searching for physical immortality, which he thought was attainable
through alchemy. He lived during China's tumultuous Period of Disunity
(220-589 CE), a time in which alien conqueror regimes ruled northern
China, the cradle of Chinese civilization, while a series of weak,
transplanted Chinese states occupied recently colonized southern
China. These political conditions, along with the social chaos they
engendered, no doubt gave rise to Ge Hong's ardent desire to establish
order and permanency in both his spiritual and secular worlds. His
most important contribution to Chinese philosophy was his attempt to
reconcile an immortality-centered Daoism with Confucianism. Equally
important, to establish political order, he also tried to reconcile
Legalism with Confucianism. His penetrating insight was that the
teachings of no one school could solve the problems that his world
faced – only a combination of the best methods of each could do so.
1. The Life of Ge Hong
In 283 CE, Ge Hong was born into a southern magnate family whose
native place was the Jurong district in Danyang prefecture, which was
near Nanjing, in the southwest corner of present day Jiangsu province.
Both his grandfather and father had reputations for broad learning and
served as high ministers for the Wu state, which ruled over
southeastern China from 220-280. Ge's father continued to hold a
number of middle level positions under the Western Jin dynasty
(265-317) that briefly reunited China. Upon his father's death in 296,
Ge endured a period of relative poverty and lost his family's
extensive library due to civil strife. To educate himself, from this
time on, he started copying books and reading voraciously. He began
with the Confucian classics, but soon turned his attention to the
various philosophical writings. Under the tutelage of Zheng Yin, who
was both a Confucian classicist and a Daoist adept, Ge began his
studies of the immortality arts. Zheng Yin himself was a disciple of
Ge's uncle, Ge Xuan (164-244), a Daoist adept who was reputed to have
become an immortal.
Like other southern gentry, Ge Hong's early career was spent in
military positions. He had an extensive knowledge of martial affairs
and was trained in the use of arms. In 303, at the age of twenty, he
was called upon to organize and lead a militia in his native place
against a rebel army, which he handily defeated. In a rare admission
of violence for a Chinese literatus, he even relates that, with bow
and arrow, two men and a horse died at his hands. In 305, after being
promoted to the rank of a General Who Makes the Waves Submit, Ge tried
to make his way to Luoyang, the capital. Although his autobiography
tells us he did so "to look for unusual books," he was probably also
hoping to obtain a promotion. However, due to the Rebellion of the
Eight Princes that was being fought throughout northern China, he
never made it; instead, he wandered throughout southern China. To
escape from the turmoil that was embroiling the rest of China, he
finally accepted a position as a military councilor under his friend
who was appointed to be the governor of Guangzhou (Canton), a port
city in the far south.
After his patron was killed enroute to assuming the governorship, Ge
refused many other military appointments and remained in Guangzhou for
the next eight years, living the life of a recluse at nearby Mount
Luofu. In 314, he returned to his native place of Jurong. There, he
studied under another Daoist adept named Bao Qing (260-330), the
former governor of Nanhai prefecture, who was so impressed that he
gave Ge his eldest daughter in marriage. It was during this long
period of reclusion that Ge wrote his two part magnum opus whose title
bore his sobriquet: the Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces
Simplicity and the Outer Chapters of the Master Who Embraces
Simplicity. Ge used the Daoist Inner Chapters to substantiate the
reality of immortality and convey the methods for realizing it, while
the Confucian Outer Chapters describe the problems afflicting the
secular world and his proposed solutions. In fact, until the
fourteenth century, the Inner Chapters and Outer Chapters circulated
independently from each other. With these two works, Ge aspired to
establish his own school of philosophy. Also at this time,
illustrative of his aspirations, Ge compiled hagiographical works
entitled Biographies of Divine Transcedents and Biographies of
Recluses.
With the establishment of the Eastern Jin dynasty in southern China in
317, the transplanted throne was eager to gain the allegiance of
powerful southern gentry families; thus, men such as Ge Hong were
showered with official appointments, which were usually more honorary
than substantive in nature. In recognition of his past military
successes, Ge himself was given the title of Marquis of the Region
Within the Pass. Finally, in 326, Wang Dao (276-339), the prime
minister, appointed him to a series of positions, ending with that of
military advisor. By 332, due to his advanced age (he was 50) and
desire to find ingredients for immortality elixirs, he begged to be
given a post in northern part of present-day Vietnam. On his way
there, the governor of Guangzhou, Deng Yue, detained him there
indefinitely. He thus took up residence at nearby Mount Luofu where he
engaged in immortality practices until his death in 343.
