Many people say that the Immortal Li T’ie-kuai was once an ordinary man. One day he bought some garlic in the street and put it in his bag, which he carried over his shoulder. He was passing a temple of the Earth God, when he saw several Immortals eating red pills of immortality. He wanted to eat some too, but could think of no way of arranging it. Suddenly he had an idea; he tapped his bag and said to them: ‘The pills that you are eating are too small; just look how big my pills of immortality are. I will help you to eat up your little ones, and then you can have some of my big ones.’ Seeing the pills in his bag, the Immortals invited him to come and eat with them, and Li shoved the pills into his mouth with both hands and laughed inwardly, because he could not laugh openly with his mouth full. Soon all the little pills were gone and the Immortals said to Li: ‘Now let us have your big pills.’ Li opened his bag, tipped his garlic out, and said with a laugh: ‘Make a good meal now.’ The Immortals were not annoyed at being deceived, but climbed on to a cloud and flew off to the Mountain of the Volcano, and having eaten the red pills, Li T’ie-kuai was able to go with them. When they arrived at the Volcano, the Immortals flew very high; but Li being only a beginner could not reach great heights, and he lost one of his legs, which was burnt off in the fire. That is why he has a poisoned leg.
Other people say that, when he was young, he was very poor, and his mother ordered him to go into the hills every day to collect wood. The wood that he collected, though, was only suffi- cient for one day, which caused his aunt to say: ‘What are we going to burn when it rains?’ One day it really did rain and there was no wood in the house. His aunt cursed him: ‘Lazy devil,’ she said, ‘to-day we will use your foot as fuel.’ Now Li T’ie-kuai had already learnt some tricks from the Immortals in the hills, so he went to the fireplace, sat down, and stuck his foot into the fire, which blazed up much brighter than with wood. When his aunt saw him she shouted out: ‘Are you mad? I was only joking when I said you ought to stoke the fire with your foot; I didn’t mean it seriously,’ and at the same time she pulled his foot out of the fire. But that was a grave mistake, because the bottom part of the leg fell off and naturally became poisoned. If his aunt had not pulled it out, he could have taken it out when the food was cooked and there would have been nothing to see. The aunt used the burnt-off leg to brush up the cinders.