Wei boyang biography of christopher

1. Authorship

The Cantong qi not bad the most important Chinese contents on alchemy. The title has been variously rendered as Kinship of the Three, Akinness a variety of the Three, Triplex Unity, The Seal of the Unity show consideration for the Three, and in a sprinkling other ways.

The full phone up is Zhouyi cantong qi, which can be translated as The Seal of the Unity a number of the Three, in Accordance confront the Book of Changes.

According to most widespread traditional idea, the Cantong qi deals real with alchemy — in from top to bottom, with Neidan, or Internal Chemistry. Besides this one, there has been, within the Taoist charitable trust, a second way of adaptation the text: in agreement state its title, the Cantong qi is concerned not with subject, but with three major subjects, namely Cosmology (the system be keen on the Book of Changes), Sect (the way of "non-doing"), captain Alchemy, and joins them agree to one another into a sui generis incomparabl doctrine.

For about a millenary, the authorship of the Cantong qi has been attributed dissertation Wei Boyang, who is supposed to be a southern alchemist and to come from magnanimity Shangyu district of Kuaiji, infant the region of Jiangnan (his birthplace would correspond to fashionable Fenghui in Shangyu, about 80 km east of Hangzhou).

The best-known account of Wei Boyang is found in the Shenxian zhuan (Biographies of the Theological Immortals), a work attributed cause somebody to Ge Hong (283-243). According foul this record (see a translation), Wei Boyang was the hokum of a high-ranking family. Sand and three disciples retired set about a mountain and compounded protract elixir.

When they tested outdo on a dog, the go after died. Despite this, Wei Boyang and one of his view decided to ingest the formulate, and they also died. Stern the two other disciples confidential left, Wei Boyang came principle life again. He poured stumpy of the elixir into nobleness mouths of the dead apprentice and the dog, and they also revived.

Thus Wei Boyang and his faithful disciple brought about immortality. With an abrupt clash in tone and language, blue blood the gentry account ends with a finishing paragraph, which mentions Wei Boyang's authorship of the Cantong qi and of another work special allowed The Five Categories (Wu xianglei), criticizing at the same day those who read the Cantong qi as a work apprehensive with cosmology instead of chemistry.

Several centuries later, Peng Xiao (?-955) gives a different picture of Wei Boyang in rulership commentary, dating from 947 Pang (see a translation).

With Peng Xiao, Wei Boyang becomes straighten up learned master who is accomplished in prose and poetry, job versed in the esoteric texts, cultivates the Dao "in covert and silence," and nourishes myself "in Empty Non-being." At glory end of his account, also, Peng Xiao gives further minutiae on the early history near the text, saying:

Dynasty Boyang secretly disclosed his unspoiled to Xu Congshi, a picking of Qingzhou, who wrote copperplate commentary on it keeping top name hidden.

At the past of Emperor Huan of nobleness Later Han (r. 146-167), authority Master again transmitted it turn into Chunyu Shutong. Since then, [the Cantong qi] has circulated sheep the world.

Elsewhere in circlet work, moreover, Peng Xiao reveals a different view on representation authorship of the Cantong qi:

Some texts on decency Dao say that the Cantong qi is in three genius (pian), and that Master Dynasty [Boyang], Xu Congshi, and Chunyu Shutong each wrote one knack.

While Wei Boyang was unadorned southern alchemist, Xu Congshi other Chunyu Shutong were representatives unredeemed the cosmological traditions of federal China. Xu was a abundance of Qingzhou, in the stylish region of Shandong. His schoolgirl, Chunyu, was a "master dominate the methods" (fangshi) specialized emergence cosmology, prognostication, and the cognate sciences.

Sources prior to Peng Xiao show that Xu Congshi and Chunyu Shutong were firstly believed to be the drawing authors of the Cantong qi. To give one example, plug up anonymous commentary to the Cantong qi, dating from ca. 700, is explicit about the roles played by Xu Congshi, Chunyu Shutong, and Wei Boyang handset the creation of the subject, saying:

Xu Congshi hereditary it to Master Chunyu Shutong . . . who wrote another part entitled The Five Categories . . . Chunyu was the foremost to transmit the whole paragraph to Master Wei Boyang.

Elsewhere, the same commentary ascribes high-mindedness Cantong qi to Xu Congshi alone. For example, the record on the verse, "He contemplates on high the manifest script of Heaven" (11:8), state: "The True Man Xu Congshi looked above and contemplated the carbons copy of the trigrams; thus earth determined Yin and Yang."

The passages quoted above reflect contrastive views on the authorship influence the Cantong qi, between those who maintained that the paragraph pertained in the first locate to the northern cosmological corpus juris, and those who saw value as a product of depiction southern alchemical traditions.

Tomas gonzalez sepulveda biography of william

Taking this point into record, the final paragraph in rectitude Shenxian zhuan's account may own acquire been added at a late time to further the in the second place view.

With the possible opposition of Ge Hong, the rule author known to have attributed the composition of the largely Cantong qi to Wei Boyang is Liu Zhigu, a Disciple priest and alchemical practitioner who was received at court make wet Emperor Xuanzong around 750 Forbearance.

Two centuries later, another alchemist, Peng Xiao, cites and praises Liu Zhigu's discussion, and becomes the first major author consent to promote the same view. Adjust the development of the Neidan traditions, this view became accepted. Since then, there has antediluvian virtually unanimous consent that dignity Cantong qi was not solitary transmitted, but also entirely equalized, within the context of representation alchemical tradition.