Cao Guojiu

The standard story: Cao Guojiu's younger brother, trading on his imperial kinship, tyrannized the people and seized their fields. Repeatedly remonstrated, the brother instead counted Cao Guojiu an enemy. So he gave away his fortune to the poor, put on Taoist robes, and hid in the mountains. There Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin asked him: "Where is the Way?" He pointed to the sky, then to his heart — "The heart is the sky; the sky is the Way," laughed Zhongli Quan. "You have seen its truth." They taught him the Secret Purport of Returning to the Real and admitted him to the immortals.[3][2]

In the Miraculous Transformations strand he held an imperial gold tally inscribed "Wherever the Guojiu goes, it is as if We come in person"; unwilling to abuse such privilege, he threw it into the Yellow River — whereupon Lü Dongbin appeared: "It is I; I have come to deliver you." Ming books such as the Traces of Immortals and Buddhas add a murderous brother, Cao Jingzhi, brought to justice by Judge Bao — his legend is entangled with courtroom tales of imperial kin breaking the law.[3][4]

The Complete Biographies of the Assorted Immortals preserves another version of the exchange: Chunyang asked "I hear you cultivate — what do you nourish?" "I nourish the Way." "Where is the Way?" He pointed to the sky. "Where is the sky?" He pointed to his heart — Zhongli laughed: "The heart is the sky; the sky is the Way — you have seen your original face." The wording differs among versions, but the gesture of pointing at sky and heart never varies.[9]

Chapter 45 of Journey to the East, "The Guojiu Studies the Way and Ascends," gives his reason for leaving the world: his younger brother Cao Er, "relying on imperial kinship, indulged a domineering nature, seized people's fields for his own gain, and took their sons and daughters for his amusement." Cao Guojiu "first admonished him with all his strength, but could not change his evil; then punished him, and was made his enemy" — persuasion failed, punishment turned the brother against him.[10]

He sighed: "The principle of the world: those who accumulate good prosper, those who accumulate evil perish ... Our family amassed hidden merit and so enjoys today's wealth and rank. But my brother's evil is now extreme; though he may escape the visible law, he cannot escape heaven's net. Should disaster fall and the house be ruined, then to want to take my yellow dog out the East Gate would be impossible — I am ashamed and afraid." — "the yellow dog out the East Gate" echoes the last words of the Qin chancellor Li Si, the eternal lesson that wealth and rank end in nothing. So he "gave away all his wealth to relieve the poor," left family and friends, put on Taoist robes alone, and hid in the mountains, "until in a few years his heart merged with the Way and his form dissolved with the spirit." Note that this chapter has no Judge Bao trial — the murder-and-kidnapping case belongs to a different cycle, and the two traditions merged only later.[10]

Chapter 49 of the Ming courtroom novel Hundred Cases of Judge Bao, "The Case of Cao Guojiu Is Tried on the Spot," tells a grimmer tale: in the Huangyou era of Emperor Renzong, the Chaozhou scholar Yuan Wenzheng came to the capital for the examinations with his wife Zhang and their three-year-old son; the Second Imperial Kinsman of the Cao house, taken by Zhang's beauty, invited them to a feast, strangled Yuan with a hemp rope after plying him with wine, beat the three-year-old to death as well, threw both into the Qionghua well in the back garden, and seized Zhang. Returning from the frontier, Judge Bao met a whirlwind at a stone bridge and sent men to chase it; it stopped over the Cao mansion — whose gate was inscribed "whoever looks in shall have his eyes cut out," and an old man wept: "women of beauty are simply carried off into the house."[7]

Bao tried the wronged ghost by night and, pretending gold lay in the well, tricked his runners into fishing out the two corpses. The Second Guojiu, ordered by his elder brother to silence Zhang, "could not bear it, seeing how beautiful she was," and the steward Zhang Gong suggested throwing her into an old well — but secretly freed her with ten taels of silver. Zhang, mistakenly stopping the elder Guojiu's horse to lodge a complaint, was knocked senseless with an iron whip, robbed, and dumped in a lane, saved by a Mrs. Wang. Bao then feigned illness to lure the elder Guojiu into his mansion — Zhang stepped out from behind the screen and accused him, and he was jailed in heavy cuffs; a forged letter in the elder's hand, "the Lady Dowager is gravely ill," brought the Second Guojiu back by night; Zhang faced him in the hall, and "his face turned the color of earth" as he too was taken.[7]

The amnesty covered only "criminals of the Eastern Capital and the two Imperial Kinsmen"; Bao defied the order — "all are the emperor's people; I will not pardon them all!" — and beheaded the Second Guojiu first. Freed by the general amnesty, the elder Guojiu "returned to his wife and wept in each other's arms," declaring "unworthy as I am, I have deeply shamed my parents ... I willingly return my office and retire to the mountains to cultivate." He met a true man later and entered the immortals. The Ming chantefable The Ballad of Judge Bao Judging the Cao Guojiu Case is blunter still: the mansion gate warned "whoever speaks of the gate shall have his tongue cut out," and the Lady Dowager, leaning on "my sister is the empress," called Bao a "foolish Bailiff Bao." In this cycle, Cao Guojiu's awakening comes at the edge of life and death — from shielding a killer to surrendering his office, the immortal destiny appears in a single turn of mind.[7][8]

Cao Guojiu is shown in official's robes with jade belt and clappers — the only Immortal to keep a mandarin's dress, pointing to his imperial birth. In the Hidden Eight Immortals system the clappers stand for him — "The jade clappers harmonize, and all sounds grow pure" — signifying purification.[3][1][2]

He is the patron deity of opera actors. In the Penglai version of the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, when the dragon kings raised great waves, Cao Guojiu led the way with jade clappers at his chest, the waves parting so the company passed unharmed.[2][6]

Cao Guojiu is the latest member to appear in the company. "Guojiu" means the empress's brother: the History of Song records Cao Yi — "courtesy name Gongbo, grandson of Prince Bin of Han, younger brother of Empress Cisheng Guangxian" — who lived to seventy-two, "sparing of faults and good at keeping himself safe": a real historical man, but the History of Song records no cultivation.[3][5]

Scholars note the History of Song gives Empress Cao only an ordinary brother, Cao Xiu, while the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era knows an "immortal" Cao Xiu living from Cao-Wei to Tang — the prototype was likely pieced from these two. The first clear record of his deliverance is the "Delivering Cao Guojiu" transformation in Miao Shanshi's Yuan-dynasty Miraculous Transformations of the Divine Patriarch Chunyang.[5][4][3]