Page 412 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

DONGXIAN ZH UAN
373
W Bokenkamp 1986d; Chavannes 1919, 133- 68; Miura Kunio 1983; Qing Xitai
1988-95, 2: 453- 73; Schafer 1977a, 248-54; Soymie 1956, 88-96; Stein R. A. 1990,
55- 58; Verellen 1995

* TAOIST SACRED SITES

Dongxian zhuan

Biographies of Cavern Immortals

The Dongxian zhuan is an anonymous collection of biographies of immortals,
now found only in fragmentary form as chapters IIO and III of the *Yunji
qiqian. Since it is listed in the bibliographical chapter of the Suishu (History
of the Sui) we can surmise that it was composed in the Six Dynasties period.
That bibliography gives no author but subsequent listings in the bibliographi-
cal chapters of the Tang histories, and other catalogues, name the author as
Jiansu zi Yl~T, Master Who Manifests Plainness (the phrase jiansu comes
from Daode jing 19). Unfortunately, the only identified Jiansu zi was active in
the 850S so lived too late be the author of Dongxian zhuan. The same catalogues
generally relate that the Dongxian zhuan had ten chapters, so the Yunji qiqian
fragments probably represent only a small fraction of the original. Yan Yiping
includes an annotated version of the Dongxian zhuan fragments in vol. I of his
Daojiao yanjiu ziliao (Yan Yiping 1974).
Among the seventy-seven figures who receive notices are *Xu Fu, *Wangzi
Qiao, *Gan Ji, Guo Pu $P~t and *Kou Qianzhi. The last period that figures
appear to come from is the Liang or Chen dynasties. The entries are not ar-
ranged in chronological order in the Yunji qiqian though whether this reflects
the arrangement in the original is, of course, unknown. Many of the fragments
are only a few lines long but some run for several hundred characters.
Benjamin PENNY
W Campany 1996, 92-93; Li Fengmao 1986, 187- 224

* HAGIOGRAPHY