In the ancient mists of the Tang Dynasty, upon the sacred slopes of Mount Dangshan in Anhui, lived a man of extraordinary grace and intellectual brilliance named Li Xuan. Before he became the legend known as Tieguai Li, or Iron Crutch Li, he was celebrated across the Middle Kingdom for his physical beauty, his piercing eyes, and his profound mastery of the Dao. Li Xuan was a scholar who had abandoned the vanity of the imperial courts to seek the eternal truths of the universe. He spent his days in meditation, his breath synchronized with the swaying of the bamboo forests, and his mind reaching out toward the celestial spheres where the Great Sage Laozi was said to dwell.
Li Xuan's progress in the arts of the Way was so rapid that he caught the attention of Lord Lao the Most High himself. One spring morning, as the sun began to peek through the jagged cliffs of Mount Dangshan, Li received a spiritual summons. He was invited to ascend to the celestial realm to study the higher mysteries with Laozi. This journey was not to be taken in the flesh, for the physical body is a heavy anchor that cannot easily float upon the currents of the high heavens. Instead, Li would use the advanced technique of 'Deliverance from the Corpse,' allowing his spirit, or 'hun,' to exit through the fontanelle of his skull and travel across the stars as a being of pure light.
However, this practice was fraught with danger. A spirit separated from its body for too long risks losing its connection to the mortal world, and a body left without a spirit is merely an empty vessel, vulnerable to the elements and to the predations of scavengers. To ensure his safety, Li Xuan called upon his most trusted disciple, a young man named Li Qing. The master gave the student a solemn command: 'My spirit shall leave this body for seven days to visit the Great Sage. You must guard my physical form with your life. Keep the incense burning and protect me from harm. If seven days pass and my spirit has not returned, only then are you permitted to conclude that I have ascended permanently to the ranks of the immortals. In that event, you must cremate this body and return to your village.'
Li Qing, honored by the trust placed in him, bowed low and promised to fulfill his duty. For five days, the disciple sat in the cave on the side of Mount Dangshan, watching over the motionless, beautiful form of his master. The body did not breathe, and its skin grew cold, but Li Qing remained vigilant. However, on the sixth day, a messenger arrived from Li Qing's home village with dire news. The disciple's mother, to whom he was fiercely devoted, was on her deathbed and calling for him with her final breaths. This created a terrible conflict of conscience for the young man. To stay meant violating his filial duty—the highest virtue in Chinese society—while to leave meant abandoning his sacred promise to his master.
Tormented by grief and the ticking of the clock, Li Qing reasoned that since six days had passed and his master had shown no sign of life, he might as well be dead. In a moment of desperation and sorrow, he decided he could wait no longer. To fulfill his duty to his mother and still provide his master with a proper burial, he gathered wood and built a funeral pyre. With tears streaming down his face, he ignited the flames on the sixth day—one day early—and watched as the handsome form of Li Xuan was reduced to a pile of gray ash. Once the task was done, the disciple fled down the mountain to reach his dying mother's side.
Meanwhile, in the celestial gardens of the heavens, Li Xuan was concluding his final lesson with Laozi. The Great Sage, knowing all that occurs in the mortal realm, smiled mysteriously and told Li that it was time to return. The spirit of Li Xuan descended from the clouds, riding the winds back toward the familiar peaks of Anhui. He arrived at the cave on the seventh day, expecting to find his vessel waiting and his disciple in prayer. Instead, he found only cold stones and a pile of ashes scattered by the mountain breeze. His physical form, the shell he had cultivated for decades, was gone.