Who are the real Eight Immortals in history?

In our country, almost everyone is familiar with the story of "Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing his magical powers". Are these Eight Immortals mythical figures fabricated out of thin air, or are they imitations of some figures in history? It should be said that immortals are all man-made, and the so-called "Eight Immortals" is no exception. Most of them are based on historical figures, but there are also different versions.

As we all know, there are,, Zhang, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe, Han Xiangzi and Cao Guojiu in folklore. Some studies believe that there was the word "Eight Immortals" in the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties, which originally referred to a group of immortals fantasized by immortals since the Han and Jin Dynasties. Until the Tang Dynasty, "Eight Immortals" was just an empty noun. The specific figures of the Eight Immortals were not officially determined until the publication of Wu Yuantai's Travel Notes to the East and Tang Xianzu's Handan Ji in the middle of Ming Dynasty.

Tie Guai Li is the first of the folklore of the Eight Immortals. Some books call him Li, Ming Hong, a native of Sui Dynasty Gorge. Lu Xun's A Brief History of Chinese Novels says that his surname is Li and his name is Xuan. Zhao Yi's Yu Cong Kao also said that his surname was Liu. It is said that he was a man between Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty and Dali, and he studied Taoism in Zhong Nanshan. As soon as Yuan Shen came out of his shell, he never imagined that his body would be eaten by a tiger, so he had to dedicate himself to a lame beggar. According to "Fairy Mirror of Past Dynasties", her handsome husband, who is good at Taoism, will lead to the derivation of Shen Yuan's magic and practice it in Dangshan Cave. On one occasion, at the request of Lao Tzu's master, she went to Huashan, thousands of miles away, and came back a few days later, only to find that her body was burned by a disciple by mistake. Suddenly she saw a hungry ghost nearby and said with a brainwave, ". That is, from a hungry forehead, he became an ugly man with a hairy beard, a black face and huge eyes, and a lame right foot. It seems that he is a Taoist immortal, and everything is attached.