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Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (review)

Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (review) Reviews Robert Ford Campany. Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 2009. xviii, 300 pp. Hardcover $48.00, isbn 978-0-8248-3333-6. Robert Campany is indisputably the foremost current expert on the hagiographic literature of early medieval China, having published numerous articles and a complete annotated translation of Ge Hong's (283­343) Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Shenxian zhuan ).1 In the present volume, he utilizes his profound knowledge of this literature to engage in a close reading of hagiographic texts and a sophisticated exploration of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in their reading. He limits his temporal focus to the period between the beginning of the Han dynasty (220 b.c.e.) and shortly after the death of Ge Hong (ca. 350 c.e.), and his thematic focus to the socially constructed nature of notions of transcendence or xian-hood. Much ink has been spilled about the pursuit of immortality or transcendence (the latter term preferred by Campany), including by Campany himself; thus, he makes a decisive shift in the present work by not emphasizing the intrinsic justifications and elaborations of techniques and cosmologies conducive to reaching the goal of xian-hood, but instead focusing on the extrinsic http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png China Review International University of Hawai'I Press

Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (review)

Clart, Philip
China Review International , Volume 18 (2) – Sep 19, 2011
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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
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Copyright © University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1527-9367
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Abstract

Reviews Robert Ford Campany. Making Transcendents: Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 2009. xviii, 300 pp. Hardcover $48.00, isbn 978-0-8248-3333-6. Robert Campany is indisputably the foremost current expert on the hagiographic literature of early medieval China, having published numerous articles and a complete annotated translation of Ge Hong's (283­343) Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Shenxian zhuan ).1 In the present volume, he utilizes his profound knowledge of this literature to engage in a close reading of hagiographic texts and a sophisticated exploration of the methodological and theoretical issues involved in their reading. He limits his temporal focus to the period between the beginning of the Han dynasty (220 b.c.e.) and shortly after the death of Ge Hong (ca. 350 c.e.), and his thematic focus to the socially constructed nature of notions of transcendence or xian-hood. Much ink has been spilled about the pursuit of immortality or transcendence (the latter term preferred by Campany), including by Campany himself; thus, he makes a decisive shift in the present work by not emphasizing the intrinsic justifications and elaborations of techniques and cosmologies conducive to reaching the goal of xian-hood, but instead focusing on the extrinsic

Journal

China Review International – University of Hawai'I Press

Published: Sep 19, 2011

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