Lan Caihe
Lan Caihe (藍采和; pinyin: Lán Cǎihé; Wade-Giles: Lan Ts'ai-ho) is the least known of the Eight Immortals. Lan Caihe's age and sex are unknown. The deity could be a hermaphrodite, but in the form most well-known he is a young effeminate boy or youth carrying a bamboo flower basket.
He was from Tang Dynasty. His/her behaviour was out of norm and known for its bizarreness. He wore only shorts and thin shirts in winter, and thick jacket and long pants in summer. He walked with one foot bare and another with shoe.
Member of the Eight Immortals
Lan Caihe is one of the illustrious Eight Immortals (Ba Xian), a group of Daoist/folk deities who play an important role in Chinese religion and culture. While they are famed for espousing and teaching Daoist philosophy and cultivation practices, they are also figures of popular myth and legend that are known for their devotion to the downtrodden and their collective lifestyle of “free and easy wandering.” Though they are most often depicted and described in the context of their group, each has their own particular set of tales, iconography, and areas of patronage. Each of these three elements will be elaborated on below.
Depiction
He is variously portrayed as a youth, an aged man, or a girl; in modern pictures generally as a girl. His distinctive emblem is a flower-basket, often carried slung on a hoe over his shoulder. The basket contains various flora associated with ideas of longevity.
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