you know, with all this, you know, like, smoke and everything, but he's alive and well, you know, and so energetic because he already consumed so many of these magic pills.

Okay, so the Journey to the West has this, it's a, it's a, it's a story about Buddhist monk going to the West to which is today's India, to try to get hold of the magic, no, the holy script back to China, right. So everyone else, his disciples, are all like some kind of, you know, creatures with magic power. But the monk, he's human. However, the writer actually, what should I say, put something Taoist into this story. So the Taoist’s idea is that the, the monk's flesh can make you immortal if you eat it. So in this land, this journey, they constantly, this team, yeah, constantly meet all sorts of demons. And they, all they want is to eat the monk's flesh. So his disciples had to, you know, really do their best to try to protect this human monk, yeah. So, okay, and there's also a mythology, which is very well known, and that is the magic peach, xiantao, Immortal Peach. So they, there's this Queen mother of the West, and she resides in the Kunlun Mountain in the west, a very tall mountain. And she tends this orchard, yeah. And there in the orchard, there's this beautiful peaches. And they only flower every 3000 years and if you could eat this peach, you can become immortal. And every year the Jade Emperor would call on all the xian, all those fairies and, and, and, you know, like worthy, all the worthy, you know, those with the status in the, in the spiritual world will come to dine and drink wine and eat these magic peaches. And that is why that, these days, Chinese, like older people when they celebrate their birthday and they were often, they are often given baos made in the shape of the, of a peach and dyed with the beautiful pink, pink color as well.

And then there's this story every Chinese kid were told, well, when they were younger, about Eight Immortals, Ba Xian, right? There's these immortals. Each of them becomes immortal in their own way. And each of them embodies the ways to achieve, one way to achieve immortality. Immortality in the Taoist belief, yeah, system.

Okay, let's talk about the emperor, this Qin emperor who has this terracotta army built for, for himself, right. He's the one who's most fearful of death. He's obsessed with the idea of living forever. And, and we can imagine, you know, he's the one who united China, has the whole, you know, a big nation under his own rule. He had the Great Wall built. He had his mausoleum built, and, and he can do anything except, like, how to deal with death, right. He's very afraid of death. So he reputedly had four ways to achieve immortality. And the first one is, he sent his Taoist priests to the ocean to, in search of this, Penglai, which is, like, immortal, like heavenly land where you can seek elixir. So the Taoist priests told him that he needs to bring 500 virgin maidens as well as men, yeah. So they built this huge ship and they were like, you know, put all these men and women on to it and off they go, and sailed to the east. And, I mean, I'm sure this Xu Fu, has figured out, this priest, that he's not coming back. So he's bringing all this wealth and men and women, he's, you know, because he probably knows it's very hard to get this elixir right. So they never came back, and, and, and, and according to the historical record, they sailed to, to, Japan. They landed in Japan, right. And they settled there. And so they become part of the today's Japanese, the earliest settlement, settlements, Chinese settlement in Japan.

So, anyway, so the Qin, that's, that's his first way to achieve immortality. And there was a movie called Terracotta Warriors, starring Zhang Yimou, the fifth generation director. He played one of the terracotta, actually one of the generals, who turned into a terracotta warrior by the emperor. And, and the, one of the maidens was played by Gong Li, his ex-lover, the famous actress who played one of the, you know, 500 maidens and it was quite a funny story, yeah. I have the film here, but I don't think we have time to watch, but you can search it up. It's on the YouTube.

And then the second way for him to achieve immortality is to have, of course, this huge mausoleum built, okay. It's the size of Manhattan, just to let you know how big that is, yeah. So he built a big mound on top of his mausoleum and, and, and terracotta warriors. They are the guarding, there in the guarding tomb on the, on the, on the periphery actually, yeah, okay. So this is a picture, like an airview of his tomb. So he wants to make sure that he has an afterlife not much different from his present life.

And, and the third way is to actually eat those potions, you know, the pills which made, made of mercury and, and gold. Of course, ironically, pretty much killed him because he died quite suddenly, yeah, on the way back from an expedition, yeah.

