Biographies of Grotto Immortals洞仙传

Author / transmission

Jiansuzi (life details unknown)

Period

Six Dynasties · The Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Sui records it in ten chapters with no author named; the Bibliographic Treatises of the Old and New Histories of the Tang attribute it to Jiansuzi, who is variously identified as a Six Dynasties figure or as Hu Yin, a Tang-dynasty Daoist priestess — the matter remains unsettled. Only one chapter survives today, the compilation included in scroll 110 of the Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds.

Canon division

Preserved in the Yunji Qiqian

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Taixuan Section (Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds, scroll 110)

Category

Immortal Biographies

Fascicles

1 juan (originally 10 juan)

Synopsis

The Biographies of Grotto Immortals was originally in ten chapters, of which only the one chapter included in scroll 110 of the Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds survives today, recording the deeds of seventy-seven immortals and perfected from the Primordial Sovereign to Jiang Bozhen. The figures it includes range from legendary pre-Qin, Han and Jin figures such as Xu Fu, Wangzi Qiao and Guo Pu, to actual Daoist figures of the Northern and Southern Dynasties such as Kou Qianzhi, so it is generally inferred that the original book was composed between the end of the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Sui–Tang period. Its format follows on from the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals and the Biographies of Divine Immortals, recording chiefly matters of cultivating perfection within the Grotto-Heavens and receiving scriptures and transmitted methods, with particular attention to figures of the Shangqing and Lingbao scriptural lineages, and can be cross-checked against the Declarations of the Perfected and the Biographies of Students of the Dao. Because the original book was lost, the surviving text is limited in extent, but it remains an important source for examining the genealogy of immortals and the concept of the Grotto-Heavens in the Six Dynasties; the title "Grotto Immortals" refers to immortals who dwell within the Grotto-Heavens, and is connected to the formation of the doctrine of the Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands.

Key Ideas

• The deeds of seventy-seven immortals and perfected
• Cultivating perfection within the Grotto-Heavens and receiving scriptures and transmitted methods
• The genealogy of immortals in the Six Dynasties
• Following on from the format of the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals and the Biographies of Divine Immortals
• The original book is lost; only the compilation in the Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds survives

Structure

One chapter survives today, arranged as a sequence of short biographies.

Editions

• Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds, scroll 110 edition
• Compilation in the Shuofu

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikipedia: Biographies of Grotto Immortals
• CTEXT: Seven Slips from the Bookbag of the Clouds

Related scriptures

Related figures