Li A李阿

Style & Daoist names

Li Babai (later conflated with other figures)

Period

Late Han and Three Kingdoms (Shu)

Dates

? — ?

School

Fangxian Dao (Way of the Fangshi and Immortality-seekers)

Role

Fangshi (Master of Methods)Figure in Immortal Biographies

Birthplace

Shu (present-day Sichuan)

Life

Li A, a fangshi of Shu in the late Han, appears in Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan. Tradition holds that he habitually begged for food in the markets of Chengdu, giving away all the money and goods he received to others, and that his appearance did not change for decades, so that the people of Shu saw him generation after generation and called him 'the eight-hundred-year-old elder' — a name later confused with the legend of 'Li Babai.' The Shenxian Zhuan records that disciples such as Gu Qiang and Li Kuan followed him to inquire about the Dao, and that he mostly responded by changing his expression rather than speaking, regarded as the model of an immortal who taught without words. The value of the record of Li A lies in what it reflects of the religious ecology of late-Han Shu, where folk magical arts coexisted with the early Way of the Celestial Masters: in the same region where the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice arose, legends of solitary immortals marked by market begging and agelessness were simultaneously active, and the two intermingled in both personnel and techniques. Li A himself left no writings, and his story rests entirely on hagiography, making him a legendary figure; his name was absorbed by later Daoism, and sites such as the Li Babai Cave and Li Babai Shrine in the Sichuan region are popularly attributed to him.

Contributions & Influence

• A representative figure of the legend of solitary immortals in late-Han Shu, reflecting the interaction between early Daoism and folk magical arts
• His disciple Li Kuan carried the Daoist arts of Shu eastward into Jiangnan, a legendary link in the eastward spread of the Way of the Celestial Masters

Legends

Begging in Chengdu, remaining ageless for decades, responding to people with changes of expression rather than speech, and later entering Mount Qingcheng and vanishing without a trace — all derive from the Shenxian Zhuan and are legendary. His conflation with names such as 'Li Babai' and 'Li Tuo' is the result of later accretion.