If you want to choose a Taoist immortal with the greatest influence among the people, I'm afraid it must be Lv Dongbin. In the history of Taoism in China, there are only a handful of Taoists who can compare with him, such as Qiu Chuji and Zhang Sanfeng. Lv Dongbin not only occupies a high position in Taoism, but is also considered as one of the founders of Quanzhen Taoism. He is also the most legendary person of the Eight Immortals.
The combination of the Eight Immortals is not an orderly Taoist school, but a combination of Yuan and Ming scholars through "Lang Lang Pei". One of them was in the east and the other was in the west. To make these people become a crew, there must be a central figure, and this central figure is undoubtedly Lv Dongbin. Why do you say that? The reason is simple, because Lv Dongbin is the one who has the most contact with the other seven immortals. Of all the stories of the Eight Immortals that have been handed down to this day, Lv Dongbin has the most mentoring relationship with each other, followed by Zhong Liquan. Others are either "single-line contact" or irrelevant. In the legend of the Yuan Dynasty, Lv Dongbin was the master of Li Tie monster, but in the Ming Dynasty, Li Tie monster became his master. Zhong Liquan was recognized as Lv Dongbin's master in Yuan Dynasty, and it was probably because of this relationship that he became a member of the Eight Immortals. He Xiangu is a disciple of Lv Dongbin, while Cao Guojiu and Han Xiangzi are classmates of Lv Dongbin and Zhong Liquan. Even Liu Haichan, who once entered the ranks of the Eight Immortals, was also a disciple of Lv Dongbin. Therefore, the central figure of the Eight Immortals is Lv Dongbin, who gradually formed this small group of Eight Immortals through his own clues.
There are different opinions about origin and resume.
When was Lv Dongbin from? Where is your native place? What is your background and resume? Because there are too many legends, these problems have not been determined so far. Although many people think that Lv Dongbin came from the Tang Dynasty, they have not given a convincing basis. There is no record of Lv Dongbin in the Tang literature. It was not until the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty that the legend of Lv Dongbin began to appear, and its spread was limited to Taoism and some folk areas. Before the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, his name was not widely known. At that time, there was a joke that the court wanted to arrest Lv Dongbin.
The Collection of Anecdotes in the History of the Song Dynasty quoted memoirs as saying that there was a warlock named Li Jiao during the reign of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty who learned some deviant methods and often ran amok with a group of hooligans. One day, he came to a brothel, and with a stroke of a pen, wrote the number "Lv Dongbin and Li Jiao travel together" on the wall, which made people think that he was a living fairy. Later, Wang rebelled. He heard that Li Jiao had the highest Daoism, and claimed that Li Jiao was his own strategist. The court also heard that there was witchcraft in Li Jiao, and saw the inscription of Li Jiao in a brothel, and immediately posted a notice to hunt down Li Jiao and Lv Dongbin. After putting down Wang Ze's rebellion, I realized that Wang Ze didn't have a strategist named Li Jiao at all, but Lv Dongbin was still hunted down. It was not until I knew that there was no such person as Lv Dongbin that the arrest warrant was revoked.