The period assigned to Chang Kuo is the middle or close of the seventh to the middle of the eighth century A.D. He lived as a hermit on Chung-tiao Shan, in the prefecture of Ping-yang Fu in Shansi. The Emperors Tai Zong and Gao Zong of the Tang dynasty frequently invited him to Court, but he persistently refused to go. At last, pressed once more by the Empress Wu (684 –705 A.D.), he consented to leave his retreat, but was struck down by death at the gate of the Temple of the Jealous Woman. His body began to decay and to be eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen again, alive and well, on the mountains of Heng Chou in Ping-yang Fu. He rode on a white mule, which carried him thousands of miles in a day, and which, when the journey was finished, he folded up like a sheet of paper and put away in his wallet. When he again required its services, he had only to spurt water upon the packet from his mouth and the animal at once assumed its proper shape. At all times he performed wonderful feats of necromancy, and declared that he had been Grand Minister to the Emperor Yao (2357–2255 B.C.) during a previous existence.
About 735 A.D., he was called to Lo-yang in Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with the honorable title of Very Perspicacious Teacher.
It was just at this time that the famous Taoist Yeh Fa-shan, thanks to his skill in necromancy, was in great favor at Court. The Emperor asked him who this Chang Kuo Lao (he usually has the epithet Lao, ‘old,’ added to his name) was. “I know,” replied the magician; “but if I were to tell your Majesty I should fall dead at your feet, so I dare not speak unless your Majesty will promise that you will go with bare feet and bare head to ask Chang Kuo to forgive you, in which case I should immediately revive.” After the emperor promised, Fa-shan said: “Chang Kuo is a white spiritual bat which came out of primeval chaos.” No sooner had he spoken than he dropped dead at the Emperor’s feet.
The emperor, with bare head and feet, went to Chang Kuo as he had promised, and begged forgiveness for his indiscretion. The latter then sprinkled water on Fa-shan’s face and he revived. Soon after Chang fell sick and returned to die in the Heng Chou Mountains during the period 742–746 A.D. When his disciples opened his tomb, they found it empty.
He is usually seen mounted on his white mule, sometimes facing its head, sometimes its tail.
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