According to legend, the Old Man of the South Pole was once a sickly boy named Zhao Yen who had been predicted to die when he was 19 years old.

Zhao Yen followed the advice and when the two men had consumed the meat and the wine, they decided to thank him by exchanging the figures of his life expectancy from 19 to 91 years.

In the novel Investiture of the Gods, as the eldest disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun, the Old Man of the South Pole descended to help King Wu in his attack against the deity Yin.

[2] In Journey to the West, the Old Man of the South Pole's mount, a white deer, once escaped to the nether world to become a demon (or Yaoguai).

According to folklore legends, the white snake spirit Bai Suzhen once went to the cave of the Old Man of the South Pole to steal medicinal herbs.