Ko Hung's Discourse of Hsien-Immortality: A Taoist Configuration of an Alternate Ideal SelfIdentity Author(s): Chi-Tim Lai Reviewed work(s): Source: Numen,

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KO HUNG'S DISCOURSE OF HSIEN-IMMORTALITY: A TAOIST CONFIGURATION OF AN ALTERNATE IDEAL SELF-IDENTITY

CHI-TIM LAI

Summary This study seeks to investigatethe ideological base underlyingKo Hung's new in early Six Dynasties China. Our analysis Taoist discourse of hsien-immortality his will show the symbolic and discursivecomplex of Ko Hung'shsien-immortality, and his reaypropiiation of the ancientChinese religioustradition self-understanding, in particular in relationto his own emerginghistoricalconof physicalimmortality, sciousness. In so doing, it can serve as one of the keys to the understanding of an which functionsas an early Taoistmaster'sreligiousdiscourseof hsien-immortality organizingprinciplethatordersthe way he experiencesthe social andculturalworld, as an ideologicalresolutionfor his feelings of incongruence betweenouterrealityand ideal self-identity inner world, and, finally,as a soteriologicalvision of an alternate in contrastto the Han idealizedConfuciansage.Theconstruction of Taoistdiscourse of hsien-identity,instancedin Ko Hung's Pao-p'u tzu nei-p'ien, should, therefore, and arbitrary withoutthe roots in socio-cultural not be seen as something abstract reality,but a new formationand shape for the Six Dynasties literatiof an alternate idealized self-identity.

Introduction
They walk throughthe raging fire and are not burned;stepping lightly, they cross gloomy torrents;they fly in the pure air, with the wind as harnessand the clouds as chariots.Raisingtheir eyes, they reach the PurplePole, lowering them, they settle into Kun-lun. They often mount to the paradiseof T'ai-ching; or fly in the Purple Firmament;or travel to Hsiian-chou;or live in Pan-t'ung... [They] enlargetheir boundariesto include all of space;go where they will.1

Thus Ko Hung (A.D. 283-343) describes how Taoist hsien-immortals enjoy their ability to be ubiquitous and to fly through Heaven and Earth. Indeed, longing to become an immortal and to ascend to the paradise of hsien are conspicuous motifs seen in ancient Chinese lit? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden(1998) NUMEN, Vol. 45

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erature. For instance, in the Chuang-tzu(fourthto second century namely, B.C.),2 a transcendent figurelike Ko Hung's hsien-immortal, is depictedin the following way: a divine man (shen-jen),3
In the mountainsof far-offKu-yitherelives a shen-jen(divine man) whose skin and flesh are like ice and snow, who is gentle as a virgin. He does not eat the five grains but sucks in the wind and drinksthe dew; he rides the vaporof the clouds, yokes flying dragonsto his chariot,and roamsbeyond the four seas.4

However, in light of the ancient Chinese religious imagination, of immortals'transcendent such a heavenly ascent, a characteristic natureand ability,is not expressedas a sort of journeyoccurringafter is a continued state of this one's death. Instead, hsien-immortality a instead of life.5 That is, being journeyfrom one's deathto worldly his/herarrivalin heaven,the ancientChineseconcept of immortality, non dying"(pu lao pu ssu) and "nourish however,means "non-aging, [one's material]life in ordernot to die" (yang sheng pu ssu).6 The Shou-wen chieh-tzu(Explainingthe Graphsand Explicating their Combinations),an early Han etymological dictionary,glosses the word "hsien"as "havinga long life and ascendingto heaven."7 In addition,early Han rhapsodies(in the middle of the second century B.C.) like "Yian yu" (Far-offJourney)in the Ch'u tz'u (The Songs of the South)8and "Yian ssu" (Journeyto the Romoteness) by Liu Hsiang (79 B.C.-A.D. 8) express the wishful hsien-thinking of embarkingon a journey to heaven without dying. As such, the ancient Chinese ideal of immortality (hsien) essentially includes the "deathlessness" (pu ssu) and "heavenlyasfollowing two elements: is recognized as a deathless cent" (sheng t'ien).9 A hsien-immortal and yokes flying dragons clouds of the the "rides who vapor being to his chariot."'0 Despite many scholarly attemptto chart the origins, continuity, few and changes of the ancientChinesedoctrineof hsien-immorality, studentsof ancientChinesereligiousthoughthave paid enoughattenthe ancientChineseconcept(s) tion to the ideologicalbase underlying and few think of them accordingto individual of hsien-immortality; thinkers'lives, effective histories,dispositions,and social contexts.

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of a given idea Theoreticallyspeaking,in as much as a proponent or belief is an individualin history and society, KarlMannheimhas argued that, "the 'existence' that surroundsa person is never 'existence as such,' but is always a concrete historicalform of social existence."11 Applyingthatconsciousnessto this study,it will be my that not until a historicaland social study begins to presupposition betweensuch ancientChinesewishfulthinkexaminethe relationship of the body and the actual "social existence" ing as the immortality of the proponentsof such ideas does the belief of hsien-immortality makes sense, eitherfor the writersin the past or for us today. framethis studyplacesthis themewithinthe theoretical Moreover, was conwork in which the ancientChinese concept of immortality ceived of as an unrealizable utopia that emergedfrom an "incongruunfulfilledtendencies betweenourTaoistprotagonist's ence"occurred order. to social and the existing According Mannheim,this type of of social and historicalinconutopian mentality,as a manifestation wishful the form in often thinking, gruence,
has always figured in humanaffairs. When the imaginationfinds no satisfaction in existing reality,it seeks refuge in wishfully constructedplaces and promisesof religion, humanisticfanperiods. Myths, fairy tales, other-worldly tasies, travelromances,havecontinuallychangingexpressionsof thatwhich was lacking in actuallife.12

with the given reality, In otherwords,becauseof an incongruence of the the to burst bonds tends existing order. To utopian thought effect may be focused on the existing some extent, this transforming historical-socialsituation. Nevertheless, Mannheimdefines utopia in as differingfrom ideology in that the formerseems unreali7?ble ideas into the given social/historical order,but projectstranscendent in its unrealizablity time and space. Hence, notwithstanding "other" free to is of the reality,the function utopianideas, arguesMannheim, utopia from the bonds of the existing order. In light of this theoreticalframeworkfor the social and historical incongruenceembodiedin utopian mentalities,I, in this paper, hsienshall analyzethe symboliccomplex of Ko Hung'sindependent the tradiof and his his discourse, self-understanding, reappropriation

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in particular in relationto his own emerging tion of hsien-immortality, historical experiencesof incongruence. In other words, aiming at a of the internaldynamicsthatcreatedKo Hung's deeper interpretation discourse, my study will focus upon the following two problems: (1) the interpretiveposition of Ko Hung's discourse; and (2) the concrete interplayof the incongruentforms of social/culturalexisthatinformshis discourse tence with the corresponding incongruence In so doing, it will be my contentionthat Ko of hsien-immortality. and his bearingof a "obsessive" Hung's pursuitof bodily immortality should not be transmitted tradition only consideredas an intellectualconceptualdimensionof practice,as somethingas abstractand arbiI shall arguethat Rather, trarywithoutthe roots in empiricalreality.13 Ko Hung's Taoistreligion of hsien-immorality functionsas an orgathe that orders our way nizing principle protagonistexperiencesthe an as resolution for his incongruence social/cultural world, ideological between outerrealityand innerworld, and, finally,as a soteriological vision of a perfect self-identity. Let us first glimpse the (incongruent)intellectualmilieu within which Ko Hung's religiousdiscoursewas nourishedand configured. The IntellectualMilieu Periods in WhichKo Hung's Discourse was Situated (3rd-4thcenturiesA.D.) and the Flourishof Writingsabout the Immortals The period of the Six Dynasties (3rd-6thcenturiesA.D.) is genLike the Dark erally regardedas the beginningof medievalChina.14 in the Six is often conceived history, Dynastiesperiod Ages European to be one of gloom and disorder,little more than a confusing series of dynasticnames. And yet, due to the uprisingand invasionof barbariantribes,the ChineseWesternChin dynastywas forced to retreat to the south of the Yangtzeriver. Hence, thatperiod of Chinese history is often summedup by the phrase,'The Five Barbarians brought disorderto China"(wu-huluan hua). In contrastto such a provisionalview concerningthe history of the Six dynasties,modem scholarshave discernedan underlyingpolitical continuityin its rulingclasses,15as well as culturalcreativity,

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diversity,and proliferation.In one typical scholarlyview stressing withparticular to the creativecultural this historicaloccurrence regard aspectin the Six Dynasties,Li Ze-hou,a modemChinesephilosopher of aesthetics,has rightlyarguedthat,
and great activity The Wei-Jinera (A.D. 220-420) witnesseda re-emancipation in the ideological domain where many questionswere put forwardand much breadth, scope, and diversityof schools progess was made. Thoughin duration, it could not matchthe Pre-Qin,nonetheless,the profoundity and purityattained by its speculativephilosophywere unprecedented.16

In what follows, I shall brieflylay out threerepresentative cultural the that characterize the intellectual milieu of early periodof aspects Six Dynasties and, specifically,the transitional period between the WesternChin (A.D. 265-317) and EasternChin (A.D. 317-420) in which Ko Hung was bornand situated. The first culturalchange that emergedafter the fall of the Later Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) was manifestedby the decline of Han Confucian orthodoxy. Since the EmperorWu of the Han dynasty measureof had establishedthe classics of Confuciusas the standard of other schools of intellectualand cultural at the uniformity expense of thoughts,Confucianteachingsand rituals(the Teaching Names) the currentsystems of became a dominantvalue-systemlegitimating education. the and From governing perspectiveof Confucianliterati humanthoughtand social in the Han, the compulsionto standardize conductmight be explainedas having developedout of a particular culturalconcern.17 However,as things in historyoften go to extreme the of religiousrites and social regsides, ideologicalstandardization ulationsbased upon the Confuciantradition resultedin a monolithic naturaldisposition, value-system,and norm of social behaviorbeing imposed upon the literati at this time. For instance, Pan Ku (A.D. 32-92), the historianwho wrote the dynastic history of the FormerHan Dynasty,the Han shu (Historyof FormerHan), insisted that the Confucianstandard was the only criteriafor regulatinghuon Rites man intercourse.In a chapterof the Han shu, "Monograph and Music" (Li-yuehchih),he writes,

