Li Tieguai

The Immortal of the Iron Crutch

Domain: Medicine, the Poor & Eccentricity
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Element: Fire
Relics of Power: Gourd of Medicine

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4 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Chinese

Region

China

Period

c. 1600 BC – present

The Chinese deities bring together traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion, worshipped for millennia across China. Presided over by the Jade Emperor, they form a vast celestial bureaucracy mirroring the earthly empire. They are honored in temples, at Chinese New Year, and at the altars of homes and ancestors.

Chinese New Year greets the gods with fireworks, dancing lions, and offerings to the Kitchen God, who ascends to heaven to report on the family's conduct. The Dragon Boat Festival honors the poet Qu Yuan, and at Qingming families sweep the tombs and venerate the ancestors.

At a glance

Li Tieguai is the venerable Taoist hermit of healing medicine, master of spiritual transmutation, and the first and most ancient patriarch among China's celebrated Eight Immortals (Baxian). A direct disciple of Laozi on the mountains of Huashan, he originally possessed a human body of noble beauty and martial vigor; however, during a journey in which his soul (yuanshen) projected itself into the celestial realms, his disciple hastened and cremated his carnal physical body prematurely. Forced to anchor his spirit in the freshly dead corpse of a lame and starving beggar so as not to perish in the cosmic ether, he was consoled by Laozi, who gave him an unbreakable magical iron crutch and a celestial golden gourd (hulu) from which healing vapors and balms emanate that eliminate every infirmity, transforming outward frailty into the supreme triumph of compassion and inner virtue. His iron crutch and his medicinal gourd welcome the needy with eternal tenderness and true healing.

14 min read · Reviewed on September 28, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The iron crutch, the medicinal gourd, the limping gait and the beggar's rags

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Wu Yuantai, Dongyouji. translation: Philip Clart, 2020.
Wang Shizhen, Liexian Quanzhuan. translation: Lionel Giles, 1948.
Li Fang, Taiping Guangji. translation: Burton Watson, 1968.
Anônimo, Taiji Xianji. translation: Kristofer Schipper, 1993.

Studies

Henri Maspero, Taoism and Chinese Religion. University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.
Isabelle Robinet, Taoism: Growth of a Religion. Stanford University Press, 1997.
E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China. George G. Harrap & Co., 1922.
Kristofer Schipper, The Taoist Body. University of California Press, 1993.

Name and epithets

The popular divine name Li Tieguai (李鐵拐) is composed of the lineage surname Li (李), the word tie (鐵), meaning solid cast iron, and guai (拐), which denotes a crutch, support staff or curved walking stick, literally trans…

In the ancient sources

Dongyouji., 16th century CE.. Classical novel by Wu Yuantai narrating the projection of the soul, the burning of the body and the reincarnation in the beggar. Liexian Quanzhuan., 1598 CE..

The myths

The Astral Projection Yuanshen and the Disciple's Premature Funeral Pyre.. In the classical epic Dongyouji by Wu Yuantai and in the canonical chronicles of the Liexian Quanzhuan, it is related that the sage Li Xuan was…

Worship and archaeology

The cult and popular veneration of Li Tieguai constitute one of the most deeply rooted and revered prophylactic and therapeutic traditions of all traditional Chinese society, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong and in overseas comm…

How the god was depicted

The iconographic representation of Li Tieguai in classical Chinese painting on silk scrolls, in the monumental Yuan-dynasty frescoes of the Yongle Palace and in the bronze and ceramic sculptures of Shiwan is one of the…

What scholars debate

The Liberation of the Corpse Shijie in Medieval Taoist Alchemy.. Historians of religious ideas and internationally renowned sinologists such as Henri Maspero, Isabelle Robinet and Livia Kohn analyze the myth of Li Tiegu…

After antiquity

In contemporary modernity and in Asian and global visual culture, Li Tieguai enjoys charisma, popularity and artistic appeal beyond compare.

Did you know?

The magic hulu gourd carried by Li Tieguai became the universal symbol of pharmacies and traditional medicine in China and East Asia.

Codex relic

Gourd of Medicine. A magic gourd from which flow remedies and a smoke that frees the soul from the body.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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