Once when he was staying with Tian Fen, the marquis of Wu'an, and was drinking with the marquis and his friends, he told one of the guests, an old man of over ninety, that he had gone with the man's grandfather to such and such a place to practise archery. 131 BCE), who was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Wu'an in 141 BCE. The former describes him at a party given by Empress Wang Zhi's half-brother Tian Fen (田蚡, d. The Shiji context continues with two "self-authenticating" (Campany 2009: 146) stories about Li Shaojunbeing able to recall incidents of the distant past (Loewe 2000: 227). Compare the 2nd-century BCE fangshi spiritualist mentioned below, Li Shaoweng (李少翁, Li the Youthful Old Man) (Campany 2002: 225). 151 BCE), the younger brother of Empress Dou. Li (李, plum) is a very common Chinese surname and Shaojun (少君, Youthful Lord) is a courtesy name-also used by Dou Shaojun (竇少君) or Dou Guangguo (竇廣國, d. Since Li intentionally kept his birthplace and age secret, little is certain about his life, even his name is a pseudonym: Li the Youthful Lord (Campany 2009: 117). Wu (物, thing, matter, phenomenon), interpreted as guiwu (鬼物, ghosts spirits divine beings), Some commentators and most translators take wu here to mean guiwu, ghosts and spirits, but we follow those who interpret it as yaowu, chemical substances and drugs. Despeux 2008:233).īurton Watson translates shiwu (使物) as " make the spirits serve him" and "command the spirits", interpreting wu (物, thing, matter, phenomenon) as guiwu (鬼物, ghosts spirits divine beings) Joseph Needham translates "using natural substances to bring about perpetual youth", interpreting wu as yaowu (藥物, medicines drugs) (1976: 29). carrying on alchemical practices), and knew how to live without (eating) cereals and without growing old" (Needham 1976: 29), and "method of worshipping the furnace and abstaining from cereals to prevent old age" (tr. Watson 1961: 25)Ĭompare alternate translations of "art of making offerings to the (spirit of the) Furnace (i.e. He relied wholly on his ability to work magic and was clever at making pronouncements that were later found to have been curiously apt. Impressed that he seemed to enjoy such affluence without engaging in any business, and also not knowing where he was from, people put even greater faith in his claims and vied with each other in waiting on him. When people heard of his power to command the spirits and drive away death they showered him with a constant stream of presents, so that he always had more than enough food and clothing and money. Claiming that he could make the spirits serve him and prevent old age, he travelled about to the courts of the various feudal lords, expounding his magic. He kept his real age and place of birth a secret, always telling people that he was seventy years old. Li Shaojun had formerly been a retainer of the marquis of Shenze and specialized in magical arts. The emperor treated him with great respect. It was at this time also that Li Shaojun appeared before the emperor to expound the worship of the god of the fireplace and explain his theories on how to achieve immortality through dietary restrictions. Li does not name which furnace gods to worship, but the Stove God Zaoshen is traditionally associated both with alchemy and bigu, in Chinese raw/cooked logic, since cereal grains were cooked on the stove. The Liji narrative about Li Shaojun begins with his intentionally obscure origins and introduction to Emperor Wu, to whom he recommends cizao (祠灶, sacrifice to the furnace/stove) and gudao (穀道, the Way of grains, aka bigu 辟穀, Daoist grain avoidance) as methods to attain longevity/immortality. Debaters were divided between two factions, the fangshi maintained that Wu should emulate the Yellow Emperor, their main deity, who obtained immortality through performing the rituals, while the Confucianist court officials such as Gongsun Hong suggested that the emperor should only express gratitude to Heaven and Earth (Pregadio 2006: 30). The Shiji chronicles Li Shaojun as part of a lengthy debate on whether and how Emperor Wu should perform the Feng (封) and Shan (禪) state rituals on Mount Tai in honor of Heaven and Earth. In the early history of Chinese waidan (External Alchemy), Li is the only fangshi whose role is documented by both historical (for instance, Shiji) and alchemical ( Baopuzi) sources. 133 BCE) was a fangshi (master of esoterica), reputed xian (transcendent immortal), retainer of Emperor Wu of Han, and the earliest known Chinese alchemist. Li Shaojun ( Chinese: 李少君 Wade–Giles: Li Shao-chün, fl. ( October 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Parenthetical referencing has been deprecated convert to shortened footnotes. Please improve this article by correcting them. This article includes inline citations, but they are not properly formatted.
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