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For those who are active in affairs of state, if for one morningthey fail in the rites, then ruin and disorderwill prevail. Man holds within him the positive and negative energies of Heavenand Earth;he possesses feelings of joy, anger, grief and happiness. Heavenhas endowedhim a naturaldisposition[by which] he can regulate [these feelings]. The sages were able to make regulationsfor them, but unable to put an end to them. So imitatingHeaven and Earththey fashionedrites and music, by which to gain access to the gods, establishhuman relationships,correctthe feelings and disposition,and regulateall things.18

Nevertheless,withthe fall of the Hanempire,as well as the decline of its dominantvalue system at the end of the second century,these culturalconstraintschanged.19 As a significant sign testifying to a culturalchange in the early Six Dynasties, literatiof that period had no longer restrictedthemselves to educationin the Five Classics. Instead,they substituted the of Han ideal literati-a fading personality specialist exclusively in the classics of Confucius(t'ung-ju)-for an alternative ideal image: a specialistin all aspectsof humanlife (t'ung-jen).20 In the Han, any andeternalrealmbeyondthe intellectualinquiryinto the transcendent naturalworld most probablywould have been rebukedby orthodox Confuciansbecause the latterrejectany belief in the actualexistence of spiritsand gods.21 Hence, given the intellectualacclaimof the ideal image of t'ung-jen, it should come as no surprisethat the literatiof the Six Dynasties have an unprecedented with matters preoccupation like the immortalityof the body, the fate of humansin the afterlife, the esotericarts andmagic, and the causalrelationbetweenmeritand the proliferation of the corpus of literary punishment. In particular, the the like Sou-shenchi, the Po-wu writingsconcerning marvelous, the new chih, and the Shen-hsienchuan, convincinglydemonstrates culturaloutlook of the period of Six Dynasties. A second aspect of the culturalshift in the Six Dynasties can be rhetorical discernedin a recurrent with the questionthat corresponds intellectualinquiryinto the eternalrealm beyond nature. Literatiof the Six Dynasties becamemore conscious of enquiringthe groundof one's "natural" self-identityregardlessof the existing "social"idenIn contrast to the previousHan literati'spracticeof circumscribtity. ing one's identity within the frameworkof Confucianvirtues like

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(jen-i) and "loyalty and filial submission" "goodness and morality" (chung-hsiao),Six Dynasties'literatioften initiateda genuinesearch For instance,the expressivepoems for their "natural" self-identity.22 and deeds of JuanChi (A.D. 210-263) andHsi K'ang (A.D. 224-263) representtheir criticismagainstthe bonds of the existing order and their attemptto returnto their "trueself." When Juan Chi was acthe Confucianritualby seeing his sister-in-law cused of transgressing to herparents'home, and biddingher goodbye, as she was returning he replied,"Theriteswerenot set up for the likes of me!"23 Likewise, Hsi K'ang deliberatelycriticizesthe existing hypocriticalConfucian values because they hinderhis realizationof true humannature:24
The essential featuresof the Six Classics are restraintand guidance;but what pleases humannatureis following one's desires. Restraintand guidance thus go against our wishes, where by following our desires we attain the natural. of the naturaldoes not from the restraining and This being the case, attainment guiding Six Classics, and the root of perfectingone's naturedoes not rely on the laws and ritualswhich go againstour feeling.25

According to Fukunaga Mitsuji,both JuanChi's and Hsi K'ang's self-consciousnessagainstthe existing social orderandfor a liberated self-identityactuallyreflectedthe Six Dynasties literati'sawakening from a "false" and illusive self-identitypreviouslydefinedby social regulation and values. As a result of that sort of awakening, or, in Fukunaga'sterm, "wisdom"(t'i-kuan), a new culturaltendency cherishing the "life of solitude"prevailed at that time. Fukunaga also suggests that once literatiof the Six Dynasties favoreda genuine quest for the ultimateor eternalgroundof their self-identities by breakingthe bonds of existing social order,their spiritualworld immediatelyopenedinto the immense worldof Chineseimmortals.26 In this light, the conclusionthat there may have been an effective with their naturalselves affinitybetween the literati'spreoccupation and the prevalenceof the religious discourses of hsien-immortality in the period of Six Dynastiessounds plausible. In sum, because of a new culturalconcern,the problemsof how and where one's subjectivity can be trulygroundedand actualizedshape the intellectual of the Six Dynastiesperiod. milieu and characteristics

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of the Six Dynasties cannot Thirdly,my culturalcharacterization avoid eliciting the then literati'sserious reflectionon the issue of the of humanlife. Hundred of thousands died in the decadesof transience at in the end of the China second century.The disturbance beginning following official reportsevince the amazing decline in population duringthat period. In A.D.157, an official census put the population in the later Han period at 10,677,960 households and 56,486,856 In A.D. 280, when the WesternChin empire was at individuals.27 its peak, the populationwas reportedly2,459,840 households and 16,163,863 individuals, only about 1/4 of that of the Han.28Such a rapiddecline of populationis believed to have continueduntil the in A.D. 363 writtenby HuanWen,a Eastern Chinperiod. A memorial of the empire'stroops,statesthat the population commander-in-chief in SouthChinawas even less thanthatof a provinceunderthe Han.29 In addition to the above figures, the concrete picture of the social disturbanceand of the suffering of the mass by the end of third centurycan be graspedin the following court-record.
and culture After the reign of EmperorHui (A.D. 290-306) both administration declined. By the Yung-chia period (A.D. 307-312) trouble and disturbances were very wide-spread.FromYung-choueastwardmany sufferedfrom hunger became countless. In the and poverty. People were sold [as slave]. Vagrants six provinces of Yu, Ping, Ssu, Chi, Ch'in, and Yung there were a bad plague of locusts. Grass, trees, and hair of cattle and horses were all eaten up [by the locusts]. Furthervirulentdisease accompaniedthe famine. Also the people were murdered by bandits.Theriverswerefilled withfloatingcorpses; bleached bones covered thefields [emphasismine].30

Since death was a tragic and cataclysmic reality in the people's a greatdeal it attracted daily life duringthatperiod,not surprisingly, of attentionand sentimentfrom the literatiof the Six Dynasties. Among the literati who sentimentallyreflect about their feelings about and fear of the transience of human life, Wang Hsi-chih is most (A.D. 303-361), one of the best knownChinesecalligraphers, famous.31 According to Fukunaga,expressions of grief and mourndeath of his relatives and best friends cover a large over the ing It is said that proportionof Wang Hsi-chih's calligraphicscripts.32

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died of illness, Wang and granddaughters when his daughter-in-law And yet, when his best friends died, mournedfor them painfully.33 Wang reportedthat his paineven reachedinside his five internalviscera (wu-nei).34

Indeed, what Wang has expressed of the bitternessof his dead friends and family is not only an isolatedvoice, but actuallyreflects a general culturaltendencyand intellectualanxiety during that period. Literatiof that periodwere characterized by their sentimental and the human life finitude of the of finalityof death. To recognition furtherexemplify this concern,one might quote Hsi K'ang's poems, which most profoundlyresonatewith the culturalsentimentof that period. For instance, one of his poems says, "Life so like a floatParadoxically,it ing abode is briefly manifest, suddenly ended."35 was from the issue of humandeathand the recognitionof transience of human life that the literatiof the Six Dynasties celebratedtheir drivingwish for liberationfrom fatalism. As a specific culturalphenomenon,theirquestfor a long life and theirdreamof a transcendent have few precedents. Such a quest for a world of hsien-immortals world can be exemplifiedby Hsi K'ang's poem: transcendent
Man's life so hurried, heaven and earthso enduring. A span of one hundred years, who termsthis long life? I long to ascend to the immortals, cross over to incorruptibility.36

Themesof Ko Hung's Discourse of The Interpretative hsien-Immortality and Given its scope andcomplexityin systematizing, rationalizing, the of traditions Chinese ancient the nourishing religious recreating Ko Hung's Pao-p'u tzu neiof life and the cult of hsien-immortality, Inner Chapters)is pien (Inner Chaptersof the Pao-p'u tzu, hereafter author The the tradition. of presents sophisundoubtedlya classic ticated argumentson a varietyof subjects: (1) proofs of the per se state of immortalityof the existence of immortalsand transcendent

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body; (2) stipulationof the accessibilityto the perfect state of long of one's social status but dependenton life to everyone, irrespective whetherone could study deeply and strenuouslycultivatethe necesof diverse esoteric techniques sary esoteric methods;(3) elaboration and (4) descriptionsand leading one to become a hsien-immortal; Taoist discoursesand sects. criticism of the diversecontemporary In exploring the meanings, identity, and purpose that Ko Hung recursivelyintends to configurein the Inner Chapters,it is my contention that his discourseof hsien-immorality basically recreatesthe tradition in orderto resolvehis conflictswithin past religious/spiritual his social and emotionalmilieu and to configurea new self-identity in an incongruent transformation. Notwithperiodof historical/social standingthe variety of subjectmattersexpoundedin the twenty total chapters of the Inner Chapters,I shall focus my study on the self-consciousness and interpretative positions deployed in his discourse and how they are recursively developedto resolve Ko Hung's own and his to create a new perfect selfto destiny struggle change (ti-hsien) for himself. In short, I identity as an "EarthImmortals" imshall show that the internaldynamicsof his conceptionof "earth his discourseof hsien-immortality, the dynamics mortals" precipitates of which-simultaneously doctrinal,social, and emotional-he employed to configureand representhis own ideal identity to himself and others. The Basic Assumptions of Ko Hung's Discourse: The Recognitionof the Impasse of HumanDeath and the Impossibilityof "Rebirth" (fu-sheng) after Death With regard to an individual'sgiven life-span in this world, Ko Hung'sbeliefs are not muchdifferentfrom otherancientChineseformulationsin the pre-Buddhist period. For instance,in the T'ai-ping Peace HY 1093), it statesthat the "essence" the Great (Book ching of fundamental or root,pen-ken)of thousandsof crea(literally,original tures originates with the "Primordial Breath"(yuan-ch'i).37 Hence, humanlife and the materialbody are consideredas essentially conof stitutedby ch'i, vital breath. Ko Hung shares this understanding

