Liu Haichan was a 10th c. CE philosopher who is remembered now as a Taoist ‘immortal’ and a patriarch of Taoism, but before he entered the path, he passed the highest level of the Imperial Examinations, and became involved in political affairs, serving first as a minister and then rising to the post of Prime Minister of the Emperor Abaoji.

When he was at the peak of his worldly glory, it is said that a Taoist monk came before him and asked for ten eggs and ten coins, the cash coins with a square hold in the middle. Liu Haichan gave the monk what he asked for, and then watched in astonishment as the monk began to balance them in a tower, an egg on top of a coin, with a coin on that egg, and then another egg, and so on.

“That is very dangerous!” Liu Haichan said.

The monk smiled and replied, “The position of a Prime Minister is much more dangerous.”

And that day, Liu Haichan resigned his post, and began to follow the Taoist path.