To live as long as heaven and earth : a translation and study of Ge Hong's traditions of divine transcendents /
In late classical and early medieval China, ascetics strove to become transcendents--deathless beings with supernormal powers. Practitioners developed dietetic, alchemical, meditative, gymnastic, sexual, and medicinal disciplines (some of which are still practiced today) to perfect themselves and th...
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| Format: | Licensed eBooks |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Berkeley :
University of California Press
©2002.
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| Series: | Daoist classics ;
2. |
| Online Access: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnbmw |
| Summary: | In late classical and early medieval China, ascetics strove to become transcendents--deathless beings with supernormal powers. Practitioners developed dietetic, alchemical, meditative, gymnastic, sexual, and medicinal disciplines (some of which are still practiced today) to perfect themselves and thus transcend death. Narratives of their achievements circulated widely. Ge Hong (283-343 c.e.) collected and preserved many of their stories in his Traditions of Divine Transcendents, affording us a window onto this extraordinary response to human mortality. Robert Ford Campany's groundbreaking and carefully researched text offers the first complete, critical translation and commentary for this important Chinese religious work, at the same time establishing a method for reconstructing lost texts from medieval China. Clear, exacting, and annotated, the translation comprises over a hundred lively, engaging narratives of individuals deemed to have fought death and won. Additionally, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth systematically introduces the Chinese quest for transcendence, illuminating a poorly understood tradition that was an important source of Daoist religion and a major social, cultural, and religious phenomenon in its own right. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxviii, 607 pages) : illustrations |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 553-579) and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780520927605 0520927605 1417523875 9781417523870 1597349593 9781597349598 9780520230347 0520230345 |