1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455688003321

Autore

Campany Robert Ford <1959->

Titolo

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

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2002

ISBN

1-283-27702-6

9786613277022

0-520-92760-5

1-59734-959-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (637 p.)

Collana

Daoist classics ; ; 2

Altri autori (Persone)

GeHong <284-364.>

Disciplina

299/.51423

Soggetti

Taoists - China

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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 B: Sources of Early-Attested Hagiographies -- Group C: Sources of Later-Attested Hagiographies -- Items Attributed to Shenxian zhuan Excluded from This Translation -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX

Sommario/riassunto

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.