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Making Transcendents - Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (Paperback)
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Making Transcendents - Ascetics and Social Memory in Early Medieval China (Paperback)
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By the middle of the third century B.C.E. in China there were
individuals who sought to become transcendents (xian)-deathless,
godlike beings endowed with supernormal powers. This quest for
transcendence became a major form of religious expression and
helped lay the foundation on which the first Daoist religion was
built. Both xian and those who aspired to this exalted status in
the centuries leading up to 350 C.E. have traditionally been
portrayed as secretive and hermit-like figures. This groundbreaking
study offers a very different view of xian-seekers in late
classical and early medieval China. It suggests that transcendence
did not involve a withdrawal from society but rather should be seen
as a religious role situated among other social roles and conceived
in contrast to them. Robert Campany argues that the much-discussed
secrecy surrounding ascetic disciplines was actually one important
way in which practitioners presented themselves to others. He
contends, moreover, that many adepts were not socially isolated at
all but were much sought after for their power to heal the sick,
divine the future, and narrate their exotic experiences. The book
moves from a description of the roles of xian and xian-seekers to
an account of how individuals filled these roles, whether by their
own agency or by others'-or, often, by both. Campany summarizes the
repertoire of features that constituted xian roles and presents a
detailed example of what analyses of those cultural repertoires
look like. He charts the functions of a basic dialectic in the
self-presentations of adepts and examines their narratives and
relations with others, including family members and officials.
Finally, he looks at hagiographies as attempts to persuade readers
as to the identities and reputations of past individuals. His
interpretation of these stories allows us to see how reputations
were shaped and even co-opted-sometimes quite surprisingly-into the
ranks of xian. Making Transcendents provides a nuanced discussion
that draws on a sophisticated grasp of diverse theoretical sources
while being thoroughly grounded in traditional Chinese
hagiographical, historiographical, and scriptural texts. The
picture it presents of the quest for transcendence as a social
phenomenon in early medieval China is original and provocative, as
is the paradigm it offers for understanding the roles of holy
persons in other societies.
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