Li Tieguai, one of the Eight Immortals

Li Tieguai is one of the Eight Great Immortals of Chinese Daoist tradition. He appears here as an elderly beggar with bulging eyes, a deformed head, and elongated ears. Li’s body had once been physically robust and attractive. What happened? According to the story, Li made a spiritual journey from earth to heaven, as was customary for Daoist meditators. While on his journey, Li Tieguai’s physical body seemed to be dead. Noting the insensate condition of his master, one of Li’s disciples cremated his apparently deceased body. Upon Li’s return from heaven, he could not enter or even find his own original body. Hence, he had to enter the only body nearby: that of a recently deceased beggar, represented in this sculpture. Thus while Li Tieguai formerly had a beautiful ordinary body, he now acquired a divine body—one whose apparent distortions simultaneously conceal and reveal his status as an immortal.