Chang Kuo-lao

grew a new set of teeth. He gained immortality through the study of nature’s secrets. He plays the Yu Ku, shaped like a large bamboo tube with two rods to beat it, and travels the countryside astride a white mule that he folds and slips in his wallet at journey’s end. One day, to test his magical powers, the emperor fed him a poison that blackened and shrivelled his teeth. He knocked them out with a staff and rubbed a magical ointment into his gums. Slowly a new set of teeth appeared— as white and glistening as jade