Dongfang Shuo (160 BC - ) was a courtier styled Manqian under the Han emperor Wu (r. 140-87). His brash self-confidence and ready wit won him special favour with the emperor. He served as Gentleman Attendant-in-ordinary then Superior Grand Master of the Palace.
There are many stories about him but most appear apocryphal. In the most famous, he thrice stole and ate some peaches of immortality bestowed by the Queen Mother of the West on the Emperor Wu and which ripen only once every 3,000 years.
In 138 BC an Imperial proclamation was issued, calling for men of parts to assist in the government of the empire, and in response Dongfang Shuo sent in an application which closed with the following words:
"I am now 22 years of age. I am nine feet three inches in height. My eyes are like swinging pearls, my teeth like a row of shells. I am as brave as Meng Ben, as prompt as Qing Ji, as pure as Bao Shuya, and as devoted as Wei Sheng. I consider myself fit to be a high officer of state; and with my life in my hand I await your Majesty's reply."
He received an appointment and before long was on intimate terms with the Emperor, whom he amused with his wit. On one occasion he drank some elixir of immortality which belonged to the Emperor. The enraged ruler ordered him to be put to death, but Dongfang Shuo smiled and said, "If the elixir was genuine, your Majesty can do me no harm; if it was not, what harm have I done?" This story has the ring of truth and may well have been transmuted into the peaches of immortality version.
His mother is said to have been a widow, who became pregnant by a miraculous conception and left home to give birth to her child at a place farther to the eastward, hence the name Dongfang. The boy himself was said to be the incarnation of the planet Venus, and to have appeared on earth in previous births as Feng Hou, Wu Cheng Zi, Lao Zi, and Fan Li. In his late years he fell out of favour and vented his feelings in spiteful essays on the wilfulness of princes.
The supernatural story certainly matches the cleverness of the solution. The version here is not quite the original but a form used by Fujisawa Hideyuki in his Tesuji Dictionary. It removes a couple of superfluous stones and makes the problem look even neater. It is also more of a tesuji problem than a life-and-death one.
