To live as long as heaven and earth : a translation and study of Ge Hong's traditions of divine transcendents / Robert Ford Campany.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campany, Robert Ford, 1959-

Series:

Daoist classics ; 2.

Daoist classics ; 2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ge, Hong, 284-364. Shen xian zhuan.

Ge, Hong.

Taoists--China--Biography.

Taoists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (637 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In late classical and early medieval China, ascetics strove to become transcendents--deathless beings with supernormal powers. Practitioners developed dietetic, alchemical, meditative, gymnastic, sexual, and medicinal disciplines (some of which are still practiced today) to perfect themselves and thus transcend death. Narratives of their achievements circulated widely. Ge Hong (283-343 C.E..) collected and preserved many of their stories in his Traditions of Divine Transcendents, affording us a window onto this extraordinary response to human mortality. Robert Ford Company's groundbreaking and carefully researched text offers the first complete, critical translation and commentary for this important Chinese religious work, at the same time establishing a method for reconstructing lost texts from medieval China. Clear, exacting, and annotated, the translation comprises over a hundred lively, engaging narratives of individuals deemed to have fought death and won. Additionally, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth systematically introduces the Chinese quest for transcendence, illuminating a poorly understood tradition that was an important source of Daoist religion and a major social, cultural, and religious phenomenon in its own right.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

FOREWORD

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Opening

Ge Hong and the Writing of Traditions of Divine Transcendents

The Nature of the Religion Reflected in Ge Hong's Works

Traditions as Hagiography

Text-Critical Matters

Conventions

GROUP A: Earliest-Attested Hagiographies

Group A: Earliest-Attested Fragments

Group B: Early-Attested Hagiographies

Group B: Early-Attested Fragments

Group C: Later-Attested Hagiographies

On the Source Texts and the Temporal Differentiation of Passages

Group A: Sources of Earliest-Attested Hagiographies

Group A: Sources of Earliest-Attested Fragments

Group B: Sources of Early-Attested Hagiographies

Group C: Sources of Later-Attested Hagiographies

Items Attributed to Shenxian zhuan Excluded from This Translation

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 553-579) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Contains:

Ge, Hong, 284-364. Shen xian zhuan. English.

ISBN:

9786613277022

9781283277020

1283277026

9780520927605

0520927605

9781597349598

1597349593

OCLC:

475929306