LI T'IEH-KUAI

Pinyin Li Tieguai, in Chinese mythology, one of the Pa Hsien, the Eight Immortals. He was an ascetic for 40 years, often foregoing food and sleep, until Lao-tzu (also surnamed Li) agreed to return to earth and instruct his fellow clansman on worldly vanities. Returning one day from a celestial visit to his master, Li found his earthly body had been cremated by a disciple to whom it had been entrusted. He thereupon assumed a new identity by entering the deformed body of a beggar who had died of hunger. Li is thus depicted in art as an old man with an iron crutch (t'ieh kuai), a gourd often slung over his shoulder or held in his hand. The gourd served as a bedroom for the night and held medicine, which Li dispensed with great beneficence to the poor and needy. See also Pa Hsien.