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humanconstitutionand states that: "Manexists in the midst of ch'i, and ch'i is within man himself. From heaven and earth on to all creationthere is nothingthat does not requirech'i to stay alive."38 In acceptingthis cosmogonictheory of ch'i, Ko Hung, like his predecessors, assumes that an individual'snormallife-span has already been predestinedbecausewhen a personis born, a fixed quantityof That is, the length of one's ch'i has been assigned to him or her.39 life dependsupon how much ch'i one has receivedin takingform in the womb: "Everyone,similarly,has receiveda variablequantityof ch'i. Those with much of it are extinguishedslowly; those with little come to a quick end."40 Moreover,accordingto Ko Hung, one's predestinedlife-span is normallycut down on accountof the following causes: First,human beings always do somethingto deplete the originalallotmentof ch'i, Ko Hung the so-called "breath-deficiency" (sun-ch'i). In particular, habitswouldexhaustmost stressesthatone's excessiveor unregulated of the allotted ch'i.41 Second, decrease of vital ch'i is caused by the sins one commits. It is believed that the gods, ssu-k'uo chih shen, who are in chargeof humanmisdeedswould accordinglymake deductionsfrom one's allottedlife-span. Ko Hung elaborateson this belief, writing,
The gods of heaven and earthwho are in chargeof misdeeds make deductions frompeople's reckonings (to-suan)accordingto the degreeof theirwrongdoing. As these reckoningsdecrease,a man becomes poorerand falls ill; frequentlyhe suffers anxiety. When no more are left, he dies.42

Indeed,this sort of reasoningthat correlatesan individual'sphysical health and allocatedlife-span with moralbehavioris a common in earlierTaoisttexts duringthe thirdcentury.The featureformulated following quotationfrom the Book of the GreatPeace clearly shows this ancientChinese conceptionof one's predestined life-span:
Heaven knows people's large and small wrongdoings.[Gods] will recordthem in the book of goodness and evil. They are examinedby days and monthsand, in consequence, [Heaven]makes deductionsfrom people's reckoningsand cut one will be put theirlife-span... When one's reckoningis completelydedluced, will uncounted to one's deductions in the grave, and those go offspring.43

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Establishedupon a model in which a definite give is always deof the normalcourseof humanlife appears ducted,this understanding to take a pessimistic view of humandestiny. Because of this subtracmortallife-span,Ko Hung lamentedoverthe tion from an individual's transienceof humanlife. His lament,to a certainextent, echoed the in the Book of Eccleancient Hebrew poets' rhetoricof lamentation siastes, saying, "Inthis world man loses one day every day, and like the buffalo or sheep being led away to the slaughter,every step forwardbrings him nearerto departure in death."44 So saying, Ko Hung basicallybelieves thatone's normallife-spanhas been predetermined based upon a definitequantityof receivedvital energies. One's normal course of life is essentiallya fatalisticdance towardsdeath. After determiningKo Hung'sview on the natureof humanlife as such, the next importantquestionis how he conceives the meaningsof death, as well as the world of the afterlife. cultural Priorto the significant influencesby IndianBuddhism upon Chineseconceptionof mortality, the fourth-and fifth-century the ancient Chinese usually accept the idea that a person exists on earth only one time, althoughthere were different religious and philosophical speculationsover the final destiny of souls (hun and p'o) after one died.45For the latter,two oppositeviews can be instanced: Wang Ch'ung (A.D. 27-ca. 100) and the Book of the GreatPeace. Wang Ch'ung, a LaterHan literatus,can be viewed as a representativefigureof Confucianliteratiwho deny any survivalof the "souls of the dead" (kuei). In his great work, Lun-heng,he stronglyargues for the view that as soon as a person dies and is buried, both the body (hsing) and souls (ching and shen) graduallydissolve into the primalch'i and lose theirindividualidentities. Thus, in termsof the problemof the afterlife,WangCh'ungabsolutelydenies the idea that the individualsoul, as well as the body, can survive death.46 Far from this sort of rationalist view on afterlifesuggestedby the Confucianliterati,the Book of the GreatPeace asserts the existence wherein of a netherworld,T'ai-yin (literally,the Great Darkness),47 an individual's moral conduct during life has been recorded. The book also makes it clear thatwhen one dies, he/she will come to the

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T'ai-yin to be examined. With the exception of a small number of immortals, most of the dead remain forever in the T'ai-yin.
When [the gods of] "belowthe earth"(ti-hsia,another namefor T'ai-yin)receive those new dead, the latterwill be examinedupon theirwrongdoingand the times when they might have repented.It is based upon this examinationto determine one's "register" (ming-chi)[in the ti-hsia]; and on accountof the causes of their the wrongdoing, dead will be accordinglypunished.48

Moreover, regarding the fate of the dead, the Book of the Great Peace adds that in the T'ai-yin the dead are transformed into different forms of "spirits of the dead" (kuei), such as the "spirits of happiness" (lo-yao kuei), the "spirits of suffering" (shou-k'u kuei), the "spirits of evil" (wu-kuei), and so on.49 In spite of the various forms of the "souls of the dead," the most crucial underlying assumption is that the dead are never born again. In other words, based upon this identification of the indigenous Chinese conception of a netherworld, it is quite possible to suggest that the ancient Chinese in the period before the arrival of Buddhism generally accepted the view that after a person dies, he/she cannot be reborn on earth again. Even in the Book of the Great Peace, in discussions of the dead's material body, there is no explicit concept of "rebirth"(tsai-sheng) after dying,5 with the exception of one inexplicit instance.51 Instead, the book clearly states that everyone can only live on earth for just one time:
For the matterthat people in this world have to die, this is not a tiny thing. If one is dead, one can never see sky and earth, sun and moon, one's veins and bones are tured into dust. The importanceof death means very much. People who are on this earthcan only receive one time of life, and will not be born again [afterdeath] (pu-te-ch'ung-sheng).52

Although it is not my interest in this study to examine the possible conceptual continuity among Wang Ch'ung, the Book of the Great Peace, and Ko Hung, it is interesting to note that a similar lack of use of the religious imagination on the concept of "rebirth" (tsaisheng orfu-sheng) is a characteristic of the Inner Chapters as well.53 Ko Hung's belief in the existence of an "Unseen World" sets him in opposition to Wang Ch'ung's rationalistic view. The former insists

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To thatgods, spirits,demons,andimmortalsinhabitthe "otherworld." he on this cites one a occasion "historical" argument, prove example of the "spiritof the dead"of a concubineof showingthe reappearance the EmperorWu, which was summonedback by an esoteric master, Shao Weng.54 instance,he argues, Pointingto this "historical"
in These are all mattersdealingwith spirits (kuei) and gods (shen), documented our books, thereare manymore clear expositionsof this sort. So if the ignorant profanepeople (su-jen) still claim that they do not exist, how can they believe the matterof long-life.55

In spite of this idea of the survivalof the "spiritsof the dead,"the Ko Hung'sdiscourseof hsien-immortality basic assumption underlying resulted from his lack of imaginationconcerningthe theme of "rebirth"after death. His religious discourse of salvation is uniquely concerned with the ideas and methods for prolonging life (ch'ang sheng), avoiding the death, and attainingan eternal life as long as Heaven and Earth, ratherthan giving any specific thoughts on the conception of rebirth. In sum, the doctrine of the perfect state of salvationwhich Ko Hung is most concernedwith is derivedfrom his denial of the finitudeof deathandthe need to strivefor the attainment of long life.56 My contentionis basedupon the following threepieces of internal evidence. First,beginningwith a recognitionthatthereis an absolute breakbetween life anddeath,Ko Hung, in the InnerChapters,makes it clear that an individualbody cannot regenerateif the souls (hun andp'o) departfrom its body. In his words, "Whensome of a man's hun andp'o departfromthe body, illness ensues;when they all leave Moreimportantly, when an individualdies, "there him, a man dies."57 and the decomposed[body]would of the departed, would be no return not have a chance of rebirth." Knowing this ironic reality of human finitude,Ko Hung furtherrecommendsthat "thoseliteratiwho want to know the Tao shouldsincerelymour over it."58 Secondly,Ko Hungsuggeststhatthereis a specificclass of immortals-the "immortals liberated fromthe corpse"(shih-chieh-hsien)59their because of who, inabilityto achieve immortality by immediate ascension "in full daylight"(pai-jih sheng-t'ien),need to transform

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theirmaterialbodies afterthe normalrite of burial.Even so, for him, these immortalsare "falselydead"(t'o-ssu), or superficiallytake the In this sense, mortalform of dying (t'o-chung-mang chih-hsing).60 for are two and immortality, him, unbridgeablecategories. For ity the contradiction in speakingthe "death" instance, when confronted of the immortalsof shih-chieh-hsien, Ko Hung immediatelyadds an evidence to insist that the "death" is merely example of "historical" a "false"death. That is to say, what is put into the coffin is just a cane the immortalhas given the appearance of a corpse to, while the real body has alreadygone to live among other immortals.61 contrast Ko Hung'sconceptof the "liberation Thirdly,if we further of the corpse"with laterTaoisttexts from the fourthor fifth century, e.g., the Tzu-yangchen-jennei chuan (Inner Traditionsof the PerHY303), the Teng-chen yin-chueh(HY421), and fected of Tzu-yang, the Chen-kao(HY 1010), a great shift in the meaning of the term, "liberationfrom the corpse,"becomes evident. Since those latter texts had been influenced by the Buddhistdoctrineof the afterlife,a of the new understanding from the corpse"emerged.For "liberation instance, in the Chen-kao,the immortalsliberatedfrom the corpse are rankedas the "agent-beneath-the-earth" (ti-hsia chu-che) in the underworldof T'ai-yin;and, most importantly, they now undergoa toward the of their material bodies.62 rebirth regeneration process In sum, for Ko Hung,the searchfor a perfectstate of salvationhas first and foremostto assumeand overcomethe seemingly unchangeable fact of humancorporeal mortality.Thus, he requireda journey of departurewhich would completely free the individualfrom the constraintsof thatmortality. Its Basic Ko Hung's New Discourseon hsien-lmmortality: Characteristics In the accountthat follows, I shall attemptto explicate the basic and unique characteristics of Ko Hung's "new"discourse of hsienthe conceptualdimensionof the "disI shall approach immortality.63 in Ko continuity" Hung'sdiscourseon two levels. The first applauded level concernsthe distinctiveness of his discoursefromthe type which

