Page 133 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

OVERVIEW 93

to convince "gentlemen" that the pursuit of deathlessness through alchemy
was a feasible and honorable goal (Barrett I987a). Such beliefs did reappear
among some leading *Shangqing practitioners, such as *Tao Hongjing, but
were subordinated to a pursuit of spiritual elevation that was assumed to re-
quire the loss of bodily life (Strickmann I979). Some depictions of the process
of *shijie ("liberation by means of a corpse") intimate that exceptional men
and women could undergo a transformation that merely simulated death
(Robinet I979b). But we must read carefully to distinguish metaphors from
practical ideals (Bokenkamp I989). Though many accounts depict leading
practitioners as having "ascended to immortality," most Taoist texts actually
suggest a "post-mortem immortality" (Seidel I987C).
Stories of "immortals" who continue to live for hundreds of years are
generally products of literary imagination, not Taoist religious practice
(Kirkland I992b). Yet, Taoism was the only Chinese tradition that provided
colorful images of a happy personal afterlife. And it is clear that while some
Taoists used such images as recruitment devices, luring novices into a process
of spiritual self-cultivation, others did occasionally ponder the theoretical
possibilities of attaining an idealized state beyond death. For instance, the
famed Tang poet and *daoshi *Wu Yun (?-778) is credited with a text entitled
An Essay on How One May Become a Divine Immortal Through Training (*Shenxian
kexue lun). And even the "Fifteen Articles" of the *Quanzhen founder, *Wang
Zhe (UI3-70), says that the successful reclusive meditator attains the status of
xian while still alive in the mortal body (*Chongyang lijiao shiwu tun, article I2).
Such ambivalent concepts of transcendence endure among twentieth-century
Taoists, for human minds vary in how they conceive spiritual goals.
Russell KIRKLAND

W Bokenkamp I989; Bokenkamp I990; Cahill I993; Campany 2002, 75-80;
Chen E. M. I973a; DeWoskin I990; Kirkland I992b; Kohn I990b; Kohn I993b,
277-363; Kominami Ichir6 I992; Liebenthal I952; Lagerwey I98Ib, I83-22I; Little
2000b, I47- 6I and 3I3-35; Loewe I979; Loewe I982; Penny 2000; Robinet I984,
I: I6I-80; Robinet I986b; Robinet I993, 42-48; Robinet I997b, 48-50, 82-9I, and
I28-32; Seidel I987a; Seidel I987C; Seidel I989-90, 246-48; Spiro I990; Strickmann
I979; Yamada Toshiaki I983b; Yoshikawa Tadao I992b; Yti Ymg-shih I964; Yti
Ying-shih I98I; Yti Ying-shih I987

* lianxing; shengren; shenren; shijie; xianren; zhenren; DEATH AND AFTERLIFE;
REBIRTH ; TAOIST VIEWS OF THE HUMAN BODY