Liexianzhuan 列仙傳

Liexianzhuan 列仙傳 "Biographies of immortals" is a collection of biographies of Daoist personalities allegedly compiled by the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) scholar Liu Xiang 劉向. The term liezhuan 列傳 is derived from the biographic-thematic type of historiography (jizhuanti 紀傳體) and designates collective biographies of "normal" persons (not emperors). Liu Xiang is also credited with the compilation of the Lienüzhuan 列女傳, a collection of biographies of outstanding women, which is qualitatively better than the Liexianzhuan. The Liexianzhuan includes 71 persons from the times of mythology, like Master Red Pine (Chisongzi 赤松子), to the physician Xuan Su 玄俗 who lived during the Han period. Similar to the Lienüzhuan, each biography is concluded with a short appraisal (zanyu 贊語), and each chapter is finished with a general praise (zongzan 縂贊). All biographies describe how the Daoist practicioners became immortals by abstaining from the normal ways of live and dedicating themselves to the support of the helpless and the poor. The intention of all these stories is that becoming an immortal was not the result of sorcery but that of a life of certain moral virtues.
The time of the compilation and the identity of the compiler were subject to a long and intense discussion. It is clear the the Liexianzhuan was not a product of Liu Xiang. It is not listed among his books in the imperial bibliography Yiwen zhi 藝文志 in the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 but the earliest catalogue listing it is the Jingjizhi 經籍志 in the history Suishu 隋書. The Song period 宋 (960-1279) bibliographer Chen Zhensun 陳振孫 identified the language as that of post-Han times, an opinion not shared by Huang Bosi 黄伯思. The compilers of the annotations to the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, the Siku tiyao 四庫提要, attributed some of the praises to the Jin period 晉 (265-420) scholar Guo Yuanzu 郭元祖. The book itself seemed to have existed during the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220). It is not recorded in the imperial bibliography Yiwen zhi 藝文志 of the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 that was written during the Later Han, but the Jin period books Baopuzi 抱朴子 and Shenxianzhuan 神仙傳 mention the Liexianzhuan. The name of Liu Xiang might have been borrowed in order to obtain a higher value and credibility.
There are many different editions of the Liexianzhuan with differences in many parts of the text. Some editions include 71 biographies, some 72, and some editions do not include the praises. The Daoist encyclopedia Yunji qiqian 雲笈七籤 only includes 48 biographies. The encyclopedias Yiwen leiju 藝文類聚 and Taiping yulan 太平御覽 extensively quote from the Liexianzhuan. The Liexianzhuan is included in the Daoist Canon Daozang 道藏 and the Siku quanshu.