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Chinese Literature
Jixianzhuan 集仙傳 "Collected Biographies of Immortals"


The Jixianzhuan 集仙傳 "Collected biographies of immortals" is a book written by an anonymous author from the Song period. It has sometimes been attributed (like in the catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題) to Zeng Zao 曾慥, author of the collection Leishuo 類說, yet this is quite improbable. The 15 juan "scrolls" long book Jixianzhuan includes the biographies of 162 Daoist masters from the Tang period 唐 (618-907), beginning with Cen Daoyuan 岑道愿. For each biography, the source is indicated. Interestingly enough, the text in the Taiping guangji 太平廣記, which is often quoted as a primary source, sometimes deviates from that in the Jixianzhuan. The book was not very widespread, and there were only a few copies available. The most convenient version is that in the reprint series Shuofu 說郛.

Source: Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰 (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典, vol. 2, p. 2312. Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe.

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August 18, 2011 © Ulrich Theobald · Mail