Page 1 About the Author
Ge Hong (283–363), courtesy name Zhichuan, called himself Baopuzi, was a native of Jurong County, Danyang County (present-day Jurong County, Jiangsu), from the Jiangnan Shi clan, and the nephew of Ge Xuan, a Fangshi of the Three Kingdoms. Eastern Jin Dynasty Taoist theorist, famous alchemist and medicinal scientist, known as Xiao Xian Weng. When he lost his father at the age of 13, his family became poor, and he exchanged the income from chopping wood for paper and pencil, and copied books and studied in his spare time, often until late at night. The townspeople therefore called him the Man of Baopu, and he called him "Baopuzi". Introverted, not good at making friends, only reading behind closed doors, dabbling in a wide range of subjects.
Ge Xuan studied the Tao from the alchemist Zuo Ci, known as Ge Xiangong, and passed it on to his disciple Zheng Yin with the alchemy of alchemy. When Ge Hong was about 16 years old, he worshiped Zheng as a teacher, and because of his dedication to learning, he was deeply respected by Zheng Yin. Zheng Yin's ideas of immortality and reclusiveness had a great influence on Ge Hong's life, and since then he has deliberately returned to the hidden mountain forest to practice Dan Cultivation and write books and teachings. In the first year of Jin Yongxing (304), Ge Hong joined Wu Xingtai's army of Guarding Secrets, served as a general and lieutenant, fought against Shi Bing's peasant rebel army, and was awarded the title of "General fubo". In the following year, he resigned and went to Luoyang to search for the book of alchemy and medicine, but because Chen Minpan rebelled in Jiangdong, the return route was cut off, so he wandered between Xu, Yu, Jing, Xiang, Jiang, and Guangzhou.
Later Ge Hong renounced worldly affairs and became determined to follow the path of Song Qiao, to eat and nourish, and to practice Xuan Jing. Then he taught Bao Liang, followed by cultivation, and was deeply impressed by Bao Liang, and was matched with his daughter Bao Gu. In the second year of Jianxing (314), Ge Hong returned to his hometown and lived in seclusion in the mountains to continue to work on the creation of "Baopuzi". When the Eastern Jin Dynasty was founded, the imperial court remembered its old deeds, and gave him the title of Marquis of Guannei and the 200 Yi of The Imperial Household. At the beginning of Xianhe (326-334), Situ Wang summoned Ge Hong to supplement the main book of the prefecture, transferred Situ Tuan, and moved to consult and join the army.
In the second year of Xianhe (327), Ge Hong heard that Jiaotong had produced Dansha and requested to be appointed as the commander of Goulu (present-day Beiliu County, Guangxi). On his way to Guangzhou, Shi Deng Yue expressed his willingness to provide him with raw materials to refine Dan at Luofu Mountain, and Ge Hong decided to suspend his trip to Luofu Mountain and live in seclusion on Luofu Mountain from then on. He built the Nan Nunnery in front of Zhu MingDong, practiced alchemy, and wrote books and lectures. Due to the increasing number of scholars, the three nunneries of the East and West North (The Nine Heavenly Temples of the East Temple, the Yellow Dragon Temple of the West Temple, and the North Temple of the Crisp mash were added). He died in the first year of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (363) at the age of 81.
Ge Hong's "Baopuzi" inherits and develops the alchemy spells since the Eastern Han Dynasty, which has a great influence on the development of Taoist alchemy after that, and provides valuable historical materials for the study of the history of Chinese alchemy and the history of ancient chemistry. Ge Hong also wrote a hundred volumes of medical works "Yu Han Fang" (佚佚), and three volumes of "Elbow Reserve Emergency Fang", covering various medical disciplines, including the world's earliest treatment of smallpox and other diseases. The Orthodox Daozang and the Wanli Continuation Daozang contain more than ten kinds of his works.
Page 2 Reader Comments
1. Ge Hong inherited and transformed the early Taoist theory of immortals, and in the Baopuzi Inner Chapter, he not only comprehensively summarized the theory of immortals before the Jin Dynasty, but also systematically summarized the immortal fangshu before the Jin Dynasty, including shouyi, xingqi, guidance, and fangzhong techniques; at the same time, he combined the immortal fangshu with the Confucian gangchangming teaching, emphasizing that "those who desire immortals should be based on loyalty and filial piety and shunrenxin." If virtue is not cultivated, but the practice of magic, no one can live forever. He also integrated this kind of gangchang name with the precepts of Taoism, requiring believers to strictly abide by it. He advocated the application of heavy punishments to control the chaotic world, advocated severe punishment and harsh law, and Kuang Shi Zuoshi; treated Confucianism, Ink, Ming, and Law in an eclectic manner, and respected the king as heaven; dissatisfied with the Wei and Jin Qing talks, advocated attaching equal importance to articles and virtues, and making words should help to indoctrinate.