By his own admission, Ge Hong was a man that was out of sorts with his
age. He was a southerner in an age where only northern émigrés were
given posts of substance. Due to his lack of verbal eloquence, he
could never obtain social prestige in the salons where men were prized
for their ability to engage in "Pure Talk" – abstract philosophical
discussions. Nor did his strong Confucian sense of morality sit well
with the libertine tendencies of that prevailed among the northern
émigrés. The outlet of his frustrations became his writings, in which
he attacked the fashions and trends of his day and proposed his own
vision of how people should obtain stability in an instable world.
2. Immortality
Ge Hong wholeheartedly believed that anyone, through unrelenting
effort and study, could obtain immortality. One does not have to be
either rich or powerful to do so; in fact, wealth and position are
harmful because they inhibit one from attaining the necessary moral
and physical serenity. Moreover, it is not up to the arbitrary
decisions of deities to extend our lives – they are merely divine
administrators who keep track of our sins and good deeds;
consequently, sacrifices and prayers to them for this purpose are
useless. Thus, whether one can obtain immortality is entirely based on
his or her own diligence and determination. It was precisely for those
educated people who wanted and were willing to work towards obtaining
immortality that Ge wrote his Inner Chapters. The overriding
importance that he attached to obtaining eternal life is evident in
that the inner, and thereby his most important, chapters of his magnum
opus were dedicated to the topic.
Ge Hong firmly believed that physical immortality was possible. This
is because all things are permeated by the metaphysical oneness, xuan
(the mystery), which creates and animates all things. Significantly,
for Ge, xuan is synonymous with the words dao (the way, the ultimate
reality) and yi (the one, the unity). In this light, he describes xuan
in the following manner: it "carries within it the embryo of the
Original One, it forms and shapes the two Principles (Yin and Yang);
it exhales and absorbs the great Genesis, it inspires and transforms
the multitude of species, it makes constellations go round, it shaped
the primordial Darkness, it guides the wonderful mainspring of the
universe, it exhales the four seasons … if one adds to it, it does not
increase. If one takes away from it, it does not grow less. If
something is given to it, it is not increased in glory. If something
is taken from it, it does not suffer. Where the Mystery is present,
joy is infinite; where the Mystery has departed, efficacy is exhausted
and the spirit disappears" (Robinet, 82-83). In other words, the key
to immortality is maintaining this everlasting oneness within oneself
– if one cannot do so, he or she will soon die. The reason why people
lose it is that they become attached through their desires to the
outside world, thereby forgetting the jewel that resides within. As Ge
put it, "The way of xuan is obtained within oneself, but is lost due
to things outside oneself. Those who employ xuan are gods; those who
forget it are merely [empty] vessels."
How does one maintain the unity within oneself? For Ge Hong it had
much to do with preserving, enhancing, and refining one's qi, which
for him embodied the metaphysical mystery. Qi, which originally meant
"breath" or "vapor," came to designate the vital energy that exists
within and animates all things. As Ge Hong relates, "people reside
within qi and qi resides within people. From heaven and earth down to
the ten thousand things, each one requires qi to live. As for those
who excel at circulating their qi, internally they are able to nourish
their body; externally, they are able to repel illnesses." Since each
person receives a finite amount of qi at birth, he recommends various
methods to retain and enhance it, which include breathing exercises,
sexual techniques, calisthenics, dietary restrictions, and the
ingestion of herbal medicines. Since none of these methods is
infallible, he recommends that an adept should practice a number of
them in combination with each other. By doing so, one protects oneself
from manifold disasters, such as illnesses, demons, savage beasts and
weapons, while also lessening desires, transforming the body, and
extending one's lifespan. These methods could even give their
practitioners supernatural powers, such as curing illnesses, raising
the dead, seeing the future, commanding gods and ghosts, forgoing food
for years, and the ability to disappear.
