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The ''Shenxian zhuan'' () is a hagiography of ''xian'' "transcendents; immortals", partially attributed to the Daoist scholar Ge Hong (283-343). In the history of Chinese literature, the ''Shenxian zhuan'' followed the ''Liexian Zhuan'' "Biographies of Arranged Transcendents", attributed to the Confucian scholar Liu Xiang (79-8 BCE). ==Title== The ''Shenxian zhuan'' title combines three words: *''shen'' 神 "spirit; god; divine; supernatural; awareness; consciousness" *''xian'' 仙 "transcendent; immortal; saint; celestial being; alchemist" *''zhuan'' 傳 "commentary on a classic (e.g., ''Zuozhuan''); biography; tradition"; cf. ''chuan'' 傳 "pass (on); hand down; spread" The word ''shenxian'' 神仙 can be parsed either as ''shénxiān'' "gods and transcendents" or as ''shénxian'' "divine transcendent". ''Shenxian'' commonly occurs in Standard Chinese usage. Examples (with literal meanings) include both words like ''shenxianyan'' 神仙眼 (with "eyes") "seer; clairvoyant" or ''shenxianyu'' 神仙魚 ("fish") "angelfish", and phrases like ''shenxian xiafan'' 神仙下凡 ("come down to earth) "an immortal becomes incarnate" or ''shenxianzhongren'' 神仙中人 ("among people") "the happiest mortal alive". Scholars have variously translated ''Shenxian zhuan'' as: *''Biographies of Taoist divinities and adepts'' (Waley 1930) *''Lives of the Divine Hsien'' (Needham and Ling 1954) *''Lives of Spirit Immortals'' (Dewoskin 1983) *''Lives of the Holy Immortals'' (Needham and Bray 1984) *''Lives of Divine Transcendents'' (Campany 1996) *''Traditions of Divine Transcendents'' (Campany 2002) *''Biographies of Divine Immortals'' (Penny 2008) ''Zhuan'' 傳 is consistently translated as "biographies" or "lives", with the exception of Campany's "traditions", based upon the meaning "to transmit". Kohn (2002:329-330) criticizes Campany's translation that "ignores the fact that the word was obviously used in dynastic historical and other collections to mean "biography." He also tends to refer to the content of the work as "hagiographies," never as "traditions," which really means something quite different in English." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Shenxian zhuan」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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