Page 472 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

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GanJi

-t-t

The figure of GanJi (who may actually have been YuJi TE, the characters for
Gan and Yu being easily confused) is most closely associated with the history
of the *Taipingjing (Scripture of Great Peace). However, the surviving records
vary significantly in their accounts of his life and relationships.
Our first reference to GanJi comes in the two memorials that Xiang Kai 1J1:
t~ (also pronounced XiangJie), a scholar worried about portents of disaster,
presented to Emperor Huan (r. 146-168) in 166. In these memorials, XianE
Kai recommends a "divine book" to the emperor which one Gong Song '§
* of Langya I!lJl1$ (Shandong) had received from Gan Ji. Gong had himself
presented the book to Emperor Shun (r. 125- 44). Subsequent glosses identified
this divine book as the Taiping qingling shu -:;t 3f W ~~ if (Book of Great Peace
with Headings Written in Blue), a precursor to the Taipingjing.
GanJi and Gong Song appear again in *Ge Hong's *Shenxian zhuan of the
early fourth century. In the biography of Gong Song in that collection (trans.
Campany 2002, 363), Gong takes Gan as his teacher during the reign of Emperor
Yuan (49-33 BCE). Together they encounter a Celestial Immortal who grants
Gan the Taipingjing. In the biography of Lord Gan (i.e. GanJi) himself, Gong
Song does not appear. Rather, in this text GanJi is presented as the patient of
Bo He m;flJ, a medicine seller. Gan, afflicted by diseases of the skin, is given
not medicine but a two-chapter long book which, Bo says, will heal his skin
and grant him long life as well. Bo also instructs him to expand the book into
150 chapters, usually taken as a reference to the Taipingjing.
Later again, the preface to the *Laojun shuo yibai bashi jie (The Hundred and
Eighty Precepts Spoken by Lord Lao) from the fifth century at the earliest, claims
that Lord Lao taught the Dao to GanJi during the reign of King Nan of Zhou
(Nanwang ~x. , r. 314-256 BCE) and also transmitted the Taipingjing to him.
In this version, Bo He (here named Lord Bo) has become GanJi's patient.
In what appears to be a separately transmitted tradition dating from the
late third century, GanJi appears as a healer and charismatic religiOUS leader
around Wu in the lower Yangzi basin. Among his followers were members of
the army of Sun Ce 1l~ (175-200), one of the military leaders who fought
in the wars of the late second century. Fearing the increasing hold Gan had
over his officers, Sun had him executed. A record of these events in *Soushen ji
claims that Gan's decapitated body subsequently disappeared, Gan returning
to haunt Sun Ce who went mad and died as a result.

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