Shénxiān gǎnyù zhuàn 神仙感遇傳
Biographies of Divine Encounters with Immortals by 杜光庭 (撰, after 904)
About the work
A five-juǎn hagiographic anthology of gǎnyù 感遇 (“affective encounters”) — chance meetings between mortals and divine immortals that altered the mortal’s fate — compiled by 杜光庭 (Dù Guāngtíng, 850–933) after 904. The work is one of three principal Daoist hagiographic anthologies that Dù produced (alongside Yōngchéng jí xiānlù 墉城集仙錄 and the Lǐngshàn xiānzhuàn 嶺善仙傳), and is the chief Daoist witness to the late-Táng xiānyìng 仙應 (immortal-response) genre.
Abstract
The five juǎn collect gǎnyù tales drawing on a wide range of earlier sources. The basic narrative pattern: a mortal of distinguished or troubled circumstances encounters by chance an extraordinary being (usually unrecognised at the moment); receives from the encounter a teaching, a talisman, or a prophetic instruction; subsequently, the meaning of the encounter is revealed and the mortal’s fate is altered. The genre’s roots lie in the early-Táng Tàiyīn xuánjīng 太陰玄經 collections and in the Lièxiān zhuàn 列仙傳 / Shénxiān zhuàn 神仙傳 lineage, but Dù’s compendium gathers and re-frames the tales under his own editorial principle: the encounter is a gǎn 感 (affective response) between heavenly and human, mediated by the moral disposition of the mortal.
Dù’s editorial method preserves the earlier tales in compressed form while adding short Daoist commentaries. Many of the protagonists are Táng-period figures, including some who held official positions — making the work a useful prosopographic source as well as a religious one. Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 443–444, Franciscus Verellen) treat the work as an essential companion to Dàojiào língyàn jì KR5b0295 and Lùyì jì KR5b0296 in Dù’s hagiographic project.
Translations and research
- Verellen, Franciscus. Du Guangting (850–933): Taoïste de cour à la fin de la Chine médiévale. Paris: Collège de France, 1989.
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 2: 443–444 (DZ 592, Franciscus Verellen).
- Cahill, Suzanne. Transcendence and Divine Passion: The Queen Mother of the West in Medieval China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993 — treats Dù’s hagiographic project for the female immortals.