Lü Dongbin

Lü Dongbin (呂洞賓 in pinyin: lü dong4 bin1) is the most widely known of the Eight Immortals and hence considered by some to be the de facto leader. (The formal leader is Zhongli Quan.) His name is Lü Yan (巖 or 岩 yan2). Dongbin is his courtesy name. He called himself Chunyang Zu (純陽子 chun2 yang2 zi3), and is called Originator Lü (呂祖 lü zu3) in Daoism. He was born in Jingzhao Unit (京兆府 jing1 zhao4 fu3) in the Tang Dynasty. His tool is a sword, which dispels evil.

When he was born, a fragrance filled the room. He was still unmarried by the age of 20, which is considered quite late already in ancient China. He tried to take the civil service exam to become an official, twice, but did not succeed.

A night when Lü Yan was in Chang'an or Handan (邯鄲 han2 dan1), he dreamed of that he took the imperial exam and excelled, hence was awarded a prestigious office, and was promoted to be the vice-minister (侍郎). Then he married the daughter of a prosperous household and had a son and a daughter. He was promoted again to be the prime minister. However, his success and luck attracted jealousy of others and was accused of crimes that caused him to loss his office. His wife then betrayed him. His children were killed, and he lost all his wealth and was dying on the street when he woke up. Although in dream, eighteen years passed, the whole dream happened in reality during the time of cooking yellow millet. Actually, characters from his dream are actually Zhongli Quan. He then went with Zhongli Quan to discover the Dao. This dream is known as "Dream of the Yellow Millet" (黃粱夢 huang2 liang2 meng4) and is described in a writing compiled by Ma Zhiyuan (馬致遠 ma3 zhi4 yuan3) in Yuan Dynasty.

In volume 82 of Song's Li Fang (李昉 li3 fang3)'s Extensive Records of Taiping (《太平廣記》), an earlier version of the story, Lü Dongbin was replaced by Student Lu (盧生 lu2 sheng2), and Zhongli Chuan by Old Man Lü (呂翁 lü weng1).

The kindness of Lü Dongbin is demonstrated in the Chinese proverb "dog bites Lu Dongbin" (狗咬呂洞賓 goy3 yao3 ~), which means an inability to recognizes goodness and repays kindness with vice.

Depiction

Dressed as a scholar, he holds a sword.