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China: 'The Daoist Immortal Ge Spitting Fire', Guo Xu (1456-c.1529), 1503

China: 'The Daoist Immortal Ge Spitting Fire', Guo Xu (1456-c.1529), 1503

The Daoist Immortal Ge, seated to the right, was Ge Xuan, a Daoist master of the third century. Born into an eminent family, Ge Xuan was by nature reclusive and drawn to the occult arts of Daoism.

He perfected the manufacture of the elixir of immortality as well as all manner of cultivation techniques – such as breathing fire (pictured here) and also turning food he had eaten into bees that flew out of his mouth. He eventually became an immortal and disappeared.

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