The way to Immortality: the Japanese Continue of the Chinese Taoist Legends

The Japanese setsuwa collection Honchō Shinsen-den (11th–12th centuries), continuing the tradition of Chinese stories about Taoist “immortals”, unites thirty stories about people who somehow went beyond the limits of the human lifespan. Not all of them follow the instructions of the Taoist texts about longevity; many combine Buddhist asceticism with the worship of Japanese kami, living in the mountains or, less often, leading an ordinary worldly life. Well-born persons and famous monks coexist here with commoners, and nothing is known about some other than their miracles. The list of Japanese “immortals” unites the heroes of antiquity, famous monks and laity of the 8th–11th centuries. and contemporaries of the narrator. In separate groups, one can single out the founders and keepers of holy places, wonderful helpers, people who have reached the heights of mastery in poetry and music. The path of the “immortal” does not imply the fulfillment of a set of prohibitions or requirements common to all, and the miracles themselves are also different. A common feature of Japanese ascetics in Honchō Shinsen-den is their disinterest in immortality as such: everyone simply does his own thing or keeps “non-action” in the way he chooses for himself. A series of stories about the “immortals” allows us to re-imagine Japanese history and paint a new picture of the country of Japan itself as providing the conditions for achieving immortality. Taoist teaching, as it is presented in the collection, is close to Mahayana Buddhism with its orientation towards asceticism for the sake of others.

Japanese thought, Taoism, Buddhism, Ooe no Masafusa, Honchō Shinsen-den