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was celebratedin the 'Treatiseon the Feng and Shen Sacrifices"(in Shih chi) and the 'Treatise on Chiao Sacrifices"(in Han shu); the second level concerns the self-understanding and intentionalityembodied in this new discourse of hsien-immortality.Both levels of analysis depend on a conceptionof historicaldynamismthat situates Ko Hung's discoursewithin his social and intellectualmilieu. of the distinctivecharacteristics of Ko Hung'sdisIn consideration within the milieu of the Six Dynasties, course on hsien-immortality Kominami Ichir6 has arguedthat Ko Hung's discourse is already strippedof imperialideology, which, in the historiographical depictions of the emperorsCh'in Shih-huangand Han Wu-ti, adopts the to extend its worldly wealth, honor and cult of hsien-immortality an Instead, openness to all who want to learn the ascetic power. to cult leading hsien-immortality characterizes Ko Hung's religious discourse. The following analysis of one of earliest Chinese myths the differencebetween such two of hsien-ship furtherdemonstrates differentmodels of hsien-immortality. For the ancient Chinese, the of the 'Three Islands of Paradise" or san-tao), (san-shen-shan myths the earespecially the paradiseof P'eng-lai,could be said to represent liest cult of hsien-inmortality.Accordingly,the myths claimed that immortalslived in far-awayparadises.If a living personcould reach a paradise,he or she wouldfindthe "drugthatconfersdeathlessness" (pu-ssu chih-yao).64 In additionto the surfaceaccountof the myths,it is of the greatest importanceto explore the specific locality within which the myths of immortalsare deployed. Imperialistdesires and motivationscan be linked to the search for the "drugthat confers deathlessness" in the myth of the 'Three Islands of Paradise."For instance, the two 'Treatises"above offer many accounts of how the First Ch'in Emsought the mythologperorand EmperorHan Wu-tienthusiastically ical paradise of P'eng-lai. The best known account concerns the First Ch'in Emperorwho once sent severalthousandof virgin boys and girls, led by an official named Ts'ui Shih, to the East Sea to seek the paradiseof P'eng-lai and to procurethe "drugsthat confer deathlessness."65 Given this account, the ancient Chinese discourse

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of hsien-immortality thereforedependsheavily upon a mythological structure of "archaic as well as the humandesirefor a heavenly hero," the quests by the First Chin Emperor "gift"of eternallife. Further, Hanwu-tifor a prolongation of life presentthe historical andEmperor contextwithin which the ancientmyths of immortalswere deployed. As the main idea cherishedby this tradition of hsien-immortality, the of the body mainly centers upon heavsearch for the immortality enly gifts of the "drugthat confers deathlessness"by transcendent in distantparadises.66 immortalsbelievablyappearing In contrast to this imperial discourse of hsien-immortality, the "new"discourse expressedin Ko Hung's Inner Chaptersbasically suggests anotherpath of salvationand perfection. That is, an individual's self-perfectionisonly dependentupon ascetic, mystic, and ethical behavior. Since it is a new religious discourse supposedly open to all people, the questfor a prolongedlife is no longerthe preserve of the wealthyand powerful. Emphasizingthis difference,Ko the cult of] hsien-Immortals Hung arguesthat "[Cultivating requires and The can be achieved firm resolution only high sincerity... goal And "Oncethe withouttaking accountof one's talent and ability."67 essentialshave been obtained,anyonecan effect this process without waitingfor any greattalentsof the sages and worthiesto do so."68 In insisting on the availabilityof this religious knowledge and path for everyone, it is not surprisingto hear Ko Hung consciously is outside the claiming that the new discourseof hsien-immortality influence of worldly status and wealth. For him, "the secret [of cultivatingthe Tao for a long life] lies in will-power,not in riches He even strongly states that the path seeking or high position."69 prolonginglife and the path seeking the imperialclass's power and wealth are contradictory:
Methodsleadingto immortals calm, freedomof action,andobliviousness require of our physical frames;but in the case of princesthe bonging of huge bells and the thundering of drumswith theirbooming and rumblingupset their souls and excite their heartsand minds.70

Accordingly,he thus criticizesthe First Ch'in Emperorand Hanwu-ti as personswho merelyhad a hollow reputation for seeking the

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but never realizedthe realityof cultivating cult of hsien-immortality, the Tao. The following is my furtherelaborationof Ko Hung's self-underand its basic characteristics standingof the cult of hsien-immortality in order to support my contention that Ko Hung has recreateda new discourse of hsien-tradition.First, in regardto the metaphysical ground supportinghis claim for attainingimmortality,it is of utmost importanceto point out that his discourseis based upon the natural (pien-hua),the million and one principleof "metamorphoses" He considersit the secret principleunderlyingthe transformations.71 mysteriousdynamismof naturallife. Above all, according to this worldis not regarded as a closed, final, and principle,the phenomenal an Instead, infinite,boundless,and endless "world" perpetualreality. of new things and new life is acclaimedand it will arriveonce the old one is exhaustedand has passed away. Grounded upon this "natural" demonstrates Ko Hung's faith in principle, the following quotation the real existence of a transcendent world of immortals:
The ordinarypeople merely say that because they see no immortals in this profane world it is not possible that such things exist. But what is so special about what our eyes have seen? Why should there be any limit to the number of marvelous things that exist between sky and earth, within the vastness of the Unbounded?Throughout our lives we have a sky over our heads but never know what is above it; to the end of our days we live on the earthwithoutever knowing what is below it.72

In additionto this metaphysicalview with respectto the openness of this world, the beliefs in an endless "worldof metamorphoses" and "new life" are furthersupportedby the following bit of deductive reasoning. On the basis of daily experiences which demonstrate many instances of naturalmetamorphoses, Ko Hung deduces that other unknownphenomenaof metamorphoses are also possible, above all, the humantransformation into an immortal.In his words, "By comparingthe slightestclues, big effects becomeknown;on seewhat has not yet ing what is alreadythere,one learnsto understand been tried."73 to Sanaka S8's Ko count, Hung cited almost According to supportthis deduction. thirtyinstances of naturalmetamorphosis

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For instance, in one instanceKo Hung writes that a "pheasant turns into a shen bivalve,"and in anothera "sparrow becomes a clam."74 It to these that be added Ko may examples Hung's metaphysicalpoint for liberationis dependentupon a faith in the principle of departure in nature,rather thanbeing basedupon, for examof metamorphoses which Indian ple, the theme of universalsuffering(sarvamduhkham) assumed to be the conditio sine non have for generqua religions ating the desire for emancipation.Instead,he considers the perfect to be a part of the naturalprocess of state of humanemancipation world of immortalsis not metamorphoses.Hence, the transcendent derived from a mode of complete rejectionor withdrawalfrom the cosmic circuit. His wish for salvationis not also establishedupon a conceptionof a "PerfectGod."For him, the plane of salvation,tranfrom the bondsof the realityof deathis scendence,and emancipation horizonof an enlargement or transformation derivedfrom the natural from one's presentfinite existence. of the present,a liberation The second andthe most important featureof Ko Hung'sdiscourse is not something contendsthat the transcendent mode of immortality and for the human. Instead,evabsolutelyunobtainable unreachable eryone can become an immortaland achieve a prolongedlife. Immortalsare not a special species (hsien-jenchih wu-chung).75 Simply the of efforts in esoteric means one's arts, by great cultivating proper an individualcan attainliberation from this worldlyenslavementand mode of immortality.In particular, enter the transcendent Ko Hung claims that the transcendent mode of immortalbeing is not granted by someone else. That "somethingelse exists" is not due to a distinct gift from the gods or throughsuch religious acts as sacrifice and prayers. The cult of hsien-immortality, insists he, is a path of salvationaccessible merely throughone's own acts of learningand are not cultivatingthe properesoteric arts. Thus, hsien-immortals some special species distinctivelyendowedwith long life. The truth of their achievingimmortality merely lies in theirown resolutewilleffort make the to great ingness required.As a result,they receivethe rewardof freedomto ascendto the transcendent world of immortals.

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To furtherillustratethis centralclaim, Ko Hung cites the examples of the immortalsP'eng Chu and Lao-tzuand arguesthat,
In the case of P'eng and Lao, however, we are still dealing with mere men, not with creaturesof a differentspecies. It was throughattainingthe Tao that they enjoy longevity,not throughwhat they were by nature... [Humanbeings] if they can practicethe same Tao as possess intelligence (jen-yao-ming-chieh); did P'eng and Lao; they can achieve the same results.76

The immortalfigure of "Lao-tzu"had been elevated long before Ko Hung to the statusof the most prominent sage and was even considereda deified god beforeand duringKo Hung's life-time. Consequently,Ko Hung's discursivedepictionof Lao-tzu as merely an ormerely by means dinaryman who attainedthe deathlessimmortality of his own efforts deserves a more penetratinglook, especially in relationto the wider culturalsignificancebroughtby his discourse. Concerning the deification of the philosopher Lao-tzu, Wang Ch'ung (A.D. 27-91), for example, pointed out that in his time the philosopherLao-tzu has already been elevated as a perfected one the (chen-jen)or an immortal(hsien-jen)for his having transcended normalhumanworld (tu-shih).77 Further, by the time of late second and the Lao-tzuming,79 Emthe Han-shu78 Hou to century,according the to have held were said and his officials Huan (A.D. 165) peror cult of Lao-tzu, who was veneratedas a heavenlygod named"Lord Lao" (lao-chun) at the "temples(chi) of Lao-tzu"in the capital of Lo-yang and the state of Chan. In addition to the trace of the cult of the deified Lao-tzu at the identifiedas a late Taoistmanuscript court,accordingto a Tun-huang second centuryreligiousTaoisttext, the Sturaof the Transformation of Lao-tzu (Lao-tzupien-hua ching),80the deified Lao-tzu had also been elevated as a personifiedsupremedeity in popularreligion of amongthe lowest strataof society. The LordLao-tzuwas depictedas having undergonean unlimitednumberof esoteric transformations. he becamemanifestto the world and brought In each transformation, his people an era of peace.81 of the deificationof Lao-tzuare anObviously,these explanations becauseof his tagonisticto Ko Hung'sdiscourseof hsien-immortality

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insistence that the attainment of long life results not from supreme deities but from one's own great efforts. Ko Hung's depiction of Lao-tzu as a ordinary man in quest of long life actually represents a new picture of Lao-tzu. In addition to what he has stated in the Inner Chapters, the Shen-hsien chuan (partially accepted as Ko Hung's work) also expresses this central claim about the ordinariness of Laotzu, saying that he was originally a person born without any divine nature. The attainment of immortality is plainly a result of his own human efforts. So, he is named "a person who has attained the Tao" (te-tao-che). Above all, Ko Hung in the Shen-hsien-chuan wrote the important reason why he absolutely denies the deification of Lao-tzu:
TaoistadeptsthoughtthatdeifyingLao-tzumightfacilThose narrowed-minded itate the latergenerations followinghim. However,they do not know this makes of long life can be learned. Why? If you it harderto believe thatthe attainment say Lao-tzu is a man who have attainedthe Tao, then, everyone will try hard to follow in his steps; however,saying he is a special divine species means that of long life cannotbe learned.82 the attainment

