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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baopuzi | 4/6 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baopuzi | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T16:14:03.629395+00:00 | kb-cron |
It may be true that in certain areas the concept of Tao overlaps with the definition and attributes of God, or for that matter with those of Allah, for example oneness and eternity. However, there is the danger of the analogy being pushed too far. Similarly, the reader might be warned that "Genii," as used for rendering the word hsien, does not convey the concept of some supernatural slaves as found in the lamp and the ring of the Thousand-and-One Nights. The reviewer prefers the terminology used by Tenny L. Davis, i.e. Tao left untranslated and "immortal" for hsien. Nevertheless, Ho's review concluded with praise. "Professor Ware is to be congratulated for bringing out the translation of a most difficult Chinese Taoist text in a very readable form. One cannot find another text that gives so much useful and authoritative information on alchemy and Taoism in fourth-century China." Ge Hong wrote the Baopuzi in elegant Classical Chinese grammar and terminology, but some Inner Chapter contexts are difficult to translate. Comparing three versions of this passage listing hsien medicines illustrates the complex translation choices.
The best hsien medicine is cinnabar. Others in the order of decreasing excellence are gold, silver, ch'ih, the five jades, mica, pearl, realgar, t'ai i yü yü liang, shih chung huang tzu 石中黃子 (literally yellow nucleus in stone), shih kuei 石桂 (stony cinnamon), quartz, shih nao 石腦, shih liu huang 石硫黃 (a kind of raw sulfur), wild honey and tseng ch'ing. (11) Medicines of superior quality for immortality are: cinnabar; next comes gold, then follows silver, then the many chih, then the five kinds of jade, then mica, then ming-chu, then realgar, then brown hematite, then conglomerate masses of brown hematite, then stone cassia (?), then quartz, then paraffin, then sulphur, then wild honey, then malachite (stratified variety) At the top of the genie's pharmacopoeia stands cinnabar. Second comes gold; third, silver, fourth, excresences; fifth, the jades; sixth, mica; seventh, pearls; eighth, realgar; ninth, brown hematite; tenth, conglomerated brown hematite; eleventh, quartz; twelfth, rock crystal; thirteenth, geodes; fourteenth, sulphur; fifteenth, wild honey; and sixteenth, laminar malachite. The Baopuzi Outer Chapters have one partial translation into English. Jay Sailey translated 21 of the 50 chapters: 1, 3, 5, 14–15, 20, 24–26, 30–34, 37, 40, 43–44, 46–47, and 50. In addition, Sailey included appendices on "Buddhism and the Pao-p'u-tzu", "Biography of Ko Hung" from the Jin Shu, and "Recensions" of lost Baopuzi fragments quoted in later texts. Kroll gave a mixed review: "Although Sailey's renderings frequently obscure Ko Hung's carefully polished diction and nuance, they reliably convey the sense of the original and should be a substantial boon to Western students of medieval Chinese thought and culture."
== Significance == For centuries, traditional scholars have revered the Baopuzi as canonical Taoist scripture, but in recent years, modern scholars have reevaluated the text's veracity. Traditional scholarship viewed the Baopuzi, especially the Inner Chapters, as a primary textual source for early Chinese waidan "external alchemy". Wu and Davis described it as,
probably the widest known and highest regarded of the ancient Chinese treatises on alchemy. It has been preserved for us as part of the Taoist canon. It shows us the art matured by five or six centuries of practice, having its traditional heroes and an extensive literature, its technique and philosophy now clearly fixed, its objectives and pretentions established. This art the author examines in a hardheaded manner and expounds in language which is remarkably free from subterfuge. Arthur Waley praised Ge Hong's rational attitude toward alchemy.
Nowhere in Pao P'u Tzu's book do we find the hierophantic tone that pervades most writings on alchemy both in the East and in the West. He uses a certain number of secret terms, such as 金公 "metal-lord" and 河車 "river chariot", both of which mean lead; and 河上她女 "the virgin on the river", which means mercury … But his attitude is always that of a solidly educated layman examining claims which a narrow-minded orthodoxy had dismissed with contempt. In the estimation of Ho, the Baopuzi is a "more important" alchemical text than Wei Boyang's (ca. 142) Cantong qi 參同契 "The Kinship of the Three". The Baopuzi mentions a Neijing 內經 "Inner Classic" by Wei Boyang, but curiously does not mention Wei's Cantong ji. Modern scholarship has taken another look at the Baopuzi. Sivin demeans the text's significance.