Skar, Lowell Dean (Author)
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.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 64 (2003): 1370. UMI order no. 3087470.
Article
Han, Jishao;
(2007)
A New Inquiry into the Taoist Text Thirty-six Methods for Bringing Solids into Aqueous Solution
(/isis/citation/CBB000933496/)
Article
Ho, Peng Yoke;
(2003)
Studying the Taoist Canon: Reminiscence and Reflection
(/isis/citation/CBB000500381/)
Book
Ho, Peng Yoke;
Moffett, John P. C.;
Sungwu, Cho;
(2007)
Explorations in Daoism: Medicine and Alchemy in Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB000953099/)
Book
Swetz, Frank;
(2008)
Legacy of the Luoshu: The 4,000 Year Search for the Meaning of the Magic Square of Order Three
(/isis/citation/CBB000952027/)
Article
Han, Jishao;
(2008)
External Alchemy and the Science of the TCM Formula in the Song Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000933534/)
Article
Rong, Zhiy;
(2008)
San Tong Qi and Ancient Chinese Alchemy
(/isis/citation/CBB000933541/)
Book
Strickmann, Michel;
Faure, Bernard;
(2002)
Chinese Magical Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB000201949/)
Thesis
Sun, Xiaochun;
(2007)
State and Science: Scientific Innovations in Northern Song China, 960--1127
(/isis/citation/CBB001560524/)
Book
Pregadio, Fabrizio;
(2006)
Great Clarity: Daoism and Alchemy in Early Medieval China
(/isis/citation/CBB000741905/)
Thesis
Yan Liu;
(2015)
Toxic Cures: Poisons and Medicines in Medieval China
(/isis/citation/CBB849633602/)
Article
Fava, Patrice;
Lo, Vivienne;
(2009)
The Body of Laozi and the Course of a Taoist Journey through the Heavens
(/isis/citation/CBB001020986/)
Article
Rocha, Leon Antonio;
(2012)
The Way of Sex: Joseph Needham and Jolan Chang
(/isis/citation/CBB001211287/)
Article
Dominic Steavu;
(2018)
The Marvelous Fungus and The Secret of Divine Immortals
(/isis/citation/CBB732903543/)
Thesis
Chee, Diana Sau-Hing;
(2001)
The Gold Elixir: The Circular Path of the Tao
(/isis/citation/CBB001562405/)
Article
Hu, Hua-kai;
(2008)
The Taoist Technological View and Its Implications for Modern Science and Technology
(/isis/citation/CBB000952307/)
Thesis
Liu, Xun;
(2001)
In Search of Immortality: Daoist Inner Alchemy in Early Twentieth-Century China
(/isis/citation/CBB001562563/)
Article
Yoichi Isahaya;
Jyuh Fuh Lin;
(2017)
Entangled Representation of Heaven: A Chinese Divination Text from a Tenth-Century Dunhuang Fragment (P. 4071)
(/isis/citation/CBB296357559/)
Article
Jonathan E. E. Pettit;
(2020)
Tao Hongjing and the Reading of Daoist Geography
(/isis/citation/CBB054746667/)
Article
Liang, Honggang;
He, Zhiguo;
Sun, Shuyun;
(2007)
China's Earliest Taoist Alchemical Artifact: Initial Study on the Gold-Mercury Alloy Unearthed from the No. 2 Western Han Tomb in Shuangbaoshan, Mianyang, Sichuan Province
(/isis/citation/CBB000933464/)
Article
Han, Jishao;
(2006)
Alchemy and Copper-Smelting in Song Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000630905/)
Be the first to comment!