5.8 KiB
| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baopuzi | 6/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baopuzi | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:14:03.629395+00:00 | kb-cron |
It is true that the nine medicines are the best of Hsien medicines. Yet the materials for their compounding are quite numerous. They are easily procurable only in large cities which have good facilities for communication, but are not to be obtained at other places. Furthermore, in the compounding of the medicines, the fires should be tended for tens of days and nights with industrious application and close adjustment, which is a great difficulty. The compounding of the Gold Fluid is much easier. There the only thing which is difficult is to get the gold. One pound in the old measure is equivalent to two in our contemporary measure. Such a quantity of gold would cost only some three hundred thousand cash. The other auxiliary materials are easy to procure. In the compounding, no fire is required. All that needs to be done is to have the mixture in a Hua Ch'ih (Flower Pond) for the necessary number of days. A total expenditure of four hundred thousand cash will make an amount large enough to transform eight persons into Hsien. Just as no wine is formed by the fermentation of small quantities of rice, so small quantities of materials will not be able to interact to give the medicine. (4) Pregadio says recent studies show Ge's intent was "glorifying the religious and ritual legacy of Jiangnan 江南 (the region south of the lower Yangtze River), emphasizing the superiority of certain traditions over others, and enhancing their prestige among the social elite to which Ge Hong belonged." Nonetheless, Pregadio concludes, Ge Hong's testimony deserves attention as a valuable overview of the religious traditions of Jiangnan just before the Way of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao) spread to that area, soon followed by the Shangqing and Lingbao revelations. From this point of view, the Baopuzi documents important links between the earlier and later history of Taoism, as it also does for medicine and other fields.
== References == Daoist Translation Committee (DTC) (2025). Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇 (Inner Chapters of Mastering Embracing Simplicity): An Annotated Translation of Gě Hóng's 葛洪 (283-343) Masterwork. 2 vols. Daoist Translation Series 1. Edited by Louis Komjathy. Ravinia, IL: Square Inch Press. Davis, Tenney; Ch'en, Kuo-fu (December 1941). "The Inner Chapters of Pao-p'u-tzu". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 74 (10). pp. 297-325 (chaps. 8 and 11). doi:10.2307/20023410. JSTOR 20023410. Feifel, Eugene (1946). "Pao-p'u tzu 抱朴子 nei-p'ien 內臂， chapter XI". Monumenta Serica. 11. Taylor & Francis: 1–32. ISSN 0179-261X. JSTOR 40725995. Lai, Chi-tim (1998). "Ko Hung's Discourse of Hsien Immortality: A Taoist Configuration of an Alternate Ideal Self-Identity". Numen. 45 (2). E.J. Brill: 183–220. doi:10.1163/1568527981588331. JSTOR 3270186. Needham, Joseph (1956). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 2, History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521058001. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) Pregadio, Fabrizio (2006). Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804751773. Sailey, Jay (1978). The Master Who Embraces Simplicity: A study of the philosopher Ko Hung, A.D. 283-343. Chinese Materials Center. ISBN 0-89644-522-4. Sivin, Nathan (1969). "On the Pao P'u Tzu Nei Pien and the Life of Ko Hong (283-343)". Isis. 60 (3 - Autumn). The University of Chicago Press: 388–391. doi:10.1086/350510. JSTOR 229495. PMID 4919834. S2CID 32677026. Waley, Arthur (1930). "Notes on Chinese Alchemy ("Supplementary to Johnson's" A Study of Chinese Alchemy)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies. 6 (1). Cambridge University Press: 1–24. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00090911. JSTOR 607294. S2CID 191324421. Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei Pien of Ko Hung. Translated by Ware, James R. MIT Press. 1966. ISBN 9780262230223. Wu, Lu-ch’iang; Davis, Tenney (December 1935). "An Ancient Chinese Alchemical Classic. Ko Hung on the Gold Medicine and on the Yellow and the White". Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 70 (6): 221–284 (chaps. 4 and 16). doi:10.2307/20023134. JSTOR 20023134. Footnotes
== Further reading == Daoist Translation Committee (DTC) (2025). Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇 (Inner Chapters of Mastering Embracing Simplicity): An Annotated Translation of Gě Hóng's 葛洪 (283-343) Masterwork. 2 vols. Daoist Translation Series 1. Edited by Louis Komjathy. Ravinia, IL: Square Inch Press. Hu Fuchen. 1991. Baopuzi neipian yanjiu (Research on the Inner Chapters of The Master Embracing Simplicity). Xinhua chubanshe. Kominami Ichirō 小南一郎, 1978. "Gishin jidai no shinsen shisō: Shinsenden o chushin toshite", in Yamada Keiji (ed.), Chugoku no kagaku to kagakusha, Kyoto daigaku jimbun kagaku kenkyujo, pp. 573–626. (in Japanese) Lin Lixue. 1980. Baopuzi nei wai pian sixiang xi lun (An Analysis of the Thought of the Inner and Outer Chapters of The Master Embracing Simplicity). Xuesheng. Poo, Mu-chou. 2005. "A Taste of Happiness: Contextualizing Elixirs in Baopuzi," in Roel Sterckx ed., Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics and Religion in Traditional China, Palgrave, 123–139.
== External links ==
抱朴子 - Chinese Text Project The Master Who Embraces Simplicity, FYSK Daoist Culture Centre Database Science and magic in Ge Hong's Baopu-zi nei pian, Evgueni A. Tortchinov Baopuzi 抱朴子 "The Master Embracing Simplicity", ChinaKnowledge Ge Hong (Baopu zi), Fabrizio Pregadio Baopuzi, ChinaCulture 抱朴子, Project Gutenberg Baopuzi ebook (in Chinese) Baopuzi, On the Golden Elixir Part 1, On the Golden Elixir Part 2, On the Great Taboos.