Xù xiānzhuàn 續仙傳
Supplementary Lives of Immortals
compiled by 沈汾 (編, cháoqǐng láng 朝請郎, qián xíng Lìshuǐ xiànlìng 前行溧水縣令)
About the work
A three-juan hagiographic anthology of xiān 仙 lives, by the Wú/Southern-Táng Daoist Shěn Fén 沈汾 (sometimes written 沈汾, also Fén 玢; cháoqǐng láng qián xíng Lìshuǐ xiànlìng 朝請郎前行溧水縣令, “front-echelon gentleman for court audiences and county magistrate of Lìshuǐ in Jiāngsū”), compiled in the wake of the destruction of classical works (fénjí 焚籍) during the Zhōnghé 中和 reign period (881–885), when the sack of Cháng’ān by Huáng Cháo 黃巢 sent Emperor Xīzōng 僖宗 into exile. Preserved in the Zhèngtǒng Dàozàng 正統道藏 (DZ 0295 / CT 295 = TC 295), 洞真部 記傳類. Conceived as a sequel to [[KR5a0306|DZ 294 Lièxiān zhuàn]], the Shénxiān zhuàn 神仙傳 by Gě Hóng 葛洪, and earlier (now-lost) collections, in two parts: 16 fēishēng 飛升 (those who ascended bodily into heaven, juan 1) and 20 yǐnhuà 隱化 (those who only “hid in transformation,” juan 2–3).
Prefaces
Shěn Fén’s own preface (1a–2b): “From ancient and modern times, the matter of divine immortals (shénxiān 神仙) is known to the world; yet of those who fly aloft and hide in transformation, mortals can scarcely see them. Sages of old said: ‘Of those in the human world who attain immortality, of a thousand one is not heard tell.’ Furthermore, the historians do not extend their notice to the matters of immortals, and so most go untransmitted to the world. Pondering the historians’ intent — they speak of ruler and minister, father and son, of order and chaos, of loyalty and filial piety, that the unending past be roused to action; if they should esteem the traces of the empty and natural [Daoist Way], then men would have nothing by which to control themselves. The Shǐjì says that there are three numinous mountains in the sea, on which immortals dwell in palaces of gold and silver, where the elixir of no-death grows. Of those who would draw near, wind drives the boat away, and in the end none can reach. This too is the language of rousing-to-action. Great is the matter of the divine immortal! — its numinosities are rarely fathomed; in beginning to cultivate, one keeps to one (shǒu yī 守一) and refines qì, holds to law and rule, with diligent diligent labour fearful of failing in the smallest hair. When at last attained, in a thousand transformations and ten-thousand metamorphoses one mingles with humankind, sometimes hidden in mountain forest, sometimes wandering in the city’s market…” The preface signs Shěn referring to himself as “Fēn 汾” (1b). The work’s first juan is dated to himself in the Báolì 保大 13 year (Southern Táng, 955).
Abstract
Franciscus Verellen, in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004) 1:430–431 (§2.A.6, Sacred History and Geography), observes that citations of the work in Tàipíng guǎngjì 太平廣記 and listings in several Sòng bibliographies (cf. Van der Loon 168) refer to the title as Xù shénxiān zhuàn 續神仙傳. The author’s name is qualified at the head of each juan with the Southern-Táng titles cháoqǐng láng qián xíng Lìshuǐ xiànlìng. The hagiography of Niè Shīdào 聶師道 (3.6a–14b) mentions the sovereign Wú Tàizǔ 吳太祖 (r. 902–905), founder of the Five-Dynasties Wú kingdom in Huáinán (3.12b and 14a). Given Shěn Fén’s appointment in the same Jiāngsū region, and that his book was anthologised by the editors of Tàipíng guǎngjì in 978, it is likely that the author lived under the Wú kingdom (902–937) and/or its successor, the Southern Táng (937–975). A Southern-Táng collection of lives, JiāngHuái yìrén lù 江淮異人錄 by Wú Shū 吳淑 (947–1002), has an entry on a Daoist wizard identified as “shìyù 侍御 Shěn Fén” (19a–b), and another Southern-Táng writer, Liú Chóngyuǎn 劉崇遠, uses the same appellation to refer explicitly to the author of the Xù xiānzhuàn (cf. Liú’s Jīnhuá zǐ zábiān 金華子雜編 2.60 and Yú Jiāxī, Sìkù tíyào biànzhèng 19.1220). One tale in the present collection, “Wáng Kějiāo” 王可交” (2.13a–14b), is also found in Dù Guāngtíng’s 杜光庭 Shénxiān gǎnyù zhuàn 神仙感遇傳 (2.1b–2b, again in Yúnjí qīqiān 112.10b–11b). The frontmatter brackets composition between the start of Shěn Fén’s plausible Wú-kingdom service (~902) and the close of the Southern Táng (975).
Translations and research
No full translation. Standard scholarly entry: Franciscus Verellen, “Xu xian zhuan,” in Schipper & Verellen eds., The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.6, 430–431. On Táng-Wǔdài hagiographic literature: Franciscus Verellen, Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale (Paris 1989).
Links
- Kanseki Repository KR5a0307
- Schipper & Verellen, The Taoist Canon (2004), Vol. 1 §2.A.6, 430–431.