Authorship
The Shenxian Zhuan is traditionally attributed to the Jin dynasty scholar and religious practitioner Ge Hong,who is best known as author of the Baopuzi "Master Who Embraces Simplicity". "The majority of Chinese critics," Sailey notes,"believe that the version which we have today is probably not the same one that Ge Hong wrote." [10]
Ge's autobiography (Baopuzi Outer Chapter 50) records that he completed writing the Shenxian Zhuan and several other books during the Jianwu 建武era (317–318),when Emperor Yuan of Jin founded the Eastern Jin dynasty.
In all I wrote 著[Baopuzi] neipian 內篇in twenty chapters,[Baopuzi] waipian in fifty chapters,one hundred chapters of inscriptions 碑,eulogies 頌,poems 詩,and rhapsodies 賦and thirty chapters of military dispatches 軍書,proclamations 檄移,memorials to the throne 章表,and memoranda 箋記. I also compiled 撰biographies of those not listed as a matter of course –Shenxian Zhuan 神仙傳–in ten chapters and biographies of those who in their nobility refused office –Yinyi zhuan 隱逸傳–in ten chapters. In addition,I made an anthology of three hundred and ten chapters of military affairs 兵事,techniques 方伎,miscellaneous entries 短雜and oddities 奇要by copying excerpts 抄from the five classics,the seven histories and the one hundred philosophers,and made a table of contents. [11]
Compare other translations of this ambiguous description of the Shenxian Zhuan:
- "I also compiled a book on those who are not normally listed,which became the Shen hsien chuan in 10 scrolls." [12]
- "In addition,he composed writings in which the common people (among the scholar class) were not interested,including the Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳,in ten chapters." [13]
- "I also compiled biographies which are not passed down among the common people –Shenxian Zhuan –in ten chapters." [14] [15]
- "I also compiled (zhuan 撰) traditions of those not conventionally listed to form Shenxian Zhuan in ten fascicles." [16]
Ge Hong specifically uses the verb zhuan 撰"compose;write;compile" for the Shenxian Zhuan and Yinyi Zhuan "Biographies of Recluses",which is no longer extant. Thus,Durrant writes,"Most of the biographies are extracted from various earlier works,so Ko is really much more of an editor than an author of Shen-hsien chuan." [17]
Several early sources confirm that Ge Hong wrote the Shenxian Zhuan. [18] The (ca. 429) Sanguozhi commentary by Pei Songzhi (372-451) quotes the Shenxian Zhuan and notes "what was recorded by Ge Hong came close to deluding the masses. But as his writings are so widely circulated,I have selected a few of the events." Liu Xiujing 陸修靜's (437) List of Lingbao texts states that Ge Hong "selected and compiled" the Shenxian Zhuan. The Shui Jing Zhu "Commentary on the Waterways Classic" by Li Daoyuan (d. 527) also attributes the Shenxian Zhuan to Ge. The (6th century) biography of the Shangqing School patriarch Tao Hongjing (456-536) says he "obtained Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan and studied it day and night and so mastered its ideas on nourishing life." Campany concludes,
We can therefore be as confident that Ge Hong compiled a work titled Shenxian Zhuan as we can of almost any other authorial attribution in this period of Chinese history. But it is equally certain that the Shenxian Zhuan that has come down to us is not exactly the text that Ge Hong wrote. [19]
Some scholars have questioned Ge's authorship of the Shenxian Zhuan based on textual inconsistencies,particularly with Ge's Baopuzi neipian. Arthur Waley doubted that Ge Hong wrote both the Baopuzi (Inner Chapter 16), [20] and Shenxian Zhuan [21] biographies about Cheng Wei 程偉,whose physiognomy caused his wife to refuse teaching him alchemy.
Not only is the style strangely different,but the Shen Hsien Chuan version is so meagre and so incompetently told that one doubts whether the author of it is even trying to pass himself off as Ko Hung. It seems indeed likely that the Shen Hsien Chuan,though a work of the fourth century,was merely an anonymous series of Taoist biographies,which some mistaken person labeled as Ko Hung's Shen Hsien Chuan and divided into ten chapters. [22]
Kominami Ichirōanalyzed the principles for immortality in Ge's two books. [23] [ page needed ]
For Ge Hong in Baopuzi achieving immortality is a technical problem in which self-reliance is paramount. The stories in the Shenxian Zhuan,on the other hand,depict the attainment of immortality as a process based on submission and complete faith in a teacher who bestows the means of immortality on proven disciples. In this Iatter version,immortality does not come from within oneself,but is derived from external sources. [24]
Kominami hypothesized that Shangqing School editors revised the Shenxian Zhuan from Ge's original text to emphasize their belief in external powers,but Penny finds Kominami's evidence "unconvincing both for the existence of an "original" and its stance on the attainability of immortality." [25] Campany faults arguments against Ge Hong's authorship of the Shenxian Zhuan for committing two fallacies.
One is the fallacy of textual holism:the assumption that if one or a small number of passages are problematic,then the overall attribution of authorship must be in error. …The other fallacy is that of an assumption of consistency,that texts by a single author,whenever they were written during his lifetime,must have originally been completely consistent in their values and priorities as well as in how they handle specific figures,techniques,and events. [26]
Since the Shenxian Zhuan is a compilation of biographies from various sources,textual inconsistencies are predictable.