In sum, Ko Hung's treatment of the discourse on Lao-tzu provides an exemplary instance of the "discontinuity" of his discourse with the previous hsien-tradition. This discontinuity is seen as well in Ko Hung's central claim that, through great effort to learn proper esoteric arts from an enlightened master (ming-shih), the perfect state of long life is possible and achievable for all. What Does Ko Hung Expect: "Earth Immortals" (Ti-hsien) In addition to the above elaborated conceptual features that constitute Ko Hung's self-understanding of the tradition of hsien-immortality, it is important to reiterate the associated esoteric practice and techniques, since they are the means by which the transcendent mode of immortals would be achieved. For Ko Hung, the "proper"esoteric arts through which one is able to achieve longevity are principally: (1) "sexual arts of the bedchamber"(fang-chung); (2) "breathcirculation" (hsing-ch'i); (3) "guarding the One" (shou-i); (4) "taking plant medicine" (fu ts'ao-mu-yao); and (5) "making alchemical elixirs and

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posits a classifying criterionby claimgolds" (chin-tan). He further ing that the supremeesoteric art lies in the making of alchemical elixirs and gold, which is the only way to transcendthe normalhuman world (tu-shih) and to become hsien-immortals.Otherinferior techniques,at the most, can only extend the life-spanwithoutachievand ascension to heaven.83 mode of immortality ing the transcendent These two essential features-the "conceptualsystem of hsienship" and "esotericmethods"-orchestrateKo Hung's new discourse In a sense, this religiousdiscoursecan be sumof hsien-immortality. marizedas a type of utopianthinkingcombinedwith selected esoteric of his discourse, arts. However,insteadof discussingthe truth-claims in what follows, I shall attemptto penetrateinto the level of intenfocus on the questionof what Ko Hung tionality. I shall particularly really seeks within the imaginedreligious world of immortals. In other words, I shall explorewhat sort of idealized identityKo Hung such a imaginedreligious world. seeks to develop by rendering There is no doubtthat the imaginedcharacterof hsien-immortals in Ko Hung'sdiscourseof hsienis the most important representation an in immortality.Hence, analysis depthof the dynamicsconstituting and the ideal values Ko Hung pursuesis his conceptionof immortals crucial for this study. of Ko Hung's discourseof First, one of the essentialcharacteristics the hsien-immortality going beyond precedingTaoist ones, as found in the Book of the GreatPeace and the Hsiang-erhchu, is his great development of the conceptionof "threedistinctive classes of immortals" (san-pien-hsien): (1) "heavenly immortals"(t'ien-hsien); (2) "earthimmortals"(ti-hsien), and (3) "immortalsof the liberation of the corpse"(shih-chieh-hsien).4 Accordingto Ko Hung,their main difference originatesfrom the variouspaths of cultivationand mode of immortality of the transcendent methodsfor the achievement each employed. In his words,
Taoistadeptsof thehighestclass (shang-shih)raisetheirbodies into the void and are then designated"heavenlyimmortals."Those of the second class (chungThe and are designated"earthimmortals." shih) resortto the famousmountains

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off the bodyafterdeathandis designated thirdclass (hsia-shih) "imsloughs of thecorpse."85 mortals of the liberation Second, and more significant, is the fact that immortals of each class are assigned different realms of final destination and different forms of transcendent manifestation: is successful, Whena first-class he ascends andbecomes an official processor in heaven; a second classonejoins theothers on mount a third-class K'un-lun; oneenjoyslonglife in thisworld.86 Herein, a distinctive variation of Ko Hung's conception of immortals is concealed. For "earthimmortals" and "immortals of the liberation of the corpse," the two previously stated interrelated components that characterize the ancient Chinese conception of hsien-immortals"heavenly ascension" (sheng-t'ien) and "deathless" (pu-ssu)-are cut apart. They are no longer two sides of the same coin.87 Although this conceptual change can be traced back to an earlier period before Ko Hung's lifetime, as seen in a Han rhapsody (fu) composed by Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju, the "Rhapsody of Mr. Great Man" (Ta-jen fu),88 the separation of these two essential components configured in the representation of hsien-immortals is a later development, obviously in the early Six Dynasties' Taoist literature, e.g., the Shen-hsien chuan, the Chen-kao, the Han-wu-ti nei-chuan.89 Specifically in Ko Hung's context, on the one hand, the immortals of the second and third classes are likewise depicted as enjoying the complete avoidance of death similar to the "heavenly immortals." On the other hand, instead of ascending to the paradise of T'ai-ching,90 "earth immortals" and "immortals of the liberation of the corpse" are only allowed to remain and to wander in famous mountains and on earth. According to this sense, they have already lost the heavenly gift: flying freely through the air, ascending from earth to heaven and descending again from heaven to earth, drinking jade juice, tasting heavenly food, and dwelling in the halls of the beautiful paradise.91 In spite of such a "loss," not enjoying heavenly ascension may not be so bad according to Ko Hung.

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In considerationof the class of "heavenlyimmortals," Ko Hung that are as they promoted heavenly officials after arriving stipulates in the paradiseof T'ai-ching.Besides the Inner Chapters,this stipulation is seen in the Shen-hsienchuanas well. In the example of the immortal,Liu An, it is said that when he had ascendedinto heaven, he received an official title, namely,san-hsien-jen;92 and the immortal Lu Lii-sheng was said to have been assignedthe heavenlyofficial from this allocation title of san-t'ien-t'ai-shang-ssu-kuan.93 Inferring of heavenly official positions, Ko Hung deduced that the heavenly world has a hierarchical organization.In other words, in place of a general belief in an ideal communityin heaven, such as the harmonious communalgroupdescribedin the poem '"he Peach Blossom composedby T'ao Ch'ien (A.D. 365-427), an official instituSpring," tion in the paradiseof T'ai-ch'ingsimilarto this worldlybureaucracy is mappedout. As a rhetoricaldevice, Ko Hung quotes the following by the immortalP'eng Chu to supporthis claim that hierarchical amongimmortalsthemselvesare likely to rankingand discrimination world: the in heavenly happen
Old P'eng claimed that in heaven there were so many importantgods holding must hold the meanerpositions. offices of higherhonorthatthe newerimmortals of all sorts and their lot is harderthan before.9 must services, They perform

In order to flee from such a heavenly bureaucratic situation,the immortalP'eng Chu is quoted as preferringto remain on earth for more than eight hundredyears, ratherthan immediatelyascending to paradise. Accordingto anotherexample in the Shen-hsienchuan, the immortalMr. Pai-shihreacheda similarconclusionand preferred to stay on earthratherthanjoin the hierarchical in heaven. structure The Shen-hsien chuan also describes how he did not cultivate the specific kind of esoteric methods that would enable him to ascend to heaven. Rather,he was simply satisfied with the achieved state of having become an "earthimmortal"because he believed that a complete avoidanceof deathhad been fulfilled.95 With such stipulations,Ko Hung's teachingsclearly bring about a very significant conceptual change from the traditionof hsienimmortality. Not surprisingly,there are idiosyncraticagenda and

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intentionshinted at therein. If the imagined heavenly world operates like what this worldlybureaucratic system does, and if it is also thatthe recluse literatiof the Six known that it is such a bureaucracy Ko like to flee from, then it shouldcome as Dynasties, Hung,sought hear to him that "he no surprise saw no point in hurrying to proclaim moreessentialeternalelement-prolonged go to heaven... if another life-could have been achieved."96 Such a claim certainlymeansthat, for Ko Hung, the primaryobjective of prolonginglife takes priority over ascendingto the heavenly world. In supportof his belief, Ko Kung quotes his masterCheng's teachingto the effect that "long life" is the supremegoal of the cult of hsien-immortality:
Some immortalsmay mountto heaven and others remainhere on earth. What mattersis that they all have achievedlong life; they simply make their abodes whereverthey prefer.97

Therefore, as many modem scholars have already pointed out, in displaying his desired goal, Ko Hung's new discourse of hsienimmortalitydoes not urge the individualsto become "heavenlyimmortals"but "earthimmortals."98 Ko Hung' discourseprimarilylies in privileginga temporal sense of eternityand an avoidanceof death; whereas the spacial sense of ascending to heaven, flying and going throughthe air, seems secondary. upwardsand downwards An AlternateIdeal Self Identity:Earth Immortals(ti-hsien)vs. ConfucianSages (sheng-jen) To some modem scholarsof ancientChinese religion, Ko Hung's type of quest for a prolongedmateriallife, crystallizedin the ideal is often discussed as a manifestation image of the "earthimmortal," of the human inclinationto enjoy and to extend this world's pleasure as long as possible.9 Otherscholars,such as JosephNeedham, tend to categorizethis Taoistbelief in materialimmortality underthe of the "Chinese" rubricof the distinctiveness character, namely, the so-called "this-worldly in contrastto an "other-worldly orientation" views These two foundationaland yet complementary salvation."10? assume a "genealogical" or "universal" structurefor explainingrecursiveculturalphenomenon.However,the problemof identifyinga

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diachronic structure in this way is that it does not fully meet the need for a dynamic formulation of how and why evolving practices and recursive appropriations are developed: one that defines practices as Taoist vis-a-vis the other cultural options of the day. In place of that sort of genealogical method, in what follows I would like to locate Ko Hung's discourse of hsien-immortality within the context of his idiosyncratic concerns. Out of this methodical approach, the discursive meaning embedded in that cultural configuration of the celebration of the procurement of deathlessness and material immortality can be more clearly illuminated. Ko Hung's description of the required ascetic methods in cultivating the cult of hsien-immortality and his assertion that worldly values and the ideal world of immortality are incommensurable lead me to believe that it is unconvincing to consider his discourse as simply a reflection of the human inclination to seek a "maximum degree of enjoying this world's pleasure in the future."'01Although Ko Hung's discourse of hsien-immortality fixes upon the image of the "earth immortal" and takes the perfect state of salvation as simply a continuity of material life in this world for hundreds of years, these celebrated ideals are not necessarily caused by the above-mentioned "psychological" factors.102In particular, by emphasizing his readiness and steadiness in the cultivation of the hsien-immortality cult, Ko Hung clearly declares that his future life-orientation must be against this world's values and glories, saying:
I havebrokenall contactwith my nativevillage andquit the glories of ourpresent world, because I felt obliged to go afar and ascenda famous mountainto finish to preparethe immortalmedicinewith my philosophicalessays, and afterward a view to enjoying long life (ch'ang-sheng). Every member of the profaneis amazed... [and they] considerme mad. The process of the Tao, however,does not flourishin the midst of mundaneactivities. If such human activity is not how can an aspiration(chih) such as mine be cultivated?103 abandoned,