Nevertheless, none of these techniques could permanently keep xuan
within oneself. To do that, nothing was comparable with taking
alchemically created medicines. Ge thus informs us that, "Even if one
performs breathing exercises and calisthenics, as well as ingests
herbal medicines, this can only extend the years of your lifespan, but
it will not save you from death. Ingesting divine cinnabar will make
your lifespan inexhaustible. You will last as long as heaven and
earth, be able to travel on clouds and ride dragons, and ascend at
will to the Heaven of Highest Clarity." Alchemically derived
medicines, the best of which contained either liquefied gold or
reverted cinnabar, were able to have this marvelous effect because the
substances from which they were made had shown themselves, through
repeated firings in the alchemist's stove, to be impervious to decay
or dissolution. According to Ge, "As for forging of gold and cinnabar,
the longer one burns them, the more marvelous their transformations.
When gold enters the flames, even after one hundred firings, it will
not disappear. If you bury it forever, it will never decay. If one
ingests these two substances, they will refine that person's body, and
make it so that he or she will neither age nor die." In other words,
one makes one's own body imperishable by ingesting imperishable
things. Mechanically what happens is that, upon ingestion, these
substances seep into one's blood and qi, thereby making them stronger.
Ge Hong calls this using an outside substance to fortify one's self.
The reason why herbs are inferior to gold and cinnabar is that they
are perishable; thus, they lack the capacity to make the body
imperishable. Unfortunately though, the ingredients for making these
mineral medicines are difficult to obtain, the process of smelting
them is arduous, and the ritual circumstances under which they must be
made are elaborate; as a result, Ge Hong several times admits that he
has never had enough resources to attempt to produce these superb
formulas.
3.Reconciliatio. of Daoism and Confucianism
It is often said of premodern Chinese literati that they were Daoist
at home while Confucian in the office. Ge Hong was in fact probably
one of the first Chinese thinkers to consciously try to reconcile
Confucianism and Daoism. As the division of his major work into inner
and outer chapters indicates, he did so by asserting that Confucianism
and Daoism addressed different aspects of life. Confucianism addressed
the external world and provided means by which to ameliorate its many
problems; Daoism concerned the inner world and provided means by which
to attain immortality. As Ge succinctly put it, "For an
extraordinarily talented person, what difficulty could there be in
practicing both (Confucianism and Daoism) at the same time? Inwardly,
such people treasure the way of nourishing life; outwardly, they
exhibit their brilliance in the world. If they regulate their persons,
their persons then will be cultivated for a prolonged time; if they
rule the country, the country will achieve the state of great peace."
Cultivating one's spirit for immortality thereby automatically enables
one to rule a country well. Thus, if one becomes a terrestrial
immortal, Ge Hong sees no reason why such a person cannot hold office
and contribute to the welfare of his generation.
Nevertheless, even though both were important, Daoism was even more
so. That is because in the far past the sage kings followed the Dao
"the oneness" or "the natural order of things," as a result, the
people's conduct was flawless and natural processes transpired
smoothly without disruption or disaster. Later kings, however, no
longer followed the Dao; consequently, natural disasters occurred
frequently and people became evil and unruly. It was only at this
point that Confucianism was introduced in an attempt to rectify this
situation. Thus, Daoism is superior because it kept the world from
becoming chaotic; Confucianim, on the other hand, only appeared when
the world declined into disorder and its practitioners have often
become entangled in the resulting mess. Thus, Daoists, like
Confucians, provide the world with moral order, but they do so without
becoming soiled in the process. As Ge Hong put it, "In regard to the
Daoists, their making consists of excelling in cultivating the self to
complete their duties; their repose consists in excelling in doing
away with the impurities of people; their governance consists of
excelling in cutting off misfortune before it occurs; their giving
consists in excelling at saving things, but not considering it
virtuous; their activity consist in excelling at using their
heart-mind to urge the people [to do good]; their quiescence consists
in excelling at being cautious and without rancor. These
characteristics are why Daoism is the ruler and leader of the hundred
schools of philosophy and why it is the ancestor of [Confucian]
righteous and benevolence." Nevertheless, since only a few people are
able to correctly pursue Daoism and present times are disordered,
Confucianism is necessary to maintain the social order that is
embodied in the family and the state. Very much in a Confucian vein,
he evaluates both philosophies through a moral lenses.
