Li Shaojun李少君

Style & Daoist names

Li Shaoweng (not to be confused with Li Shaojun)

Period

Western Han

Dates

? — c. 133 BCE

School

Fangxian Dao (Way of the Fangshi and Immortality-seekers)

Role

Fangshi (Master of Methods)Alchemist

Birthplace

the region of Qi (one account gives Shenze)

Life

Li Shaojun was a renowned fangshi under Emperor Wu of the Western Han. The 'Fengshan Shu' of the Records of the Grand Historian and the 'Treatise on the Suburban Sacrifices' of the Han Shu record that he gained audience with Emperor Wu through sacrifices to the Hearth God, dietary regimens, and techniques for warding off old age, claiming that he could transmute cinnabar into gold, that eating and drinking from vessels cast of such gold would extend life, that this would in turn allow one to behold the immortals of Penglai, and that upon seeing the immortals and performing the feng and shan sacrifices one would become immortal. He also won the emperor's trust by identifying a bronze vessel from the time of Duke Huan of Qi, and was thereafter treated with great honor. When Li Shaojun later died of illness, Emperor Wu refused to believe he had died, holding instead that he had transformed and departed, and ordered his disciples to continue practicing his arts. Li Shaojun is among the earliest figures in the textual record to explicitly link alchemy (transmuting cinnabar into gold) with longevity and immortality, marking the establishment of external alchemy within Fangxian Dao, and his sequence of sacrifice to the Hearth God, transmute gold, attain immortality, and perform the feng and shan directly drove the immortality-seeking activities of Emperor Wu's reign. Later Daoist hagiography attached to him the status of an immortal who had attained the Dao, and works such as the Shenxian Zhuan added episodes of discipleship and ascension not found in the standard histories, differing greatly from the official record.

Contributions & Influence

• First proposed transmuting cinnabar into gold in pursuit of longevity, the beginning of external alchemy
• Drove the religious practice of the feng and shan sacrifices and the pursuit of immortality under Emperor Wu of Han
• His sequence of techniques provided a prototype for later Fangxian Dao and Daoist external alchemy

Legends

The Shenxian Zhuan claims that Li Shaojun received instruction from Anqi Sheng and departed by corpse-liberation (shijie), and that when the emperor opened his coffin only his robe and cap were found — such episodes were added by later hagiography and are unrecorded in the standard histories; they are legendary.