To verify Ko Hung's determination to commit himself to an ascetic life and to deny all of this worldly honors and values, a further detailed biographical study of his life is required. However, the prerequisite of withdrawing from social ties is stressed in Ko Hung's

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discourse of hsien-immortality. Hence, the general "psychological" account cannot help explain the depth of meaning and complexity it is also underlyingKo Hung's religious discourse. Furthermore, unconvincingto believe that a person would opt for a solitary life and to cultivateascetic artsbecause of promisesof materialpleasure in the future. If the issue is not solvedby this simplisticand generalexplanation, concern then the crucialquestionremains:whatkind of idiosyncratic like to Ko a literatus motivate could Hung argue"obsessively"for a and completeavoidanceof death? possible realizationof immortality What would compel him to devote himself so completelyto the cultivationof a religiousideal of hsien-immortality? It is my contentionthat Ko Hung's religious themes of long life and the complete avoidanceof death bypass a biological or material sense and, instead,engagein a culturalor symboliclevel of meaning. To borrowCliffordGeertz'sformulation,the symbolic meaningsof not only are models "for"Six deathlessnessand hsien-immortality Dynasties literati'slives but also models "of' them.'04That is, the providesan individualideal that symbolicworldof hsien-immortality may look fantasticand literallyimpossible, yet, the symbolic hsienimages are no less useful and constructivein giving meanings to Ko Hung's life struggleand in forming his personal ideal identity. For Ko Hung, the ideal of prolonginglife crystallizedin the image value and vision of marksa genuine alternative of "earthimmortal" the to other contrast is in which life, existing options in his time, such as Confuciansages, those in power, philosophers,or virtuous by carryinga resolution persons. The symbol of the hsien-immortal, of the struggle for overcomingthe impasse of the transienceof huof an ideal identity. man life,'05points to a "higher" representation as an indifunctions also Not only that, this symbol of ideal identity vidual'sre-constructed psycho-socialcore, giving an innercoherence unified senses of continuityin time and mastery to the individual's of social experiences,regardlessof the fact that human beings are always in states of discontentand unfulfillment.

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who can achieve the According to Ko Hung, the hsien-immortals death avoidance of rarelycome from the social groups of complete worthies,emperors,or sages. Hence, he impliesthathsien-immortality ideal values to be pursuedand potentially are distinctive "human" achieved by anyone. In the first, in order to differentiatethe ideal values of hsien-immortalfrom this worldly worthies and powers, Ko Hung says, "Thosewho attainedimmortalwere almost all poor and lowly. They were not men of position and power."'06 Second, out of the reach of imperial in placing the ideal of hsien-immortality figures,Ko Hung rebukesemperorssuch as the FirstEmperorof the of seekingfor imCh'in andEmperor Han-wu-ti,who were "models" mortalityin ancientChinesehistoryand literature, by saying, "These two emperorshad a hollow reputationfor wanting immortality, but the of Tao."107 never the Conreality cultivating they experienced sidering his conscious attemptto deny any imperialprivilege away we may conclude that, for from the discourse of hsien-immortality, between the value system Ko Hung, there is an incommensurability the cult of hsien-immortals and the imperialsystem. the informing most claim in the hsienKo constructing important Perhaps, Hung's immortalsas an ideal identitywith respectto Six Dynastiesliterati's concern lies in his assertionthat the hsien-immortal is the opposite of the "Confuciansage." Ko Hung deploys two strategiesin arguing this. claims that "A [Confucian]sage does First, he unprecedentedly not necessarily become an hsien-immortal, just as a hsien-immortal does not necessarily become a sage."'08 Thus, he presents these as distinct models "of' the literati'slife. Moreover,each ideal personal identity requiresdifferentpaths of cultivation. Specifically for the the values of long life and deathlessness, cult of hsien-immortality, which were never properlyaddressedin Confuciandiscourse,are to be cultivated;hsien-immortals are represented as an alternatemodel of ideal human quality. In comparingthis Taoist ideal type with Confuciansages, Ko Hung.arguesthatthe latterwere poor in the art of cultivatinglong life. Thus,they could only be regarded as ordinary persons without any special ontological statusand quality:

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When [Confucian]sages do not eat, they get hungry;when they do not drink, they get thirsty... After manyyears they grow old; when harmedthey become ill. When theirbreathsare exhausted,they die. This means that there are many things in which they do not differfrom people in general,even thoughthere are a few things in which they do differ from others.109

In depreciating the Confucian model, for him, even the two most revered Confucian sages, the Duke of Chou and Confucius, are labelled as having been unable and improbable to achieve the ideal state of hsien-immortality, since they had not devoted themselves to the particular religious path of the cultivation of the esoteric arts for prolonging life."0 In addition to constructing the pursuit of hsien-immortality as an autonomous path cultivating an idealized personal identity which is competitive with the Confucian ideali7ed sages, Ko Hung also takes a bold step to relativize further the then unchallenged and sacred status of Confucian sages by claiming that they simply represent "a" type of sage in regard to the art of government. In this way, he implies that there could have various ideal types of "sages" with respect to their corresponding cultural activities. In his words, if "sage" is only a "designation for an outstanding person in any human endeavor," then, for instance, "the Yellow Emperor and Lao Tan" were "[both] sages in the art of attaining the Tao," and there are also "sages of painting," "sages of singing," "sages of military," and so on."' What perhaps Ko Hung actually means is that within his discourse of hsien-immortality, the "earth immortal," for example, is an ideal "sage" comparable to the Confucian model of the sage. Hence, the idealized personal identity with which he identifies could no longer be bounded by the traditional Confucian model. The Taoist "sage" pursues the attainment of long life and overcoming the bonds of death by cultivating the esoteric cult of hsien-immortality. Conclusion To conclude this lengthy discussion of Ko Hung's "new" discourse concerning hsien-immorality, it is my contention that Ko Hung's construction of the idealized character of hsien-immortals is essentially

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and a productof an intellectualattemptsought by a representation a particularsocial class of literati. To trace the unique culturalsignificance of such attempt,perhaps,it needs to considerthe different and Taoism. As seen from ultimateconcernsposed by Confucianism of modem sociology, classifyingtwo differthe analyticalframework ent realmsand focuses of humanexistence: collective and individual, Ko Hung'sreligiousdiscourseis certainto celebratethe undoubtedly, individualratherthanthe collective. His idealized"sage"is no longer satisfiedwith the Confucianclaim giving primacyto collective obligationsand social relationships.In shakingoff these bonds,Ko Hung says that Taoist sages or immortalspursuea higher goal in the alterand eternity.Essentialto their interest native context of individuality is the root and groundof theirown subjectivebeing and the questfor all of which the Han ideali7e'd Confucian a transcendent self-identity, On of this touch account shift of cultural connot would upon. sage of discourse Ko cern, hsien-immortality Hung's intentionallybegins with a suspension of the considerationof collective and social life. From that suspension,what he tries to disclose as the eternal"value" of humanlife is found in the horizonof seeking the ultimateground of one's own destiny,which has firstand foremostmeantovercoming the bonds of death and the attainment of long life. Based upon the he thereforeformed imagined symbolic world of hsien-immortality, for himself a new idealizedpersonalidentity. Above all, he stresses that it is throughthe great efforts and properesoteric methodsthat everyonecan transcendthe fate of deathand attaina higherlevel of humanexistence. of Religion Department Chung Chi College Chinese Universityof Hong Kong Hong Kong
LAI CHI-TIM

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I Ko Hung, Pao-p'u tzu nei-p'ien (hereafterPPTNP), in Wang Ming edition,

Pao-p'u tzu nei-pien chiao-shih(Beijing: Chunghua shu chu, 1982), 2: 3b; 10: 6b. 2 This accords with A.C. Graham's study on the date of the "Seven InnerChapters"of the Chuang-tzu,see his Chuang-tzu:The Seven Inner Chaptersand Other from the Book of Chuang-tzu (London:Allan & Unwin, 1981), 3. Writings 3 The word is not found in the Chuang-tzu, but the other (immortal) "hsien-jen" similarwords like "shen-jen" (divineman) and "chen-jen" (perfectedman) are used It is thus possible to in the book to describea similarstate of hsien-transcendence. conclude that "shen-jen" actuallyrefers to the ideal characterof divine immortals of "shen-jen" that"hedoes not eat the (shen-hsien).Moreover,the book'sdescription five grains"belongs to a kind of Taoisttechniquefor attainingimmortality.Further, the Lieh-tzu ("Huang-tipien") says that "hsien-sheng"(immortals)will serve the lives in the Ku-yi mountain. (divine man) who accordingly "shen-jen" 4 is that of A.C. Graham,46. Ch. 1. The translation Chuang-tzu, 5 In contrastto Chinese of the body, in classical conceptionof the immortality Westerntradition-Greek and Hellenistic-there was generallya belief in a magical flight for the separablesoul, leaving the physical bodies and entailing a heavenly Death, After Life, and the Soul, Lawerjourney. See Ioan P. Culiano,"Ascension," ence E. Sullivan,ed. (New York:MacmillanPublishingCompany,1989), 107-116. 6 For such a definitionof ancientChinese conceptionof immortality, see Joseph in and Vol. 2 Science China Civilization Needham, 5, pt. (Cambridge: SCC), (herafter UniversityPress, 1974), 94. Cambridge 7 Shou-wenchieh-tzu(Beijing: Chung-hua shu-chu, 1963), 167. 8 See David Hawkes,The Songs of the South: An Anthologyof Ancient Chinese and OtherPoets(New York:PenguinBooks Ltd, 1985), 191-199. Poemsby Qu Yuan 9 to no kenkyii"(Studies on the ImAccording Tsuda Saukichi,"Shinsen-shiso Saukichi in Tsuda zenshu mortals), (Tokyo, 1939), 172-333, these two featuresof the ancient Chinese doctrineof immortality possibly originatedfrom differentand initially separatetraditions. 10Though we assume deathlessnessas an ideal state of immortalityfor ancient in Han Chinese in the second centuryB.C., Anna Seidel, 'Tokens of Immortality Graves,"Numen 29 (1982), 79-122, gives us a more complicatedand challenging picturethat shows a gap between the theoreticalconstructof the ancient Chinese andthe archaeological ideal of deathlessimmortality findingsof the buriedfromthe In particular, she bannersand bronze-mirrors. replicasof Han toms, e.g., funerary finds that there were arts depictingthe dead who progressfrom death to heaven. Moreover,some bronze mirrorsand bannersfound in the Han tombs present the longing for an afterlifethroughdying and then arrivingin the paradise contemporary afterstaying in the tomb. Seidel addsthatthe ancientChineseconceptof immorality may not only restrictto one ideal mode, which bypasses the state of death.

