In folklore, what is the origin of tie Guai Li? What are the folk stories?

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Tieguaili is the first of the Eight Immortals in Chinese folklore and Taoism. The following is a short edition of China story network, which brings you relevant content to share with you.

Among the eight immortals, tie Guai Li is the oldest and most senior one. However, his records appear later in the literature. The complete name “tie Guai Li” appeared for the first time in the Yuan drama “Lv Dongbin’s Du tie Guai Li Yue”.

There are also many theories about his origin.

According to the general examination of continued documents, in the Sui Dynasty, people were called flood, with small characters guai’er, also known as Tieguai. They often begged in the city and were inferior to others. Later, he threw an iron rod into the air to turn it into a dragon and rode away.

According to the examination of the mountain Hall: “Guai Xian was surnamed Li. I don’t know his name. He had foot disease for a long time. The mother of the Western King promoted him to be an immortal and granted him the leader of the Donghua cult with an iron Guai.” According to this theory, the queen mother of tie guai, Li Naixi, was enlightened and became an immortal. From then on, she became the leader of Donghua cult and was awarded an iron staff.

There is also a saying that his surname is Li Mingxuan, and he got his way when he met a great old gentleman. One day, he wandered to Mount Hua and asked his disciple not to return for seven days. However, the disciple wanted to return home because of his mother’s illness, and he was cured within six days. On the seventh day, Li Xuan returned with no return. He rose from the body of a lame beggar. He was unkempt and lame. The bamboo stick he leaned on with water turned into an iron crutch, so it was named Li Tieguai.

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In folklore, this story is interpreted in great detail:

Tie Guai Li, whose original name was Li Xuan, was a handsome and burly scholar. At that time, years of war and chaos made the people miserable. Li Xuan was disillusioned with the world of mortals and went to learn Taoism and visit immortals. A few years later, Li Xuan felt that he had little effect. One day, he realized the reason why he didn’t make progress: he didn’t have a famous teacher to guide him in practicing Taoism. With half the effort, he decided to follow Lao Tzu to learn Taoism. Li Xuan strolled around the stalagmite mountain in his spare time. Suddenly, he heard the sound of fairy music. Looking up, he saw that there were clouds in the sky, the glow was boundless, and there were thousands of auspicious colors. There was a green bull and a crane sitting on them respectively, the Supreme Lord and the two ancestors of wanqiu, The old gentleman smiled and said, “your Taoist skills have made great progress. It’s not easy. Wanqiu and I are going to travel around the world. If we want to take you with us, you must travel to our place in ten days. Don’t break the appointment. Remember.” After your words, the old gentleman drove away with his ox and crane.

In the twinkling of an eye, the ten day deadline had come. Tieguaili said to his disciple Yang Zi, “as a teacher, at the invitation of the teacher’s ancestor, the spirit left and the body remained here, you should take good care of it. If you don’t see my spirit return after seven days, it is enough to prove that the teacher has been listed in the immortal class, you will burn my body. If you spend seven days, remember!” With that, Li Xuan sat cross legged, his Qi sank in the Dantian, and the spirit came out of his body and floated away.

In the middle of the night of the sixth day, his apprentice Yangzi met a white haired old man in his sleep. The old man was kind-hearted, red faced, holding a handful of Buddhist dust, smiled and said to Yangzi, “your mother is going to die. Go back and give your mother filial piety.”

The dream was awakened by a burst of thunder. Yangzi thought back: “the old man must be a fairy.” He didn’t dare to be careless. He sighed that loyalty and filial piety were difficult to achieve. Master Tieguai liyuanshen has left for six days. I’m afraid he can’t come back. Besides, his mother’s life is in danger. I’d better cremate master and his old body. Yangzi knelt down in front of the master, kowtowed and wept, cremated the master, and then hurried home to visit his mother. As the old man said, his mother was dying and soon died.

In the evening of the seventh day, God Li Xuanyuan returned to the stalagmite mountain. As soon as he reached the sky above the stalagmite mountain, he smelled a smell of roast meat. He suddenly felt that something bad was happening. God yuan immediately fell to the sitting platform. He looked at it intently. As expected, his body had been incinerated, leaving only a charred body on the sitting platform. Just after the shock, he suddenly saw a beggar dying of hunger not far away, so he hurriedly attached to the body of the starving die. When he got up, he found that the starving corpse was lame. Just as he was about to leave, he heard the scolding voice of the supreme old gentleman from the top of the mountain: “this is the will of heaven, and it must not be violated.”. The Supreme Lord appeared and said, “Tao should be obtained from outside the appearance, not just from the appearance.”. As long as you achieve success, you will be a real immortal. “This preaching made him finally accept the body, so the supreme old gentleman gave him a gold band to tie his hair, gave Li xuantie a walking stick and a wine pot, and extradited Li Xuancheng. He rubbed his eyes with both hands and rubbed his eyes like two big holes, so he called himself Li kongmu. People often ignore his characteristics and only pay attention to the crutch leg, so they call him iron crutch Li.

