Ten Trials of Lü Dongbin

Testing the Would-Be Immortal

Han Zhongli tests Lü Dongbin ten times with wealth, desire and death; Lü passes all.

Before Han Zhongli accepts Lü Dongbin as his disciple, he tests the would-be immortal again and again: gold to tempt his honesty, a beautiful woman to tempt his virtue, thieves, poison, ghosts and a trial for murder to tempt his calm — even the reported deaths of his whole family fail to shake him. Lü passes every ordeal, and Zhongli at last grants him the art of turning base metal to gold and the secrets of the higher alchemy. Later hagiography fixed the count at ten trials, making patience under temptation the very gate through which a man becomes one of the Eight Immortals.