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11KarlMannheim,Ideologyand Utopia (New York: Harvest/HBJ Books, 1985), 193. 13 There is still a prevalentand slightly dogmatic view held by most modem Chinese scholars arguingthat Ko Hung's concept of immoralityis due to a false and superstitiousworldview. Wang-ming,for example, is best known to deny this part of Ko Hung's thoughtby saying, "[He] unceasinglypropagatedthe deathless of immortals,the possibilityof learningthe way of attainingimmortality, [but]... such mattersare absolutelyabsurd,ridiculous, and false," in Wang Ming, Pao-p'u tzu nei-pien chiao-shih, 6. See also Ch'ing Hsi-t'ai, ed., The History of Chinese Taoism,Vol. 1 (Szechuan,1988), 309. andWestern is frequentlyadoptedbothby Japanese 14The term"Medieval China" chuseishi kenkyu sinologists, for example, see KawakatsuYoshio et al., Chi2goku (A Study of the History of Medieval China) (Tokyo: Tokai Daigaku Shuppankai, 1970); and Albert E. Dien, ed., State and Society in Early Medieval China (Hong Press, 1990). Kong: Hong Kong University 15 For the summaryof this view that the period of medieval China was ruled see Deenis Grafflin,'The GreatFamily in MedievalSouth aristocracy, by hereditary 49 (1981), 65-74, esp. 65-66. See HarvardJournalof AsiaticStudies(HJAS) China," in State and "Introduction" E. Albert Dien, also, Society in Early MedievalChina, 1-5. 16 Li Zehou, The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese Aesthetics, trans. Gong Lizeng (Hong Kong: OxfordUniversityPress, 1994), 82. 17 Michael Loewe, "TheReligious and IntellectualBackground," in Cambridge History of China, Vol.1: The Chin and Han Empires,221 B.C.-A.D.220,655. 18 Han shu (hereafter HS) (Beijing: Chung Hua Shu chu, 1962), Ch. 22, 1027. Over Continuityand B. Mather,"TheControversy is that of Richard The translation 9 (1969/70), 162. NaturalnessDuring the Six Dynasties," (HR) History of Religions 19 Here, I do not intend to simplify the four centuries history under the Han empire in terms of stagnation.In fact, Michael Loewe, 'The Religious and Intellectual Background," 649-725, has properlyconceived that during the Han period, a "continuouslyevolving process of intellectual growth in which new ideas were suggested." However,the point I want to make clear is that when we comparethe Six Dynastieswith the Hantherewas a clearly cultural changewith respect paradigm to the intellectual'spursuitof Confucianvalue system: Confucianethics and values were no longer a single dominantforce in the life and society of the Six dynasties. 20 Hou Han shu (herafter HHS) (Beijing: Chung hua shu chu, 1965), Ch. 35, 1211, tells a story abouta highly esteemed Confucianscholar,Cheng-hsuan (A.D. 127-200). He was learnedin both the ancient text (ku-wen) and the modem text (chin-wen)of the classics. Accordingly,since Chengwas a Confucianscholar,when he met YuanSao, the then greatgeneral and the latter'sadvisors(ping-k'e),Yuan's
12 Ibid., 205.

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as a t'ung-jenand, instead,challengedhim Cheng-husan ping-k'e did not appreciate with many questionswhich had nothingwith the Classics. 21 For instance, Wang Chung(A.D. 27-c.100) refutedan existence of an inderealm. See his Lun-heng(CarefullyWeighed pendentand transcendent Arguments), pien" (the False of the Tao). However,despite especially, the chapterof "Tao-shu the Confucianliterati's refusal to admit the existence of spirits and gods, it does not mean that none of the discussionand bibliography belongingto demonographic text from a third cengenre were recorded. The recentrecovereddemonographic at B.C. tomb demonstrates side of the tale which another Shui-hu-ti, tury Hupei, is often officially unaddressed. For an introductory of study demonograhictexts recoveredat Shui-hu-ti,see DonaldHarper, "A ChineseDemonography of the Third CenturyB.C.'. HJAS45 (1985), 459-498. 22 Yu Ying-shihconsidersthe Wei-Chinperiodas the periodof "thediscoveryof the individual'" see his "Individualism and the Neo-TaoistMovement'" in Individuand TaoistValues,DonaldMunro,ed. (Ann alism and Holism: Studiesin Confucian Arbor:The Universityof Michigan,CenterFor Chinese Studies, 1985), 121-155. 23 Shih-shuohsin-yii,23: 11, in Shih shuo hsin yii chiao chien, by Hsu chen-o (Beijing: Chung-huashu chu, 1984). 24 of Hsi K'ang's and JuanChi's criticisms Concerningthe politicalbackground of Confucianvalue-system,manyscholarlylaborhave been done. For instance,see Donald Holzman,Poetryand Politics: The Life and Works of Juan Chi (A.D. 210263) (New York: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1976); RobertG. Henricks,Philosoin Third-century China. The Essays of Hsi K'ang (Princeton, phy andArgumentation N.J.: PrincetonUniversityPress, 1981), esp. "Introduction;" and T'ang Ch'ang-ju, WeiChinnan-pei ch'ao shih lung-ts'ung(Peking: San-lienshu tien, 1955), 323-332. 25 Hsi K'ang, "A Refutation of Chang Miao's Essay-People NaturallyDelight is that of RobertG. Henricks,Philosophyand Arguin Learning."The translation mentationin Third-century China: The Essays of Hsi K'ang, 140. 26 FukunagaMitsuji, "Kei Ko ni okerujiga no monda: Kei Ko no seikatsu to shis6,"Toho gakuh6 32 (1962), 1-68. 27 Chin Shu (hereafter CB) (Beijing: Chunghua shu chu, 1974), Ch. 14, 414. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid., Ch. 98. Accordingto YangLien-sheng,"Noteson the EconomicHistory of the Chin Dynasty,"HJAS9 (1945), 126: 'This statementmay have been an the emphasisput by contemporaries on the population exaggeration... nevertheless problemis significant." 30 Ibid., Ch. 26 ("Shin-ke-chih").The translationis that of Yang Lien-sheng, "Notes on the Economic Historyof the Chin Dynasty,"181. 31 For a study of WangHsi-chih'svarioussentimental inclinations,see Fukunaga Mitsuji's "O Gishi no shis8 to seikatsu"(Wang Hsi-chih's Life and Thought), in Dokyo shiso shi kenkyu(Tokyo,1987), 319-354.

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32 Ibid., 332.

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yao-lu, Ch. 10, in Hsieh chin t'ao yuan, t'ao 21. 34 Ibid. 35 Hsi K'ang, EighteenPoemsPresentedto Hsi Hsi on His Entryinto the Army. of Hsi K'ang's Eighteen is that of PeterRushton,"AnInterpretation The translation Journal of the American Poems Presentedto Hsi Hsi on His Entryinto the Army," OrientalSociety 99 (1979), 186.
36 Ibid., 180.

33 Fa-shu

37 For instance,T'ai- ping ching (hereafter TPC) states that'Thousandsof living Breath" with Primordial (in WangMing's edition, T'ai-p'ing ching ho chiao, begin Shu Hua chu, 1960), 254), that 'The PrimordialBreath encloses (Beijing: Chung Heaven, Earth, and the eight points of the compass, by which all these produce" Breath, (78), and that "Heaven,Earth,and Man originatefrom the same Primordial but were then divided into threeentities"(236). 38 PPTNP, 5: b. 39 See Lung-heng,Ch. 18 and TPC,Ch. 36, 40. 40 PPTNP, 13: 2a (JamesR. Ware,Alchemy,Medicine,Religion in the Chinaof A.D. 320: TheNei P'ien of Ko Hung (Pao-p'u tzu), (Cambridge:MIT Press, 1966), 214. 41 Ibid., 13: 7b. Ko Hung illustratesthe habits of daily life that deplete one's occurswhen our thoughtis troubledwith things internalch'i as follows: "Wounding for which we lack talent, also when we force ourselves to do lifting without the uneasiness, and tormentare wounds, as is requisitestrength. Sadness, decrepitude, also excessive joy..." In sum, any form of emotional, physical, and physiological strainwould cause one's "breath deficiency." 42 Ibid., 6: 4b (Ware,115). 43 TPC, Ch. 110, in T'ai-p'ingching ho-chiao, 526. 44 PPTNP, 14: 2b (Ware,228). 45 For the discussion of pre-Buddhist Chinese conceptionof life in relationto Ko Hung's thought, see ShimomiTakao,"Hobokushini okeru itsumin to sennin," Toh6 shikyo 29 (1967), 35-52, esp. 42; Tsuzuki Akiko, "Rikuch6 jidai ni okeruto 'Ie': Rikuch6d6ky8 keitenwo toshite"(Individualand Familyof the Six Dynasties: Nagoya daigaku toyoshi kenkyuhokoku 14 (1989), Throughthe Taoist Scriptures), and Kominami 19-49, esp. 22-25; Ichir6,"D6ky6 shinko to shisha no kyusai"(The Beliefs of Taoism and the Salvationof the Dead), Toyogasukenkyi 27 (1988), 74107. For a generaldiscussionof the ancientChineseconceptionof the fate of souls in the mind of Han (hun andp'o) afterlife,see Yu Ying-shih,"Life and immortality China:' HJAS 25 (1964-65), 80-121 and "'O Soul, Come Back!' A Study in the China,"HJAS47 ChangingConceptionsof the Soul and Afterlife in Pre-Buddhist (1987), 363-395.

