Baopuzi: Inner Chapters抱朴子内篇

Also known as

Baopuzi

Author / transmission

Ge Hong

Period

Eastern Jin · Written by Ge Hong (283–343), completed around the first year of the Jianwu era (317).

Canon division

Taiqing Section

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Taiqing Section

Category

Early Daoist Scriptures

Fascicles

Twenty scrolls

Synopsis

The Baopuzi Inner Chapters is Ge Hong's systematic theoretical work summarizing the immortality arts transmitted from the Han and Wei onward, and the representative scripture of Wei–Jin immortality-seeking Daoism. Ge Hong, styled Zhichuan, sobriquet Baopuzi, was a native of Jurong, Danyang; he studied under Zheng Yin and received the transmission of the golden elixir from the line of Zuo Ci and Ge Xuan. The work's twenty chapters (Changxuan, Lunxian, Duisu, Jindan, Zhili, Weizhi, Sainan, Shizhi, Mingben, Xianyao, Bianwen, Jiyan, Qinqiu, Zaying, Huangbai, Dengshe, Dizhen, Xialan, Quhuo, Zixu) argue that immortals truly exist and that longevity can be attained through study, holding the golden elixir, the great medicine, to be the ultimate of the immortal way; it also discusses the ingestion of herbs and minerals, the circulation and guiding of breath, sexual cultivation techniques, guarding the One, talismans and incantations, and methods of concealment and mountain travel, and preserves a great number of early alchemical recipes as well as the catalogue of Daoist texts recorded in the 'Xialan' chapter. Its philosophy of the mysterious and the One, together with its stance of not abandoning Confucian learning (immortality within, Confucian learning without), exerted deep influence on later Daoism, and it is also an important text in the history of Chinese chemistry and pharmacology.

Key Ideas

• Immortals truly exist, and longevity can be attained through study
• The golden elixir is the ultimate of the immortal way; the reverted elixir and the golden liquid
• My fate lies with me, not with Heaven
• Guarding the One and preserving the true; the way of the mysterious One
• Accumulating goodness and establishing merit as prerequisites for becoming an immortal
• The catalogue of Daoist texts in the 'Xialan' chapter

Structure

Twenty chapters, the final chapter 'Zixu' recounting his own life; the fifty-fascicle Outer Chapters, discussing worldly and human affairs, are listed separately.

Editions

• The Zhengtong Daozang edition
• The Sibu Congkan edition
• Wang Ming, Baopuzi Neipian Jiaoshi [Collated and Annotated Edition of the Baopuzi Inner Chapters] (Zhonghua Book Company, expanded edition 1985)

Commentaries

• Wang Ming, Baopuzi Neipian Jiaoshi

Translations

• James R. Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320 (1966)
• Japanese translation by Honda Wataru

Full Text & Online Resources

• CTEXT: Baopuzi
• Wikisource: Baopuzi
• Wikipedia: Baopuzi

Related scriptures

Related figures