Liu Haichan
Taoist immortal
Liu Haichan (simplified Chinese: 刘海蟾; traditional Chinese: 劉海蟾; pinyin: Liú Hǎichán) was a (c. 10th century) Daoist xian ("transcendent; immortal") who was a patriarch of the Quanzhen School, and a master of neidan "internal alchemy" techniques. Liu Haichan is associated with other Daoist transcendents, especially Zhongli Quan and Lü Dongbin, two of the Eight Immortals. Traditional Chinese and Japanese art frequently represents Liu with a string of square-holed cash coins and a mythical three-legged chanchu (蟾蜍; "toad; toad in the Moon"). In the present day, it is called the Jin Chan (金蟾; 'Money Toad'), and Liu Haichan is considered an embodiment of Caishen, the God of Wealth.
Names
Liu Haichan is known by many names. Liu (劉) is a common Chinese family name, notably for the Han dynasty imperial family. Haichan combines hǎi (海; "sea; ocean; huge group (of people/things)") and chán (蟾; "toad"), used in the compound chánchú (蟾蜍; 蟾諸 / 詹諸; "toad; fabled toad in the moon"). One source, the (early 17th century) Lidai Shenxian tongjian (歷代神仙通鑒; "Complete Historical Record of Immortals") takes Liuhai 劉海 as a Chinese compound surname, but that is otherwise unsupported. Liu's given name was Cao (操; "grasp; conduct"), which he later changed to Xuanying (玄英; "mysterious blossom").
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This entry incorporates text from “Liu Haichan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.