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46 Lun-heng,Ch. 26 ("Lun-ssu p'ien"). 47 The conceptionof T'ai-yinin the TPC supportsthe view that an indigenous was not directlycausedby the adventof Buddhism Chineseidea of an "underworld" in China. See Anna Seidel, "ChineseConcepts of the Soul and the Afterlife,"in Death, Afterlife,and the Soul, LawrenceE. Sullivan,ed. (New York: Macmillian, 1987), 183-188. 48 TPC, Ch. 40 (In T'ai-p'ingching ho-chiao, 72). 49 Ibid., 73. 50 with the later Taoist texts, Mugitani By comparingthe concept of "rebirth" ni tsuite"(TheHsiang-erh on the Lao-tzu),TohM Kunio,"Roshi-Sojichu Commentary gakuho 57 (1982), 94-95, has clearly assertedthis concludingremarkin regardto the T'ai-p'ing ching. 51 TPC has from the corpse" only one quotationon the concept of "deliverance theme to the relation of "rebirth" in 72, 298), that is, (shih-chieh) (fu-sheng)(Ch. "thedeliverancefrom the corpse"which means "one is rebornafterlife"(ssu-erh-fuonly means a "false death"(cha-ssu). sherg). Even so, such a state of "death"
52 Ibid.

of many popularstories concerningthe "rebirth" physical body flourishedin late Six Dynasties' literature,but were compiled later than Ko Hung's life-time, e.g., the Fa-yuan chu-lin, Ch. 75 (collected in Taisho Vol. 53); the Sou-shenchi, Ch. 16; and the Hsi-sou-shen chi, Ch. 4. Tripitaka, 54 PPTNP, 2: 9b. 55 Ibid., 2: lOb (Ware,50). 56 For this basic conceptualassumptionunderlyingKo Hung's discourse, see TsuzukiAkiko, "Rikuch6 jidai ni okeru to 'Ie'-Rikuch6 d6ky6 keiten wo toshite," 22-24. 57 Ibid., 2: 9b (Ware,49). 58 Ibid., 5: lb. 59 Ko of the corpse"by saying, "the Hung explains the concept of "liberation one who sloughs off the body afterdeathis designatedas an immortalof 'liberation from the corpse' (shih-chieh-hsien)," cf. PPTNP, 2: 9a. For a detaileddiscussionof the Taoistconceptionof "liberation of the corpse"(shih-chieh),see IsabelleRobinet, andDeliverance Fromthe Corpsein Taoism," HR 19 (1979), 37-70, "Metamorphosis esp. 57-66; HenriMaspero,Taoismand ChineseReligion,trans. FrankA. Kierman Press, 1981), 266-268; MiyakawaHisayuki, (Amherst:Universityof Massachusetts "Doky6 no shinsen kannenno ichi kosatsu: Shikaisenni tsuite" (A Study of the in Taoism with Special Referenceto the ImmortalsLibConceptof the Immortals erated from the Corpse), in MiyakawaHisayuki, Rikuchoshi kenkyu: Shiikyhen (Kyoto, 1964), 439-458. 60 PPTNP 2: 9a; 12: 6a. 61 Ibid., 2: 9a.

53 In contrastto the PPTNP,

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62 For that

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concept of rebirthin the t'ai-yin, see Chen-kao (HY 1010), Ch. 4 the concept of the & 6. For the moral significanceof this shift of understanding of the corpse"in the Six Dynasties' society, see Tsuzuki Akiko, "Nanjin "liberation kanmon,kanjin no ronri isha ni tsuite"(The MoralConsciousnessof the Southern of Shang-ch'ing),Toho Commonersin the EasternChinPeriod:ThroughScriptures 78 (1991), 19-50. shWkyo 63 KominamiIchiro, "'Shinsen den'-Hsin-shinsen-shiso," 145-236, has rightly arguedthat Ko Hung's discourseshould be analyzedas a "new"one. 64 For a detailed study of the myth of island of P'eng-lai in relationto the quest sec FukunagaMitsuji, "Hozen setsu no for the "drug that confers deathlessness," keisei" (The Formationof the Theoryof the Feng and Shan Sacrificesin Ch'in and Han Times), in Dokyo shisoshi kenkyui (Tokyo, 1987), 233-238. 65 Shih-chi,Ch. 6 ("Biography of the First Ch'in Emperor"). 66 In the Lu-shih ch'un-chiu,"Shenhsing lun ch'iu jen pien;"the Huai-nan-tzu, all state an ancient and the Shan-haiching's "Hai-wai-nan-ching," "Sui-hsing-pien;" Chinese belief that in the far distantland, there lived "people who were deathless" which had no death"(pu-ssuchih kuo). (pu-ssu chih-min)and existed "countries 67 PPTNP, 12: lb. 68 Ibid., 16: 7a. 69 Ibid., 2: 6a. 70 Ibid., 2: 7a. 71 For a discussion of the themeof pien-hua in the Taoist tradition,see Isabelle Robinet, "Metamorphosisand Deliverance From the Corpse in Taoism,"HR 19 (1979), 37-71, esp. 37-48. And for the philologicalstudy of the wordpien-hua in the ancientChinese philosophy,see NathanSivin, "Changeand Continuityin Early to the Book of Changes,"in Chiigokukodai Cosmology: The Great Commentary Tanaka and Yamada Tan,eds. (Kyoto, 1991), 3-41. Keiji kagaku-shi-ron, 72 PPTNP, 2: 3b. 73 Ibid., 7: 5b. 74 SanakaS8, Sengoku. Soshokanno shihk6to gijutsuno kankei(Studiesrelating [Taoist]Beliefs and Teachingsfrom the WarringStates Period to the Early Sung [10th cent.]) (Tokyo, 1975), 172. 75 PPTNP, 5: la. 76 Ibid., 3: la. 77 Lun-heng,Ch. 7 ('Tao-hsu-pien"). 78 HHS, Ch. 7 ("Huan-ti-chi"). 79 Lao-tzuming, in Hung Kua,Li-shih 3: la-4b. 80 For the study of the Lao-tzu pien-huaching, see YoshiokaYoshitoyo,Doky6 to Bukkyo,Vol. 1 (Tokyo, 1959), 2-15; and A. Seidel, 'The Image of the PerfectRuler in EarlyTaoist Messianism: Lao-Tzuand Li Hung,"HR 9 (1969-70), 222-225.

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81 A. Seidel, op. cit., 223. 82 Shen-hsienchuan,Ch. 2. 83 PPTNP, 4: la; 5: 6a; 13: 5b. For a detailed analysis of these esoteric arts, see Ch. 2. 84 In neitherthe Scriptureof the Great Peace nor the Hsiang-erh Commentary on the Lao-tzu does the concept of the "threeclasses of immortals"appear. Max "The Ideology of the T'ai-p'ing ching,"31, notes that in the Ch. 71 Kaltenmark, of the book (in T'ai-p'ingching ho chiao, 289) there are nine humancategoriesto be distinguished. However,the category of "immortals" (hsien-jen) is only listed as a single category withoutfurtherdifferentiation.Li Feng-muo agrees with this point and states that the conceptionof three classes of immortalsis not so clearly developedin the Book of the GreatPeace. The same thingis also seen in the Lao-tzu hsaing-erhchu. Therein,a single entity of immortalnamedhsien-shihis found;cf. Jao Tsung-i, Lao-tzuhsiang-erhchu chiao-ch'eng,57-58. For the detailedanalysis of the Taoistconceptionof threeclasses of immortals, of the origin and development see Li Feng-mao,"Shen-hsien san-p'inshuo te yuan-shihchi ch'i yen-pien-I Liuch'ao Tao-chiao wei chung-hsinte k'ao-ch'u,"in Han-hsieh lun-wen chi, Vol. 2 (Taipei, 1983), 171-223. 85 PPTNP, 2: 9a. 86 Ibid., 4: 7b. 87 It is noted that such variation took place since the later Han. For instance,in for hsien has been changed WangCh'ung'sLun-heng,the ancientChinesecharacter fromf to fllU.The literalmeaningof the latergraphdepicts a man on a mountain. Accordingto the LaterHan dynastyetymologicaldictionary,Lau Hsi's Shih-ming, it is said "to reach old age and not die is calledfll, the word also means 'to move,' that is, to move into the mountains, therefore,the graphis made with two elements, both man (jen) and mountain(shan)." 88 Shih-chi,Ch. 117 ("Biography of Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju"). 89TsudaSaukichi,"Shinsen-shiso no kenkyfi"181, 270. Thereis also an example in the Han Wu-tinei-chuan(HY292), saying, the QueenMotherof the West rebukes Wu "Howcan [you]becomethe trueimmortal (chen-hsien)... [and]if [you] Emperor diligently cultivate [these arts], [you] can transcendto the state of deathlessness" (emphasismine). 90 PPTNP, 11: 14b. 91 Ibid., 2: 4a; 3: 7a; 10: 6b. 92 Shen-hsienchuan,Ch. 4. 93 Ibid., Ch. 10. 94 PPTNP, 3: 8a. 95 Shen-hsienchuan, Ch. 2. 96 PPTNP, 3: 7b. 97 Ibid., 3: 7b.

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98 Cf. Mugitani Kunio, "Skoki d6ky6 ni okeru kyusai shiso," Toky6 bunka57 (1977), 19-63, esp. 36; KominamiIchir6, "'Shinsenden'-Hsinshisen shiso," 205210; and Ofuchi Ninji, Shokino dokyo: Dokyoshino kenkyusono ichi, 199. 99 Tsuda Saukichi, "Shinsen-shis8 no kenkyi," 274-278, 318; KominamiIchiro, 205-209. to no shinwa monogatari, Chigoku 100J. Needham, SCC, Vol. 5, pt. 2, 77-113. 101Tsuda Saukichi,"Shinsenshiso no kenkyi," 172. 102 Accordingto PPTNP3: 7b, Ko Hungquotes the masterCheng's saying why immortaslike P'eng does not opt for being a "heavenlyimmortal," saying that 'To wish to life do not out it plainly, those who seek long relinquishthe objects merely contention that such a statement it is of their currentdesires." Despite that, my of Ko motivational structure the not does Hung's dissource of sufficiently explain hsien-immorality. 103Ibid., 4: 17b. 104CliffordGeertz,TheInterpretation of Cultures(New York:Basic Books, Inc., 93. 1973), 105For the issue of the transienceof humanlife as the culturalproblemof the Six Dynasties, see my discussionin the early partof this paper. 106PPTNP, 2: 8a. 107Ibid., 2: 7b. 108Ibid., 12: la. 109Ibid., 12: 4b. 110Ibid., 12: 4a. Besides that reason, Ko Hung also appeals to a principleof determinismthat the Duke of Chou and Confuciuswere not destinedto attainlong life. Here, an apparent inconsistencyoccurs in regardto his previousclaim thatthe but createdthroughtheirgreat hsien immortalsare not special species predetermined efforts to learn. 111Ibid., 12: 2a-b.