神仙傳

Shén xiān zhuàn 神仙傳

Biographies of Divine Immortals

by 葛洪 (Gě Hóng, 283–343) — Eastern-Jìn alchemist, Bào pǔ zǐ

The single most influential Chinese collection of immortal-hagiographies after Liú Xiàng’s Liè xiān zhuàn 列仙傳, compiled by Gě Hóng in 10 juàn covering 84 (in the received text) xiān 仙. Named in the Suí shū Jīng jí zhì and both Táng histories, widely quoted already in Péi Sōngzhī’s 5th-century commentary to the Sān guó zhì.

Tiyao

The Sìkù tíyào on this work (cited as the WYG entry ahead of the scripture proper):

“Shén xiān zhuàn, ten juàn, by Gě Hóng of the Jìn. According to Hóng’s own preface, the work was written after the completion of the Inner Chapters of the Bào pǔ zǐ, in response to his disciple Téng Shēng’s 滕升 question as to whether the immortals really exist. The eighty-four persons it records constitute (Hóng says) a supplement to what Ruǎn Cāng 阮倉 of Qín (who catalogued several hundred) and Liú Xiàng 劉向 (who treated seventy-one) had already covered. Hóng draws on immortal scriptures, dietary methods, the Hundred Schools, and the discourses of his teacher and the learned elders.

“Although Hóng claims Liú Xiàng’s accounts are too brief and that his own supersede them, in fact only Róngchéng gōng 容成公 and Péng zǔ 彭祖 overlap with the Liè xiān zhuàn. Some of his inclusions are questionable: the Yellow Thearch meeting Guǎng Chéng zǐ 廣成子 and Lú Áo 盧敖 meeting Ruòshì 若士 are Zhuāng zhōu’s fables, no more real than the cosmic figures Hóng méng 鴻濛 and Yún jiāng 雲將. Liú Ān of Huáinán actually committed suicide after a failed coup; Lǐ Shǎojūn 李少君 died of illness — both matters recorded in the Shǐ jì and Hàn shū — yet Hóng reports their ascensions, not without embellishment. His claim that Xǔ Yóu 許由 and Cháo Fù 巢父 were still living in the Jìn era, where he supposedly observed them, is transparent fabrication.

“On the other hand, Hóng’s accounts of Hú gōng 壺公, Jì Zǐxùn 薊子訓, Liú Gēn 劉根, Zuǒ Cí 左慈, Gān Shǐ 甘始, Fēng Jūndá 封君達 and others already appear in the Hòu Hàn shū, Fāng shù zhuàn, suggesting he is drawing on existing sources and not inventing wholesale. Long circulation has turned these into ‘established facts’ for poets and prose-writers, who transmit them without scruple. One need not vet each one.

“All bibliographies record 10 juàn, matching the current text. Only the Suí shū Jīng jí zhì gives the title as Gě Hóng’s Liè xiān zhuàn — but since the Old and New Táng histories both give Shén xiān zhuàn, the Suí zhì reading is presumably an accidental conflation with the preceding Liè xiān zhuàn notice; the work does not have two titles.

“The present copy was printed by Máo Jìn 毛晉. Examining Péi Sōng zhī’s commentary to the Sān guó zhì: the Shǔ zhì Xiān zhǔ zhuàn notes cite Lǐ Yìqí 李意期; the Wú zhì Shì Xiè zhuàn notes cite Dǒng Fèng 董奉; the Wú Fàn, Liú Dūn, Zhào Dá notes cite Jiè Xiàng 介象 — all labelled as Gě Hóng’s. These three passages match the present text, confirming it as the original edition. The HànWèi cóng shū prints a separate version containing ninety-two biographies, its contents drawn from the Tài píng guǎng jì’s citations. Since the Tài píng guǎng jì sometimes mislabels its sources or cites from other works without attribution, that version is corrupt and incomplete — as shown by the Lú Áo / Ruòshì passage, which Lǐ Shàn’s commentary on Wén xuǎn quotes twice (Jiāng Yān’s Bié fù and Bào Zhào’s Shēng tiān xíng) explicitly from Gě Hóng’s Shén xiān zhuàn, matching this edition; but because the Tài píng guǎng jì did not cite it, the HànWèi cóng shū version omits it.

“Respectfully collated, the fortieth year of Qián lóng (1776), tenth month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún 紀昀, Lù Xīxióng 陸錫熊, Sūn Shì yì 孫士毅; Chief collator: Lù Fèichí 陸費墀.”

Abstract

The Shén xiān zhuàn is Gě Hóng’s hagiographical companion to his alchemical-philosophical magnum opus, the Bào pǔ zǐ nèi piān 抱朴子內篇 — the theoretical case that immortals are real. Where the Bào pǔ zǐ argues the possibility and technique of immortality, the Shén xiān zhuàn supplies the prosopographical evidence: 84 (traditional count) immortals ranging from mythical antiquity (Guǎng Chéng zǐ, Róngchéng gōng, Péng zǔ) through the HànJìn historical period (Hú gōng, Lǐ Shǎojūn, Zuǒ Cí, Liú Ān) down to figures Gě reports as nearly contemporary. Following Liú Xiàng’s Liè xiān zhuàn model but with longer narratives and richer technique-lore, the work became the source of nearly every later Chinese hagiographical corpus — its figures and episodes are woven through Táng poetry, Song prose, drama, and popular religion.

Transmission is notoriously complex. The text does not survive in a single unbroken lineage; the received recensions — the Máo Jìn 毛晉 edition (the basis of the Sìkù text, followed here), the HànWèi cóng shū 漢魏叢書 version (derived via the Tài píng guǎng jì), and reconstructions by Qīng scholars from leishu citations — diverge considerably. The Sìkù editors, as quoted above, argue persuasively that the Máo edition is closer to the original than the HànWèi cóng shū recension.

Dating. Within Gě Hóng’s lifetime (283–343), most plausibly after the Inner Chapters of the Bào pǔ zǐ (c. 317–320) and before his death in 343. Dynasty: 晉.

Translations and research

• Campany, Robert Ford. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. The standard English translation and reconstruction of the text, based on collation of all available quotations and editions. Indispensable.
• Schipper, Kristofer M., and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago UP, 2004. Notice on the Dào zàng recension (DZ 295) and its relation to the Hàn-Wèi cóng shū / Máo Jìn transmission.

Links

• Kanseki Repository KR5c0317
• Author: 葛洪.
• ctext.org: 神仙傳