In Journey to the West, it was actually Xu Xian who gave the idea to Sun Wukong to take charge of the Peach Garden!
(If it is said that Xu Xian once appeared in Journey to the West, you will definitely not believe it. But in fact, the prototype of Xu Xian in The Legend of White Snake did evolve from this immortal who only appeared once in Journey to the West , and he was also called Xu Xian)
Sun Wukong finally became the Monkey King and no longer raised horses, but he was too busy with nothing to do, so someone came out and suggested finding something for him to do.
Who is this person?
His surname is Xu, and people in the world call him Xu Xian, that’s his old man!
Of course, Xu Xian is just a title, many people call him Xu Jingyang (but this is not his name, just because he was the magistrate of Jingyang County, so everyone calls him that), and there are more Many people call him Xu Zhenjun, but his real name is actually Xu Xun - the pronunciation of this name is very close to that of Xu Xian. Is it because of this that it is gradually pronounced as Xu Xian? Because the word "Xun" has more strokes and is a little less popular, while the word "Xian" has fewer strokes and is more common!
So where did Xu Xian come from? Nanchang, Jiangxi. When? The second year of Chiwu in the Eastern Wu Dynasty was the year when Cao Rui died in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Sima Yi and Cao Shuang joined hands to assist the government.
So how did Xu Xian attain enlightenment? It is said that he once went hunting in the mountains and shot a doe with a bow and arrow. It happened to be a doe that was giving birth. At that moment, the deer was aborted, and the doe died licking her calf. This scene is obviously It greatly shocked the archer named Xu Xun at that time. He broke the crossbow in his hand and went to become a disciple to practice Taoism. After completing his studies, he lived in seclusion in a place called Xiaoyao Mountain near Nanchang. It was not until the Taikang period of the Western Jin Dynasty that the imperial court repeatedly invited him to serve as an official, and he was forced to serve as the county magistrate of Jingyang (in Sichuan).
In Jingyang, Xu Xian became famous, firstly because he dared to eliminate corrupt officials; secondly, because of a flood one year, he asked the victims to farm in official fields and harvest Half of it went to the government and half to the victims, so many people survived; the third thing was that the plague was prevalent, and the local people survived because of his elixir (of course it was actually medical technology) (so did Xu Xian in the Legend of White Snake) A doctor seems to have something to do with this).
Of course, one person’s medical skills and kindness cannot change the world. When Xu Xian predicted that the world was about to be in chaos (followed by the Eight Kings Rebellion, the Five Husbands' Rebellion, and the North-South War, it took until the Sui and Tang Dynasties to slowly recover), he decided to resign and return to his countryside to live in seclusion. Many people traveled thousands of miles to follow him, and for a time he was known as "Xujiaying".
There are naturally stories after that. For example, there was a dragon causing trouble in Poyang Lake. It was actually a big crocodile or a python, and it was Xu Xian who subdued it. I don’t know if this is related to the later Legend of the White Snake.
So, how many years did Xu Xian live? It is said that he was exactly one hundred and thirty-six years old. In the second year of Ningkang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (374), that is, when a violent armed force called the "Huns" appeared in the far west and swept across the Roman Empire, Xu Xun was born in this year. On the first day of August, he led 42 people in his family to fly into the sky and become immortals - this is why Lao Xu became Xu Xian.
It is precisely because of these that Xu Xian, who appears in "Journey to the West", is one of the four great heavenly masters in Taoism (the other three are Zhang Tianshi, Ge Tianshi, and Sa Tianshi).
Xu Xian once left a song to the world. The words are simple, but every sentence makes sense. You may wish to read it:
"With bad intentions, feng shui is useless; if parents are unfilial, worshiping gods is useless." "If brothers are at odds, it is useless to make friends; if they behave badly, it is useless to study; if they are arrogant, it is useless to be knowledgeable; if they are arrogant, it is useless to be clever; if they are eccentric, it is useless to take medicine; if the fortune is not good, it is useless to seek in vain; to take money from others in vain, and to give is useless."
Naturally, the evolution of the story is often unexpected. Later, Feng Menglong wrote "The White Snake Will Always Suppress Lei Feng", and Xu Xian's name changed from Xu Xun to Xu Xuan (the pronunciation is still very Close), the plot has also undergone a sudden change in the hands of the novelist, from Xu Xun killing the snake to a love story in which Xu Xuan meets the thousand-year-old white snake, and the bad guy actually turned into a monk named Fahai.
In the end, the story location was moved to the more romantic West Lake Hangzhou, and Xu Xuan became Xu Xian again. In fact, when you read The Legend of White Snake, you may find it a bit strange. How can an ordinary doctor be called Xu Xian? In fact, it is just a remnant of an ancient story here: He was not an ordinary doctor, but a Heavenly Master!