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Shou Xing: God of Longevity

A stellar deity, one of the San-xing. His name means "Star of Longevity", and he has an enormously high bald head. He always carries a Golden Peach of Immortality from XI-WANGMU's Holy Peach Garden, and carrying a peach wood staff. Legendary says that the celestial peach was the Queen of Heaven's favorite fruit, which blossomed once ever 3,000 years with it taking another 3,000 year for the peach tree to bear fruit. Thus a bite of the celestial peach could gain longevity.

According to one legend, there was once a boy called Zhao Yen who, as a child, was told he had only nineteen more years to live. He was advised to go to a certain field on a certain day and bring with him a jar of wine and dried meat. In that particular field, he would notice two men playing draughts under a mulberry tree. He should offer them wine and meat, but under no account answer any of their questions. Zhao Yen followed that advise. When the men had partaken the wine and meat, they discussed how they might best thank the boy for his hospitality. In the end, they decided to reverse the digits of the number of years the boy could be expected to live, thus changing 19 into 91. He was later told that one of the players had been the God of the North Pole, who determines the day on which people are born, and the God of the South Pole, who fixes the dates of death and offers him the longevity.

Shou-xing came to be known as Shou-lao in later popular belief. He is also called Nan-ji-Xian-weng ("the Old Man of the South Pole").