Kay, so like, He Xiangu is the only female out of the 8 immortals, but she’s also really kick-ass. There are lots and lots of legends about her, so this is going to be kind of a long post.

So anyway, He Xiangu was born as He Hua, which means lotus in Chinese, and it kinda fits because later, when she became an immortal, she was always seen carrying a lotus flower.

When she was born, He Hua’s family was really poor, so she gave up all her meals and let her mum eat instead. (Hey, the Chinese are big on filial piety, so it’s gotta be put in a story somewhere.) And you know, in stories, rewards are usually given to good people, so when she was like, 14 or 15, she had a dream from this immortal to eat mica powder. I mean, if that happened to you or me, we’d be all, that shit is whack, yo! But she was pure and good and so managed to follow everything the immortal said, and after eating the powder, she was like, “OHAY, I feel so light and free,” which totally meant that she was free from all worldly desires.

And to prove that, she decided to stay a virgin, too.

When Empress Wu [awww yeah, that’s right, we’re talking about Wu Zetian here] heard about this, she summonned He Hua/Xiangu to the court ‘cause she was all, “That bitch has got immortality, and I totally gotta get this gift from her so I can rule forever, MUAHAHA.”

He Xiangu went to the palace anyways, and she kinda realized that Empress Wu just kind of wanted to rule China forever, and so she had to skedaddle. When she got there, she kind of said, “Woopsie, no immortality for you guys, kbye,” and ascended the heavens.

Now time for the other story. I like this one better, by the way.

Once upon a time, there was this really poor girl by the name of He Xiangu. She was so poor that she had to work for this miserly old woman, who treated her like shit. She had to do all the chores day in and out without a break, and was always beaten by the old woman. But y’know what? She was really kind and was always giving foodstuff to the poor people.

So one day, this old woman was making soy milk and she had to go out on some errands. She told Xiangu to watch the soy milk and basically, if anything was missing, Xiangu would get beaten up. Xiangu was all like, k, and watched it quietly.

But then, like it always goes in stories, 7 beggars showed up! They were all hungry and said, “Please Miss, give us some food or we’ll starve to death.” Xiangu was really torn now, because she didn’t like not helping people, but in this case, if she helped them, she would get beaten up. So she like, made a choice. She let them drink all the soy milk even thought she would get beat up anyways.

When the old woman came back, she yelled and beat up Xiangu because all the soy milk was gone, and told Xiangu to find those beggars. So Xiangu ran and ran and ran, and she found the beggars and told them to come back, so they were like, okay, because you helped us that sort of thing.

So when they got back to the house, the old woman was so mad, she told all the 7 beggars to puke out whatever they drank. They were all like, “seriously?” and she was all, yeah, so they did that. They puked all of it into a wok, and when they were like, done, the old woman said, “because you did all this shit, you totally gotta drink up their puke.” He Xiangu was real upset, but she draink it anyway.

After she drank it, she floated up into the sky, and the old woman was all, WTF? And she like totally realized that the 7 beggars were - guess who? - the other immortals, and they set up a test to prove that she was worthy.

And that was how He Xiangu came to be one of the immortals. She’s the patron saint for women, which is real important, and her lotus stick is said to be able to cure the sick.