The Lü Dongbin 吕洞宾 One of the Eight Immortals in Taoism

Lü Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals in Taoism and one of the Five Northern Patriarchs of the Quanzhen School, whose magic weapon is a long sword. According to legend, Lü Dongbin was extremely intelligent from childhood: he could memorize ten thousand words a day, never forgot what he had seen, and could speak eloquently. When he grew up, "he was eight feet two inches tall, fond of wearing a Huayang scarf on his head, a yellow-lined shirt, and a black sash around his waist, looking like Zhang Zifang. He remained unmarried at the age of twenty." Master Mazu Daoyi saw him and said, "This boy has an extraordinary bone structure, though he is currently in the midst of worldly affairs. In the future, when he meets someone surnamed Lu, he will settle down; when he encounters someone surnamed Zhong, he will seek guidance. He should keep this in mind."

In the first year of Baoli in the Tang Dynasty (825), Lü Dongbin passed the imperial examination and became a jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination). He held an official position for a period of time, but soon grew tired of official life, abandoned his official post to embrace Taoism, and lived in seclusion in the mountains (another saying is that he failed the examination, lost his ambition for an official career). Once, while visiting a tavern in Chang'an, he met Zhongli Quan (Han Zhongli). After going through "ten trials", Zhongli Quan "taught him the way of the golden elixir, and thus he obtained the Taoist method", finally becoming an immortal.