One of the ways in which Ge Hong connected Confucianism and Daoism is
by stating that one needed to perfect oneself ethically to pursue
immortality. In his Inner Chapters, Ge Hong makes it clear that none
of the methods for prolonging one's life will work unless one is
morally pure, which can only happen by realizing Confucian virtues. Ge
explicitly states that, "those who seek to become immortals must
regard loyalty, filiality, peacefulness, obedience, benevolence and
trustworthiness as fundamental. If one does not cultivate his or her
moral behavior, and merely instead devotes oneself to esoteric
methods, he or she will never obtain an extended lifespan." Since
these virtues, particularly that of benevolence (ren), emphasize
putting the interests of others before one's own, they cultivated a
sense of selflessness and detachment that Ge viewed as essential for
maintaining the mysterious oneness within oneself.
His strong emphasis on morality led him to systematize and quantify
earlier ideas about how spirits punished immoral behavior. Ge Hong
maintained that for each minor moral transgression one committed, the
Director of Fates would subtract three days from his or her lifespan;
for each major transgression, three hundred days would be deducted. To
guide people's behavior, he even listed sixty-four possible sins. Very
few of these prohibitions are religious in nature – the overwhelming
majority concern secular life and many are Confucian inspired.
Furthermore, he posited that, to achieve spiritual benefits, one had
to continuously accumulate good deeds: 300 were needed to become an
earthbound immortal and 1200 to become a celestial immortal. One
mishap and the balance would be canceled. Ge Hong even transformed the
three corpses, evil entities within the body who endeavor to destroy
it to earn their freedom, into ethical agents that try to decimate
their host's health by disclosing his sins to the celestial
authorities. This system of measuring good and bad deeds would later
giver rise to the Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, popular books that let
people keep track of their moral progress by assigning numerical
scores to virtuous and immoral behavior.
Ge Hong also attempted to reconcile Daoism with Confucianism by both
emphasizing the importance and naturalness of hierarchy and attacking
Daoism's equalitarian tendencies. Although Laozi and Zhuangzi always
assumed that kings would exist, their utopian vision of society was a
small village society whose inhabitants never leave their hamlets, do
not use contrivances, and have few material goods. In order to attack
this line of thinking in his Outer Chapters, Ge Hong puts forth the
views of a man named Bao Jingyan who extended the Daoist arguments to
their logical conclusion. Bao maintains that the simple agrarian
utopias in which people lived simply and equally were lost due to the
creation of hierarchy, which was based on the strong oppressing the
weak and the smart deceiving the foolish. With the lord/subject tie
came a host of evils such as weapons, armies, rebellions, greed,
thievery, deceit, extravagance, and crime. Thus, Bao advocated the
abolishment of rulers as the key to securing peace and happiness.
Incidentally, Bao is the earliest known Chinese advocate of anarchy.
Ge Hong, on the contrary, thinks that in a state of nature people
think only of their own desires, hence they vie with each other like
beasts for scarce resources. Hierarchy was thus established to put an
end to the strong oppressing the weak. Moreover, hierarchy is natural:
as the oneness unfolds into the ten thousand things, it divides itself
into high and low; hence, heaven is above and earth is below. Thus, it
is only natural that some people are more important than others. This
is true to the extent that even immortals are hierarchically
organized: freshly minted immortals must occupy the lower rungs of the
celestial bureaucracy and serve their superiors, while terrestrial
immortals are inferior to their celestial counterparts. Ge also
recognized that civilization could not be undone and that hierarchy
had brought about material progress, as the following passage
indicates: "Now, [would you be at ease] if I made you reside in the
cramped quarters of a nest or cave? [Would you be at ease] if upon
your death, your body was abandoned in the fields? [Would you be at
ease] if upon being impeded by a river, you had to swim to cross it?
[Would you be at ease] if upon traveling through the mountains, you
had to walk and shoulder luggage? [Would you be at ease] if your
cooking implements were cast away and you had to make do with raw and
smelly food? [Would you be at ease] if you no longer had stone needles
for acupuncture and had to merely rely on nature to [cure] your
illness? [Would you be at ease] if nakedness was your only ornament
and you had no clothes? [Would you be at ease] if you came across a
female and made her your mate without an intermediary? You and I would
both likely say, 'to do these things would be impossible.' How much
less could we do without a lord!" In other words, progress and
hierarchy are realities, and beneficial ones at that, which can
neither be ignored nor abandoned.
