While Lu Dongbin is often considered as the informal leader of the Eight Immortals, it is Zhongli Quan who is their official leader. Zhongli Quan is most frequently depicted with a bare belly and a huge (breath-full) chest. He carries a fan which has the power to resurrect the dead.
At the time of Zhongli Quan’s birth, bright beams of light filled the room. As a newborn, he didn’t utter a single sound (no laughing, no crying, no newborn chortling) until he was seven days old. On that day, after only a week in his new human form, Zhongli Quan sprang to his feet and exclaimed:
"My feet have wandered in the purple palace of the hsien (i.e. the Immortals),
My name is recorded in the capital of the Jade Emperor."
This story of Zhongli Quan’s birth reminds me of the birth-story of Shakyamuni Buddha:
The Buddha then took seven steps in each of the four directions and each footprint became a lotus. Then He looked East and said, "From this point on I am the arising of enlightenment." Looking South he exclaimed,"From this point I will achieve complete knowledge, both ordinary and extraordinary." Then he looked to the West, saying, "From this point I am born to be the cure of suffering and completing this, my last lifetime, I will dissolve." Finally, he looked North and said, "From this point, in my life I will completely purify all of my karmic obscurations."
