孟州韓湘子是韓愈的侄孫（珍藏于水運村韓氏祠堂韓氏族譜為證），生于唐德宗年間（公元794年），30歲中進士，官至唐大理寺丞。從政期間，一身正氣，秉公執法，因看不慣朝中的腐敗，便棄官從道。傳說，韓湘子在家鄉期間常為鄉親們排憂解難，深受百姓愛戴。歷朝歷代的孟州百姓，對韓湘子遺德十分懷念。韓湘子的種種傳說，遠在明代幾位大作家成書之前，就已在百姓中廣為流傳。現收集整理的韓湘子傳說有21篇，這些來源于民間的傳說語言生動，內容豐富，故事性和趣味性極強，具有濃郁的地方特色。
     
    韓湘子傳說，具有濃厚的生活氣息，語言生動，樸實無華，具有較高的文學價值。傳說中不少內容具有較高的實用價值，其中對社會生活的演繹，可供今人分析學習借鑒，有的科技知識，可供人今學習運用。
        
    加大對韓湘子傳說的挖掘、保護和傳播，有利于弘揚中華民族傳統美德，鞭撻現實生活中丑惡現象，更好地強化和促進我國社會主義和諧社會的建設。
 
    2009年6月被河南省人民政府公布為第二批省級非物質文化遺產名錄。

         
    Han Xiangzi, also called Qingfu, is the nephew of the very famous poet and official Han Yv. It's said that he is one of the eight Taoism Gods, and he is the younger one with a purple-gold bamboo flute in hand. In folk tale, Han is a young man good at playing flute. According to the document, the original name of Han Xiangzi was Han Xiang, who had ever earned high marks in national oriented exam and been a national official in Tang Dynasty. Official historic documents doesn't record that he has ever cultivated himself according to Taoism and become a God. However, in other works, there are some records saying that Han Yv had a nephew who cultivated and became a God. Following people combine these two stories together and became the legend of Hang Xiangzi. 
    
     It's said that Han was born with immortal bones and was sick of the extravagance and dissipated things. He had ever met with two Taoist priests, Lv Dongbin and Zhong Hanli, and learned Taoism doctrines from them. Later, once he fell off from a peach tree when he tried to pick peachs and died and then he became a God. After his becoming God, he tried to cross over his uncle, Han Yv with three famous experiences: help pray for rain snow when the country was extremely dry with his magic arts; create new things with little foundation; predict his uncle's future with two poems written on flower petals. Then, he also crossed over Han Yv several times and he finally became a God, too.