Page 206 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 199

Li Tie-guai with his bottle-gourd and bat

Liu Hai

This god is usually depicted as a young man, standing on a three-legged toad and
swinging a string of coins ( money) round him. There are all sorts of legends about
him. Some say he was in the service of the Jin Dynasty, and became a minister at the age
of fifty. Then he met two holy men who asked him to give them a coin and ten eggs.
They proceeded to stand the eggs one upon the other on the coin, and when Liu Hai said
that this was rather a risky thing to do, they answered that it was no riskier than the way
he was earning his living in the service of princes. His eyes were opened, and he became
a Taoist. Liu Hai is always regarded as a benevolent deity.