4. Confucianism and Legalism
Since Ge Hong recognized that this world cannot be ignored, he
believed that one must find a way to improve it. Given the corruption
and chaos that ruled his age, like many of his contemporaries, he
looked for answers beyond Confucianism to its arch nemesis, Legalism.
His reform program was thus a synthesis of both Confucian and Legalist
political ideas. First of all, even though he believed that the ruler,
like a good Confucian sovereign, should cultivate his person, lead the
people through his own moral example, and take their welfare as his
overriding concern, he admitted that this was not sufficient to guide
society. To govern well, one had to have clear laws to punish
miscreants. He warns us that, "It is not that governing with
benevolence is not wonderful, it is just that the black-haired masses
can be crafty and deceitful. They hanker after profit and forget
righteousness. If one does not order them with one's authority and
correct them with punishments, if one only admires the ways of Fuxi
and Shennong (Confucian cultural heroes), then chaos cannot be avoided
and the resulting calamities will be numerous. [Yet] to use killing to
stop killing, how could anyone find joy in that?" In short, although
leading through one's moral example is preferable, it is not
realistic: it is sometimes necessary to use the harsher methods. Since
Confucian moral example was not enough, the ruler must turn to the law
and mete out punishments. Following Legalist ideas, Ge argues that the
laws must be clear, explicit, and fair; i.e., they must be applicable
to everyone. Moreover, the punishments for misbehavior must be severe.
It is precisely generous rewards and harsh punishments that will keep
the strong from oppressing the weak. Regimes are weak because their
laws are neither severe nor enforced. In line with this thinking, Ge
was in favor of reviving punishments that mutilated the guilty.
Convicts suffering from such punishments would be constant reminders
to the people of the terrible price to be paid for violating the law.
Lest the modern reader judge Ge harshly for supporting such draconian
measures, since the death penalty largely replaced the mutilation
punishments, Ge thought the latter was more humane, since at least the
criminal would escape with his or her life.
Another way in which Ge Hong tried to reconcile Confucianism and
Legalism was through the type of training officials should receive.
Under the Legalist Qin dynasty (221-207 BCE), which unified China for
the first time, officials were largely men who excelled in legal and
administrative matters. During the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE),
particularly during its latter half, Confucianism gradually became the
dominant ideology, hence the education and knowledge of officials
became more centered on the Confucian classics. Men who primarily
specialized in legal matters were slighted and only given clerical
positions. Due to this situation, Ge complained that officials, no
matter what their level, no longer understood the laws, hence they
often issued incorrect judgments and were deceived by their more
legally savvy underlings. Consequently, he thought that aspirants to
officialdom should be tested not only on the Confucian classics, but
also on the law.
5. The Importance of Broad Knowledge
That officials should be knowledgeable in both the classics and the
law highlights one of his most consistent teachings: a person must be
broadly educated and that deep study leads to the mastery of all
things. For Ge Hong, through the diligent acquisition of knowledge,
anything was possible, whether it be ruling a country or attaining
immortality. In this vein, he said, "When one peels away dark clouds,
one exposes the sun; as a result, the ten thousand things cannot hide
their shapes. By unrolling bamboo and silk (that is, by reading books)
and investigating the past and present, heaven and earth thereby hide
none of their facts. How much less so gods and demons? And how much
less so the affairs of people?" Nevertheless, one could not just
specialize in one kind of learning, but had to learn the teachings of
many different schools. Likewise, in seeking immortality, one should
study many techniques and never merely practice one exclusively.
Similarly, in terms of book learning, one should not merely confine
oneself to learning the classics because all written works had
something of worth. Indeed, he propounded the revolutionary sentiment
that the elaborate writings of his day were superior to the simplistic
classics. The more widely one read, and the more techniques one
acquired, the more one would be likely to excel in both the spiritual
and secular worlds. Study was also a means of self-cultivation –
through it one could eliminate desires by becoming indifferent to his
or her physical circumstances.
