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Mircea Eliade – Shamanism Archaic techniques of ecstasy

The first man whom [Chinese] tradition credited with attaining the power to ‘fly’ was the Emperor Shun – 2258 to 2208 according to Chinese chronology.  The Emperor Yao’s daughters, Nu Ying and O Huang revealed to Shun the art of flying like a bird...............................

The Taoists and alchemists had the power to rise into the air.  Liu An, also known as Huai-nan (second century BC) ascended to heaven in broad daylight, and Li Shao-Kun (140-87 BC) boasted that he could rise beyond the ninth heaven.

‘We rise to heaven and brush away the comets’ said a shamaness in her song.

A long poem by Ch’u Yuan mentions numerous ascents to the ‘gates of heaven’, fantastic horseback journeys, ascent by the rainbow – all of them familiar motifs in shamanic folklore.  Chinese tales frequently refer to magicians’ exploits that are almost exactly like the legends that grew up around the fakirs; they fly to the moon, pass through walls, make a plant sprout and grow in an instant and so on.

Source B Laufer – The Prehistory of Aviation, and E Chavannes Les Memoires historiques de Se-ma-Ts’ien