Thesis ID: CBB001562360

Golden Elixir Alchemy: The Formation of the Southern Lineage of Taoism and the Transformation of Medieval China (2003)

unapi

Skar, Lowell Dean (Author)


University of Pennsylvania
Sivin, Nathan


Publication Date: 2003
Edition Details: Advisor: Sivin, Nathan
Physical Details: 375 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation uses a wide range of sources to show that alchemy was part of China's evolving culture between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. It views alchemy as self-cultivation traditions rooted in cults to immortals, rather than comparing it to modern chemistry and psychotherapy, or identifying it as an intrinsic part of Daoist religion. Alchemy emerged as private and nonofficial forms of self-cultivation, often structured by cults and supra-familial spiritual organizations. Literati learned alchemy to hasten their spiritual ascent into ranks of the divine, whether through making medicines, models of cosmic process, or integrating exercise and meditation. They taught alchemy to promote spiritual order in society, initiating peers into alchemical fellowships grounded in local religion. By embedding alchemical self-cultivation in the deepest sources of Chinese civilization and cosmic process, they also created new identities for themselves. The chapters examine the background and formation of Golden Elixir ( jindan) alchemy in literati culture from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries. Ge Hong (283--343) synthesized three alchemical traditions to promote elixirs that could convey spiritual powers and transcendence, making Golden Elixir alchemy a permanent part of the literati imagination. Alchemy slowly shifted its focus from spiritual ascent through refining mineral and metallic elixirs toward refining energies within the body according to schematized processes of chemical change. A minor official named Zhang Boduan (d. 1082) received new Golden Elixir teachings centered on internal cultivation in 1069, and over the next three centuries, literati spun his teachings into a rich tradition, mainly in South China. The circle around Bai Yuchan (1194--1229?) and the next three generations was important here. The first Ming emperor excluded this new alchemy from his vision of official learning in 1371, while some of his cultural advisors recast it as the Southern Lineage of Taoism (daojia nanzong) in order to give it a prominent place in the new empire's nonofficial culture. Its teachings became part of the Ming Daoist canon, and became central to sectarian religious forms, helping to give personal spirituality and local traditions a grand view of the divine hierarchy and cosmos that was independent of the state.

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Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2003): 1370. UMI order no. 3087470.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001562360/

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Authors & Contributors
Han, Jishao
Ho, Peng Yoke
Pettit, Jonathan E. E.
Steavu, Dominic
Lin, Jyuh Fuh
Robson, James
Concepts
East Asia, civilization and culture
Taoism
Alchemy
Medicine, Chinese traditional
Science and religion
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Time Periods
Medieval
Han dynasty (China, 202 B.C.-220 A.D.)
Song Dynasty (China, 960-1279)
Tang dynasty (China, 618-907)
Ancient
Jin Dynasty (China, 265-420)
Places
China
Eurasia
Syria
Greece
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