Suxian Legend
01 · Historical Records
The Suxian legend is recorded in Daoist scriptures, note-form fiction, medical books and classified compendia; many famous figures including Du Fu wrote poems on the Orange Well, and four Song emperors conferred on Su Dan the titles of Perfected Man and True Lord, while Emperor Zhenzong of Song had the line “sweet spring of the Orange Well scents to the gall”, and from this were formed the medical-world allusions “the Orange Well's sweet spring” and “the dragon coiled at the Orange Well”.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Suxian legend takes as its main content the marvellous birth of Su Dan, a herbal doctor of Chenzhou, his suckling by a divine deer, his filial devotion to his mother, his planting of oranges to drive away plague and his attainment of the Dao and immortality; the chapter “Lord Su Xian” of the Taiping Guangji gives a full account. Its core area of circulation is the Suxian and Beihu districts of Chenzhou city, Hunan, and the counties and cities of Yongxing, Rucheng, Zixing, Yizhang and Guiyang, and it also circulates in Yongzhou, Hengyang, Xiangtan and Changsha and in parts of Henan, Guangdong and Jiangxi. In Jinan of Shandong, Puyang county of Henan and Yunfu city of Guangdong there are also Orange Wells or poems on the Orange Well. In addition, the sights the legend involves, such as Su's Mother's Tomb and the Suxian Bridge, are relatively well preserved in Chenzhou. The Suxian legend has been transmitted over a long time—from the earliest documentary record more than 1,700 years—and is rich in romance, appealing to both refined and popular taste and valued by famous people of successive ages. It contains the culture of filial piety, the medical ideal of hanging up the gourd to succour the world and the idea of harmony between man and nature, and has become material for the creation of such performing forms as quyi, dance and fine art; it has been told with relish by the people of Chenzhou through the ages and spread far and wide with the poems and prose of emperors and men of letters, enjoying a broad popular base and a historical, artistic, medical and social-cultural value that cannot be underestimated.
The Legend of Su Dan's Birth
The type of Suxian legend centring on the miraculous conception and birth.
Suckled by a Divine Deer
The legend that Su Dan was suckled by a divine deer in infancy.
Planting Oranges to Drive Away Plague
The legend type in which Su Dan plants oranges to drive away plague and cures illness with the spring water of the Orange Well.
The “Orange Well's Sweet Spring” Site and Sacrifices at the Orange Well
The “Orange Well's sweet spring” site on the campus of Chenzhou No. 1 Middle School and the local sights and sacrificial activities of the Orange Wells in Leiyang and Liuyang.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Judging from the legends recorded in documents of successive ages and collected orally, the Suxian legend may be divided into many types, such as the miraculous-conception birth type, the planting-oranges-to-drive-away-plague type, the filial son longing for his mother type and the immortals contending in magic type; variant texts are plentiful, and Chenzhou has collected seventy-two oral texts in all. The Orange Well, an important marker of the Suxian legend, is widely distributed: within the campus of Chenzhou No. 1 Middle School there is the “Orange Well's sweet spring” site, and Leiyang and Liuyang still have Orange Wells and list them among the eight local scenic spots. The Suxian legend has regional characteristics and carries the meaning of filial piety, Daoism and Chinese medicine; it has a profound influence and is deeply loved by the people.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In the course of several thousand years of transmission the Suxian legend has been deeply loved by the people and has spread widely, becoming an important cultural marker of the Chenzhou region; its lineage of transmission is clear, its tellers numerous, its episodes narrated completely and its telling vivid.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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