八仙过海英语故事

THE EIGHT IMMORTALS CROSS THE SEA

Legends about the Eight Immortals started to circulate orally long ago among the people and were recorded in the works of writers of various dynasties - Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming. But it was only with Wu Yuantai of the Ming dynasty who wrote The Emergence of the Eigbt lmmortals and Their Travels to the East that the Eight began to be clearly distinguished as the following.

1) Tieguai Li (also called Li Tieguai, meaning Li with the Iron Crutch) was a lay Taoist by the name of Li Xuan who received his Enlightenment from the Supreme Patriarch of Taoism himself. Once his soul left his body to travel abroad but had to enter the corpse of a starved beggar when he found his own body mistakenly burnt by his disciple. He then had an earthly form with unkempt hair, a dirty face, a bare abdomen and a crippled leg. He blew water on the beggar's bamboo cane, changing it into an iron cane or crutch. Hence his popular name. He is also ge