This sat marks the feast day of Immortal Lu Dongbin aka Patriarch Lu Chunyang in Quanzhen Branch Taoism. It is His birthday, 14th of 4th lunar month.
Quanzhen branch Taoism holds him highly as one of the 5 Grandmaster of Quanzhen.
He was also the 'leader' in the 8 Immortals.
The legend of the 8 Immortal shows Lu Dongbin appearing later then some of the other immortals, but according to Orthodox Taoism's point of view, it was Han Zhongli(one of the 8 immortals, the one holding a big fan) who enlighthened Lu Dongbin and both of them enlightened the remaining 6 (Tie Guai Li, Zhang Guolao, Han XiangZi, Lan Cai He, He Xian Gu and Cao Guo Jiu).
There was a famous story that shows how Lu was enlightened. He, was made to sleep by Han Zhongli in a teahouse and Han was boiling some 'huang liang' wine. During Lu's sleep, he dreamt of how he became wealthy, achieve fame and power, got married and went successful n career. But later on, due to sabotage, he cause his whole family been put to death and he himself suffered alot. After the dream, he was shocked, Han was still boiling the wine and this story was known as the 'dream of huang liang'.
Lu Dongbin's idea was very much innovative, new and creative during his time. He was trained and well versed in swordplay. He devised a 3 step swordplay, which symbolizes - cutting off of 3 things - anger, attachment and ignorances.
He promoted cutivation of the inner and outer self at the same time and He not only understand Taoism but also Buddhism.
He was born on 798AD, Tang dynasty. After his demised, he, together with Lord Guan Gong and Guan Yin, Goddess of mercy become the most popular deity to the chinese.
He once made a vow, saying that he will only attain the highest enlightenment after all mankind achive the way of Tao.During his time, he wrote alot of poems and books.
