o decay and to be
eaten by worms, when lo! he was seen again, alive and well, on the
mountains of Heng Chou in P'ing-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.

In the twenty-third year (A.D. 735) of the reign-period K'ai Yuean
of the Emperor Hsuean Tsung of the T'ang dynasty, he was called to
Lo-yang in Honan, and elected Chief of the Imperial Academy, with
the honourable 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 favour 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." Hsuean Tsung having promised,
Fa-shan then 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.

Hsuean Tsung, 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
A.D. 742-746. 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. He carries a phoenix-feather or a peach
of immortality.

At his interviews with the Emperor Ming Huang in A.D. 723 (when he
was alive still) Chang Kuo "entertained the Emperor with a variety of
magical tricks, such as rendering himself invisible, drinking off a
cup of aconite, and felling birds or flowers by pointing at them. He
refused the hand of an imperial princess, and also declined to have
his portrait placed in the Hall of Worthies.