After becoming an immortal, tie Guai and Li Jing specialized in pharmacology and refined a special ointment for rheumatism and bone pain. They helped save all living beings in the village and won the support of the people. It is said that there were magical pills in the gourd on his back, so he was named “medicine king”. Later, people engaged in the plaster industry in Chinese society regarded him as their own ancestor.

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Of course, there are some interesting folk stories.

It is said that before Tieguai lichengxian, he had a wife and a son. Tie Guai and Li are lame, and their families are surrounded by walls. It is new year’s Eve, but they don’t even have an oil lamp at home. His wife cried and said, “when my neighbor celebrates the new year, my family suffers from cold. My neighbor is bright, and my family has no lights.” Tieguaili listened, but closed his eyes and said nothing. After a while, he made a dummy out of wood to steal oil. When I arrived at my neighbor’s house in the middle of the night, I was afraid of being noticed, so I used a wooden man to enter the door to test. The neighbor did notice, waved a knife, fell to the ground, and ran away. After that, tie Guai Li sought immortality wholeheartedly, traveled all over the country to find immortality and visit Taoism, and finally became an immortal out of his body. His wife took pains to raise her son. On his son’s wedding day, tie Guai and Li came down to visit. However, they saw the house and the courtyard. The house was full of people. His wife was dressed brightly and was busy in the courtyard, entertaining guests. When Tieguai Li saw it, he sighed. He turned Tieguai into a pen and wrote a poem on the wall: “stealing lamp oil on the thirtieth night, cutting the wooden head with a steel knife, my children and grandchildren have their own blessings. Who can be a horse or ox for my children and grandchildren!” After writing, he took the crutch and left. When a guest saw him, he could not see the poet in the twinkling of an eye. In surprise, he shouted at the wall. His wife was shocked to learn that the husband had come. She went out to look for him. Outside the village, she saw his back. His white hair was like a broomstick, and he was lame and hunchbacked. Sure enough, he was an iron abductor, so she pursued him closely. The iron crutch Li broke the ground with a thunderbolt. The earth split into a valley. His wife was helpless and climbed on the ground crying. Suddenly, he saw the iron crutch Li throw away the crutch, turn the crutch into a dragon, and ride the Dragon away.

It is said that there was a wandering doctor in the Jianghu who was good at applying herbs to treat minor injuries such as bruises, stings and sores. The effect was average, but it was troublesome. However, he was kind-hearted and had quite a lot of medical ethics. As long as he came to the door, he treated it carefully, regardless of whether it was high or low. If the patient is poor and can’t afford to pay for the medicine, he won’t charge anything. When Tieguai Li learned that, he wanted to help the doctor, so he turned into a beggar and went to have a test on purpose. Tieguaili came to the doctor’s door, asked him to treat his lameness, and declared that he had no money to pay the medical expenses. Seeing that tie Guai Li was really poor, the visiting doctor did not say a word. He took the trouble to change the medicine for his legs every day. Who knows, the worse the leg gets, tie Guai Li yelled. The doctor felt guilty. He asked him to stay in a hotel and bought dog meat for him. After eating the dog meat, Tieguai Li also called his medicine fake. He poured the medicinal materials of the visiting doctor into the dog meat soup and stirred them. Then he put the burnt medicinal materials on the dog skin on the wall. He saw Tieguai Li dip a little on the dog skin and apply it on his lame leg. The visiting doctor was worried that Tieguai Li was scalded. He quickly uncovered the medicinal materials and found that his leg was completely healed. While the doctor was in a daze, tie Guai Li disappeared. The doctor realized that it was the immortal who was instructing him. Later, he used Professor Li’s method to cure people’s injuries, which was very effective. This may be the origin of the “dog skin plaster”. It’s just that some wandering doctors in the Jianghu are dishonest and unconscionable, and they concentrate on cheating, which has ruined the reputation of the “dog skin plaster”, making people listen to the “dog skin plaster” and equate it with cheating in the Jianghu. Disclaimer: the above content originates from the Internet, and the copyright belongs to the original author. Please inform us if your original copyright is infringed, and we will delete the relevant content as soon as possible.

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