According to Ge Hong, one of the primary reasons governance of his
time was so inept and ineffective was that officials were not selected
on the basis of their intelligence, but only due to their connections,
bribery, or their ability to speak eloquently. Ge thought the solution
to this problem would be to use examinations to select men on the
basis of their knowledge of the classics and administrative matters.
The examinations should be held in the palace, supervised by high
officials, and their contents should be kept in the utmost secrecy. By
this means, there would be little opportunity to pass the examinations
through deceit or bribery. Moreover, when the only way to become an
official is through examinations, everyone will value study. Although
he admitted that passing the examinations would not guarantee that
that person would be a good official, he thought that the ability to
do so was a fair indicator of talent. In other words, Ge Hong was one
of the earliest proponents of selecting officials through a vigorous
and fair examination system, one of the hallmarks of Chinese
civilization.
6. Conclusion
In sum, Ge Hong was a philosopher who, due to the topsy-turvy world in
which he lived, was willing to look for solutions in the wisdom of any
philosopher, regardless of his sectarian background. With Ge's
overriding sense of the importance of morality and his overwhelming
urge for permanency in the form of immortality, he reconciled
Confucian and Daoism by saying that both were trying to improve the
condition of mankind and that practicing Confucian virtues was
necessary for attaining immortality. Likewise, this search for
concrete, no-nonsense answers also led him to reconcile his Confucian
leanings with the real politick teachings of Legalism. Thus, although
he maintained that the ruler must endeavor to mold his people's
behavior through his own example, generous rewards and severe
punishments were even more important in regulating the affairs of the
troublesome masses. In order to manifest both these philosophies, Ge
advocated that officials be both experts in the classics and legal
matters. Thus, Ge helped fashion the values that allowed latter
Chinese to unproblematically simultaneously use Daoist, Confucian, and
Legalist assumptions in both their public and private lives.
7. References and Further Reading
Balazs, Etienne. Chinese Civilization and Bureaucracy. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1964. Besides giving a valuable introduction to the
tumultuous intellectual and social milieu in which Ge Hong lived, this
work also translates part of the chapter from his Outer Chapters in
which Ge Hong critiques the anarchist Bao Jingyan.
Campany, Robert Ford. To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A
Translation and Study of Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. This fine translation
of Ge Hong's biographies of immortals has an introduction that
insightfully describes his religious ideas.
Lai Chi-Tim, "Ko Hung's Discourse of Hsien-Immortality: A Daoist
Configuration of an Alternate Ideal Self-Identity," Numen 45 (1998):
183-220. Although somewhat turgid, this article successfully
delineates the novel aspects of Ge Hong's views on immortality and
situates his religious beliefs within the social and political context
in which they were formed.
Robinet, Isabelle. Daoism: Growth of a Religion, translated by Phyllis
Brooks. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1997. Robinet devotes an
entire chapter of this work to Ge Hong and masterfully contextualizes
his thought within the Daoist religious tradition.
Sailey, Jay. The Master Who Embraces Simplicity: A Study of the
Philosopher Ko Hung, A.D. 283-343. San Francisco: Chinese Materials
Center, Inc., 1978. The author translates twenty-one chapters of Ge
Hong's Outer Chapters. He also deftly summarizes Ge Hong's ideas as
seen in this work.
Sivin, Nathan. "On the Pao P'u Tzu Nei Pien and the Life of Ko Hong
(283-343)," Isis 60 (1976): 388-391. In this short article, Sivin
makes some important points about the circulation of his works and the
length of his life.
Sivin, Nathan. "On the Word 'Daoist' as a Source of Perplexity."
History of Religions 17
(1978): 303-330. This intellectually penetrating article challenges
the idea that Ge Hong was a Daoist at all, in the sense that he was
not at all connected with organized Daoist religion.
Ware, James R. Alchemy, Medicine & Religion in the China of A.D. 320:
The Nei P'ien
of Ko Hung. Rpt; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1981. Originally
published in 1966, this work is a complete translation of Ge Hong's
The Inner Chapters. The reader must beware, though, since the text is
inaccurately translated through Judeo-Christian lenses.
Yu, David C. History of Chinese Daoism: Volume 1. Lanham: University
Press of America, 2000. This overview of the history of Daoism devotes
a lengthy chapter to Ge Hong with extensive quotations to his views on
immortality.
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