2. Ge Hong was proficient in medicine and pharmacology, and advocated Taoist and medical practice. He believes that if cultivators do not practice medicine at the same time, once they "suffer from illness and self-inflicted pain", they will "have no way to attack and heal", not only can not grow immortal, but even their own lives will be difficult to save. Ge Hong made detailed records and explanations of the morphological characteristics, growth habits, main places of origin, medicinal parts and therapeutic effects of many medicinal plants in "Baopuzi Inner Chapter: Immortal Medicine", which had a great impact on the development of medicine in later generations in China. The invention of artemisinin, which won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Medicine, was inspired by the "Elbow Reserve Formula". Ge Hong especially emphasized the use of moxibustion, he used simple and easy to understand language, clear and unambiguous names of the use of various moxibustion methods, as long as the moxibustion is clear, people who do not know acupuncture can also use.
3. In the process of refining mercury, Ge Hong discovered the reversibility of chemical reactions. He pointed out that the heating of dansha (mercury sulfide) can produce mercury, and mercury and sulfur can be combined to become dansha. He also pointed out that lead can be refined with lead tetroxide, and lead can also be refined into lead tetroxide. In Ge Hong's writings, it is also recorded that female yellow (arsenic trisulfide) and male yellow (arsenic pentasulfide) are sublimated after heating and directly become crystallization.
Page 3 Background of writing
Out of the infinite yearning for life, China has had legends of gods and immortals since ancient times, and the belief in gods and immortals has been endless. As early as in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", it is recorded that there are sacred mountain immortal islands such as Kunlun and Penglai, all of which are inhabited by immortals. Later, during the Warring States period, Qu Yuan's "Departure from Sorrow" and "Long Journey", as the originator of youxian poetry, outlined the image of the immortal with rich imagination. Generally speaking, the characteristics of the immortals are first, immortality, and second, great supernatural powers.
Before the Han Dynasty, people generally believed that there were gods and immortals, but there were not many ways for mortals to become immortals. At that time, people believed that in order to become immortals, they needed to contact the immortals and ask them to take the immortal herbs and immortals to obtain immortality. It was out of this idea that Emperor Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han launched a long-term large-scale immortal seeking activity. However, with the failure of the Qin Emperor Han Wu's activities to seek immortals, the intellectuals began to doubt whether there were immortals
Ge Hong believed in the existence of gods and immortals, and absorbed the ideas of the Taiping Jing and Ji Kang. On the one hand, he said: "According to the Immortal Scriptures, all those who have attained immortality are appointed to be the qi of the immortals, and they are naturally endowed, so among the twins, there is already the nature of belief." On the other hand, he also believes that "immortals can learn", believing that no matter who they are, as long as they persist in cultivation and take medicine, they can become immortals.
These ideas are all cases in the "Biography of the Immortals", such as Mozi and Liu Gen are believed to have "immortal bones", people who should be born to become immortals, and some ordinary people, such as Wang Xing, Zhao Qu, etc. He just insisted on taking the medicine, and finally became a fairy. Therefore, the character stories in "The Legend of the Immortals" are very real, and the characters in them basically have clear names and places of birth or activities, and the methods and processes of becoming immortals are also explained in detail, which greatly reduces the mystery of the immortals, which is very attractive to ordinary people, making them feel that becoming immortals is not an unattainable and unattainable thing, and thus playing a good auxiliary role.
Because of his family lineage, Ge Hong had deeply studied various Taoist techniques and was convinced of the theory of the Immortals; At the same time, he was dissatisfied with the various bad words and deeds of the Taoists and Taoists at that time, so that the Immortal Dao was not transmitted, so he pretended to be "Baopuzi. The Inner Chapter", to show the method of becoming immortals for future generations. However, the world still has doubts about the existence of immortals, so he also wrote "The Legend of the Immortals" as a supplementary case, and "Baopuzi". The Inner Chapter echoes in order to reassure the world so that they can devote themselves to seeking the Truth.
Therefore, the "Biography of the Immortals" can be regarded as a supplementary teaching work, and its central idea is "Immortal Reality" and "Immortal Learning Can Be Achieved". Ge Hong in "Baopuzi. The Inner Chapter mentions the three immortals, namely the Heavenly Immortals, the Earth Immortals, and the Corpse Immortals, and the ways to become immortals are to take food (including taking Jindan and various immortal medicines), Xingqi, Si Shen Shouyi, Guidance, and Fang Zhong, and the characters in the "Biography of the Immortals" basically use these methods to embark on the road to becoming immortals.
