Mythological Novels as Biographies of Supernatural Beings and Cao Zhi's Poetry about Immortals

Cao Zhi was the first poet who writes poems about immortals.He wrote 11 such poems that can be found including Go up to the Sky(升天行) and Poem about Immortals(游仙诗),accounting for almost one-sixth of his creations.It is commonly thought that Cao Zhi' s poetry about immortals is affected by Qu Yuan' s poem of Travel Faraway(远游).Meantime,the idea of supernatural beings of Taoism since the Han dynasty also impacts the formation of his creation.The descriptions of immortals in mythological novels in biography of supernatural beings and the complicated fairyland provide rich material for the creation of such poems.Their literariness is thus improved.