The Peaches Of Forever

Poul Anderson, The Boat Of A Million Years (London, 1991), pp. 33-46.

An inspector from Ch'ang-an speaks of "'...the Hsiung-nu beyond the Wall...'" (p. 3).

The local subprefect informs the inspector that there are "'Masterless wanderers...'" and says that:

"'Peasants swear that they have seen such a one cure the sick, exorcise demons, raise the dead...'" (p. 36)

There were also such wandering healers in Palestine at that time - 19 AD.

The inspector claims to know about charlatans and also "'...about ordinary wu, folk magicians, honest enough but illiterate and superstitious.'" (ibid.) - although I cannot see this meaning of "wu" in the linked Wikipedia article. The inspector adds that these folk magicians have influenced Lao-Tzu's teachings. I have read accounts that make Taoist philosophy and Taoist religion seem quite distinct, even having different founders, although see here. I have also read persuasive arguments that Zen, which I practice, is a synthesis of Buddhism and Taoism. I would be happy for an image of Lao-Tzu to accompany the statue of the Buddha on Zen altars but that is not how things are done.

The conversation takes place ten years into the reign of Wang Mang. Tu Shan, the immortal introduced in Chapter II, says that Hsi Wang Mu, Mother of the West, grows peaches of immortality, but this is only because people expect him to explain his longevity although he cannot. The subprefect says that Tu Shan "'...mediates, or so he claims.'" (p. 38) Should that be "...meditates"?