Biographies of Exemplary Immortals列仙传

Also known as

Eulogies to the Biographies of Exemplary Immortals

Author / transmission

Traditionally attributed to Liu Xiang, In fact a pseudonymous work by an Eastern Han author

Period

Eastern Han · Traditionally attributed to Liu Xiang (77–6 BCE) of the Western Han, though most scholars now believe it was composed in the Eastern Han under his name; it is not recorded in the Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Han and first appears in the Bibliographic Treatise of the History of the Sui.

Canon division

Dongzhen Section, Records and Biographies Category

Collected in

Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era, Dongzhen Section, Jizhuan Category

Category

Immortal Biographies

Fascicles

2 juan

Synopsis

The Biographies of Exemplary Immortals is the earliest surviving book of immortal biographies, in two chapters, recording the deeds of seventy (some say seventy-one) immortals including Chisongzi, Ning Fengzi, Ma Shihuang, Pengzu, Laozi, the Warden of the Pass Yin Xi, Lü Shang, Ge You, Juanzi, Wangzi Qiao, Master Anqi, Heshang Gong, Master Wine-Seller, Nü Ji, and the Hairy Woman, each biography followed by a four-character eulogy in verse. What it records is mostly Fangxian Dao lore from the Warring States through the Qin and Han, with figures whose social standing extends down to medicine sellers, tavern keepers, fishermen and women, reflecting the popular character of early immortality belief; the paths to immortality include ingestion (pine seeds, quartz, cinnamon, mica), daoyin exercises, breath circulation, corpse-liberation, and bedchamber arts, without yet forming the systematic theory of later internal alchemy. This book is the prototype for a whole series of later immortal biographies such as the Biographies of Divine Immortals, the Biographies of Grotto Immortals, and the Records of the Assembled Immortals of the Fortified Walled City, and was extensively quoted in the Extensive Records of the Taiping Era and the Categorized Collection of Literature; it exerted a profound influence within the tradition of Daoist literature and iconography (such as the "Illustrations of the Assembled Immortals"). The present transmitted text may include later interpolations and already differs from what is quoted in the Imperial Readings of the Taiping Era.

Key Ideas

• The earliest surviving book of immortal biographies
• Seventy immortals, each with an appended four-character eulogy
• Early immortality arts such as ingestion, breath circulation, and corpse-liberation
• The popularization and occupational diversity of immortals
• The prototype of later immortal biographies

Structure

Two chapters, thirty-five biographies each, each biography followed by a eulogy.

Editions

• Daoist Canon of the Zhengtong Era edition
• Sibu Congkan photo-reprint of a Ming edition
• Wang Shumin, Collated and Annotated Biographies of Exemplary Immortals (Academia Sinica, 1995)

Commentaries

• Wang Shumin, Collated and Annotated Biographies of Exemplary Immortals

Translations

• French translation with detailed annotation by Max Kaltenmark, Le Lie-sien tchouan (1953)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Biographies of Exemplary Immortals
• CTEXT: Biographies of Exemplary Immortals

Related scriptures

Related figures