Page 4 Summary of contents
The Biography of the Immortals is a collection of ancient Chinese Zhiwei novels written by ge Hong, a Taoist scholar of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, consisting of ten volumes. It is a case study of his Taoist classic "Baopuzi Inner Chapter", which explains his main theme of "immortals are real" and "immortals can be achieved" with specific character deeds. Among them, the plot is mostly complex, peculiar, rich in imagination, and vivid in narrative, reflecting the concept of immortals in the Wei and Jin dynasties and the scribes of Wei and Jin. Many of these characters are often cited in later health literature, and some idioms and cultural allusions, such as "the vicissitudes of the sea and the mulberry field", "one person gets the Tao, the chicken and dog ascend to heaven", "the apricot forest", "the orange well", etc., are familiar to the public and have become an organic part of Chinese culture.
There are many stories in "The Legend of the Immortals", so the length is long, and the storyline is mostly complex, peculiar and vivid. For example, the "Biography of Luan Ba" writes the story of the immortal Luan Ba eliminating harm for the people, and in the middle, it is said that a temple ghost transformed into a scholar and deceived Tai Shou to promise his daughter. Luan Ba saw it, so he drove it away, so that the temple ghost appeared as an old fox. The story portrays the magic power of Taoism with a vivid plot, and although the pen and ink are small, it creates a positive image of eliminating harm for the people. Similar stories include "The Biography of Wang Yuan", "The Biography of Liu Gen", "The Biography of Lü Gong", etc., all of which are known for their rich imagination and vivid narratives.
The detailed description of "The Legend of the Immortals" is quite specific and vivid. Only in this way, it is more mysterious and strange. Ge Hong's immortals not only refine Dan health, hunger and qi, and immortality, but also have many supernatural and strange skills:
"I can sit in the wind and rain, stand up the clouds, paint the land as rivers, pluck the soil as mountains, and so on...
Crashing mountains, plugging deep springs, restraining tigers and leopards, summoning dragons, serving ghosts and gods, etc...
Fractals change shape, sit and survive, conceal the six armies, day for the day, etc...
Riding on the clouds, crossing the sea, going in and out, breathing thousands of miles, etc...
Fry the mud into gold, condense the lead into silver, refine the eight stones in water, soar the flowing beads, ride the clouds and ride the dragon, floating above the Taiqing."
In the "Legend of the Immortals", there is also a fairy world that is different from the human world and a hades that is opposed to the immortal world. Hades is like a prison on earth, eerie and terrible; The Immortal Realm is a pavilion with five colors and yellow, lush as clouds. In the immortal garden, there are pearl and jade trees, Lingzhi sentient beings, and there are hordes of dragons, tigers and beasts, and in the middle of the game, there are jade fairy children as attendants, Tiancao Immortal Officials as immortals, civilian officials with Zhu Yisu belts, and military officers with armor and soldiers.
Immortals come and go in and out of the feather car, drive the five dragons, open the road with the banner of the qijie banner, wei yi yi yi, flowing clouds and rainbows, and fei fei around it. Those who violate the Heavenly Precepts will be expelled from the Immortal Realm and demoted to the human world, and mortals "who want to ascend to the heavens to make up immortal officials should use Jindan." It is not difficult to see that the immortal world and the underworld here are both refractive reflections of the human world.
Ge Hong believed that immortals could learn and immortals could reach, and that one must have immortal bones or be destined to be immortals in order to be able to cultivate into immortals. Immortals are divided into different grades, such as ascending to heaven and trampling clouds, earth immortals who remain in the world, and scattered immortals who do not hold immortal positions. On the Path of Cultivating Immortals there are "Nine Dans and Eight Stones, Golden Liquor." Secondary element, keeping one mind, practicing qi through the ages, refining the form to eliminate disasters, warding off evil and curing ghosts, nourishing the valley of nature, changing and hating to win...", there are also different levels.
Page 5 Quotes
1, last night encountered the gods, instructed a few first, take the handling of Ren Tiantian, the pot in the upside down, chaotic and complete. Hongmeng revival circle, seven back to nine roots, three three after three three before, there is a body outside the heavens, Wanhua Yanran!
2, or shrugged into the clouds. Fly without wings; Or ride the dragon and ride on the clouds, and go up to the heavenly order; Or transform into birds and beasts, floating clouds; Or sneak into the rivers and seas, soaring over famous mountains; Or suck and breathe, cut the valley Ruzhi; Or going in and out of the world without being recognized, or hiding from the world. Immortals can go to heaven and earth, can dive into the river and become invisible, have great supernatural powers, and can do everything.
3. "(Lao Tzu) yellow and white, beautiful eyebrows and broad jaws, long ears and big eyes, loose teeth and square mouth, forehead with three or five Dali, sun angle and moon hanging." The nose is pure bone double column, and the ear has three leaky doors. Foot twenty-five, hand ten. ”
(To be continued)
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