Page 446 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

FANGSHI 407

Some of the medical and transcendence techniques employed by the fangshi in
early imperial China were adopted by practitioners in the Taoist movements
of the late Han like the *Wudoumi dao (Way of the Five Pecks of Rice).
The earliest reference to the fangshi occurs in the monograph on feng M
and shan W sacrifices CFengshan shu" i;j;f'l~ ~ ) in the Shiji (Records of the
Historian; ca. 100 BeE), which describes groups of experts in immortality
living in coastal China in the fourth century BeE. From the time of Kings Wei
(Weiwang ~£ , r. 334-320 BeE) and Xuan (Xuanwang 1§ £, r. 319-3OI BeE)
of Qi and King Zhao (Zhaowang Afj£ , r. 3II- 279 BeE) of Yan, thesefangshi
claimed to know of three spirit mountains where immortals dwelt and medi-
cines conferring immortality existed (Shiji, 28.1369-70; trans. Watson 1961,26;
see *Penglai). The same source narrates the patronage of fangshi by Qin Shi
huangdi (r. 221-210 BeE). In 219 BeE, he sent *Xu Fu to find immortals dwelling
on the spirit mountains in the eastern sea. Four years later, he commissioned
Master Lu (Lu sheng 11!1:) to go to sea to search for the immortals, and then
sent three other fangshi to seek the herbs of deathlessness of the immortals.
In the Shiji, the methods <fang 1J) used by the fangshi generally concerned
demons and spirits: methods for retreating from old age (quelao fang W::/'31J),
methods involving demons and gods (guishenfang *1$1J), and methods for
gods, monsters and anomalies (shen guai qi fang ;fEll H~ ~ 1J).
In the Former Han, Emperor Wu (r. I4I-87 BeE) and Liu An ~u!:Ji: (I79?-I22),
the Prince of Huainan (see *Huainan zi), were best known for their patron-
age of fangs hi. In 133 BeE, *Li Shaojun advised Emperor Wu to perform a rite
first celebrated by the Yellow Emperor (*Huangdi), enabling the transforma-
tion of cinnabar to gold. Gongyu Dai -0 3S. t,!f,~ furnished Emperor Wu with
a chart depicting a pentagonal twelve-storey hall matching one built by the
Yellow Emperor in I02 BeE. By emulating the Yellow Emperor, Wu sought to
mimic his apotheosis and become an immortal. Fangshi advised him in this,
although they did not enjoy official positions in the government (Chen Pan
1948,33-40). Liu An, one of Emperor Wu's vassals, was said to have gathered
several thousand experts in methods and techniques, and relying on them
compiled treatments of techniques of spirit transcendence (shenxian :fEII {ill) and
alchemy (huangbai ~ El ; Hanshu, 44.2145). Fragments of the resulting text- the
Huainan wanbi ~t l¥j 7J[; '" or Myriad Endings of Huainan-exist, but Kusuyama
Haruki has argued that they come from a compendium of fangshi traditions
postdating Liu An, associated with him because of the transcendence tales
that surrounded him (1987,31). It is also in the Former Han that the longevity
of fangshi is first asserted: Li Shaojun was hailed as a spirit because he was able
to recall events in the distant past and identify a bronze vessel cast in 676 BeE
(Shiji, 28.1385). Similar tales surround Later Han fangshi such as Lu Nlisheng
~ -.9:.1: and Ji Zixun fij T ~HI (Hou Hanshu, 82B.274I, 2746; see Ngo 1976).