The fourth way, of course, he, he forbidden, forbade people to use the word death, okay. Not to talk about it and not to writing any documents. But, of course, he died, actually not, not that old. And his son died quite young as well. And, and the, and the whole dynasty lasted only like, 15 years or so, yeah. So a, a tragic failure there.

Now I'm moving on to Confucianism. And Confucius and, like, you know, the Taoists, they, he, he's very real. He's a realist, right? He doesn't believe in the, in the, you know, forever lasting, immortal, you know, corporeal immortality. For him actually, the, the immortality is, is about, you know, achieving something. And leaving something behind. A good name, moral perfection and great deeds, and of course, descendants. If you bring up a good family and that could make you immortal, yeah. And he, it's called Li, and he, him, himself, of course, died, but we still remember him. So that's an example of how immortality could be achieved. And there's moral stories that he created about how to achieve immortality. One of them, there are 24 of them about filial piety and I actually was born in Shandong province, not far from the birthplace of Confucius. So we were told those stories from very young age. This is one of the 24. So in this story, it's called, this story's Wo Bing Qiu Li, right. This, this mother, old woman is dying, and she wants to have fish soup. And it's in the deep of the winter, depth of the winter. And the son who cares so much about his mother's wishes went out to get the fish. And the river, of course, was covered with very thick ice, it’s northern part of China. So in order to get the fish, he just takes off his clothes and lies on the, on the ice and tries to use his body temperature to let the ice melt so he could get the fish. And, and that's taken as a, like a moral story of how to be filial to your parents, and that's how you should behave. And, and this person achieved immortality because he's such a good example, moral example. And now Buddhism. Okay, so for Buddhism, Buddhism is not about, like achieving immortality in the, in the physical, you know, preserving of the physical body sense. Buddhism is about, you know, life is a cycle, right, and one cycle ends and then you become reincarnated and you start another cycle. And for Buddhist, this, this, this living is, a source of happiness, okay. You really want to break out of, get out of this cycle. And if you can do that, then you achieve this nirvana, which is a, you know, a kind of immortality, but, it's, yeah, it's, it's very much about the end of death, rather than, you know, like leaving forever, right, for Buddhist. So you see in the temples, sometimes you see the reclining Buddha, you know, like, lying there, that's Buddha achieving nirvana, you know, becomes, end of death, is no longer around the scene. So a peaceful, timely state beyond life and death. And that's the, the Leshan Maitreya, the, the biggest Buddha in China.

So, in the exhibition, you'll see lots of jade objects and jade has this magic power of, you know, like, signifies something sacred. And, and, in the ancient days, people believe if you protect the bodies of somebody with jade, that could help preserve the body to last forever. And then so does this jade face cover sometimes. So the, the eyes and the, you know, all the, the holes of the body, of the face will be covered with, with jade. And there's also the very well-known jade clothes for the dead, and quite a few were discovered and these outfits was made of over 4000 pieces of jade or, you know, good quality jade, carefully polished, and then there's a little hole and you put thread in. So for the kings, usually the thread is gold thread. So when the tomb raiders robbed the tomb, they were, like, quite superstitious. So they won't take the jade, but they will take the gold thread. So many of these, when they were discovered, they were like, in a very messy stage. That's, this is the details.

One last thing I want to mention is the jade cicada, which you will see in the, in the exhibition. So, why jade cicada. So cicada, of course, is the, the creature that comes from under the earth. So for Chinese, it signifies that death, you know, when people die, they no longer bothered by the, the impurity, or the corruption of the everyday life, they come into this very pure stage. And that's like the cicada, they come out, they climb onto the tree, they only drink the dew, or the raindrops, and they produce this beautiful song. And also cicada, you know, comes out of this shell, that's kind of symbol of being reborn.

All right, so, I want to end with something like a summary. So, as you see in ancient China, immortality was not just one idea. It was a mountain path, a dangerous potion, a good name, a magic fruit, and each tale is a window into how people dreamed of overcoming time.

Thank you very much.

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