Li Shaojun
Li Shaojun was a , reputed , retainer of Emperor Wu of Han, and the earliest known Chinese alchemist. In the early history of Chinese , Li is the only whose role is documented by both historical and alchemical sources.
Shiji
The earliest record of Li Shaojun was contemporaneously written during the reign of his patron Emperor Wu : Sima Qian's c. 94 BCE has nearly identical versions in the "Annals of Emperor Wu" and "The Treatise on the Feng and Shan Sacrifices". In addition, the c. 111 CE "Book of Han" has a "closely parallel" version.The chronicles Li Shaojun as part of a lengthy debate on whether and how Emperor Wu should perform the and state rituals on Mount Tai in honor of Heaven and Earth. Debaters were divided between two factions, the 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.
The narrative about Li Shaojun begins with his intentionally obscure origins and introduction to Emperor Wu, to whom he recommends and as methods to attain longevity/immortality. Li does not name which furnace gods to worship, but the Stove God Zaoshen is traditionally associated both with alchemy and, in Chinese raw/cooked logic, since cereal grains were cooked on the stove.
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. The emperor treated him with great respect. Li Shaojun had formerly been a retainer of the marquis of Shenze and specialized in magical arts. He kept his real age and place of birth a secret, always telling people that he was seventy years old. 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 had no wife or children. 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. 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. He relied wholly on his ability to work magic and was clever at making pronouncements that were later found to have been curiously apt.
Compare alternate translations of "art of making offerings to the Furnace, and knew how to live without cereals and without growing old", and "method of worshipping the furnace and abstaining from cereals to prevent old age".
Burton Watson translates as " make the spirits serve him" and "command the spirits", interpreting as ; Joseph Needham translates "using natural substances to bring about perpetual youth", interpreting as.
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. is a very common Chinese surname and is a courtesy name—also used by Dou Shaojun or Dou Guangguo, the younger brother of Empress Dou. Compare the 2nd-century BCE spiritualist mentioned below, Li Shaoweng.
The context continues with two "self-authenticating" stories about Li Shaojunbeing able to recall incidents of the distant past. The former describes him at a party given by Empress Wang Zhi's half-brother Tian Fen, who was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Wu'an in 141 BCE.
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. The old man had in fact, when he was a child, accompanied his grandfather, and remembered visiting the place that Li Shaojun mentioned. With this the whole party was struck with amazement.
The latter story narrates how Li recognized a ritual bronze that belonged to Duke Huan of Qi.
When Li Shaojun appeared before the emperor, the latter questioned him about an ancient bronze vessel which the emperor had in his possession. "This vessel," replied Li Shaojun, "was presented at the Cypress Chamber in the tenth year of the reign of Duke Huan of Qi." When the inscription on the vessel was deciphered, it was found that it had in fact belonged to Duke Huan of Qi. Everyone in the place was filled with astonishment and decided that Li Shaojun must be a spirit who had lived hundreds of years.
Emperor Wu was convinced that Li Shaojun could prevent the onset of old age and achieve deathlessness,
Next, the relates the emperor undertaking Li's convoluted, long-term alchemical project for achieving immortality through the same method as the Yellow Emperor. The alchemical process began with in order to summon, interpreted again as, who would transmute cinnabar into gold, which would gradually extend the emperor's life long enough to meet the of Penglai Island, and thus learn to correctly perform the and ceremonies. Li Shaojun authenticates his plan by describing his own meeting with the legendary immortal Anqi Sheng on Penglai. Needham literally interprets as natural substances or phenomena and not spiritual beings, and translates – as "natural substances can be caused to change" or "natural phenomena can be caused to happen".
Li Shaojun then advised the emperor, "If you sacrifice to the fireplace you can call the spirits to you, and if the spirits come you can transform cinnabar into gold. Using this gold, you may make drinking and eating vessels, which will prolong the years of your life. With prolonged life you may visit the immortals who live on the island of Penglai in the middle of the sea. If you visit them and perform the Feng and Shan sacrifices, you will never die. This is what the Yellow Emperor did. Once I wandered by the sea and visited Master Anqi, and he fed me jujubes as big as melons. Master Anqi is an immortal who roams about Penglai. If he takes a liking to someone he will come to meet him, but if not he will hide." As a result, the emperor for the first time began to sacrifice in person to the fireplace. He dispatched magicians to set out on the sea in search of Master Anqi and the immortals of Penglai and attempted to make gold out of cinnabar sand and various kinds of medicinal ingredients.
The statement that Master Anqi will sometimes hide, "accomplishes four things at once: it confirms Li's own exalted status—for the clear implication is that Li has been deemed worthy of approach by An Qi; it portrays as restricted access to the sources of such methods as Li prescribes; it establishes a precedent for the contemporary adept's withholding of esoterica from the unworthy; and it acts as a failsafe lest the emperor practice the method unsuccessfully."
Li Shaojun's method shows that rituals were associated with Chinese alchemy since its earliest recorded beginnings. The Daoist tradition likewise summoned gods and other supernatural beings while making elixirs. However, in contrast to later practices of External Alchemy. Li's alchemical gold did not grant immortality, but only longevity, and his technique did not involve ingesting it but casting it into dishes and cups. This uncommon use of alchemical gold was mentioned in texts like the. This episode represents the first instance of imperial patronage of practices, which continued during the Six Dynasties and intensified in the Tang period.
The narrative concludes with Li Shaojun's reported death, or perhaps his simulated escape from the corpse, and the aftermath.
After some time, Li Shaojun fell ill and died. The emperor, however, believed that he was not really dead but had transformed himself into a spirit, and he ordered Kuan Shu, a clerk from Huangchui, to carry on the magical arts which Li Shaojun had taught. None of the group sent out to search for Master Anqi in the island of Penglai succeeded in finding anything. After this, any number of strange and dubious magicians from the seacoast of Yan and Qi appeared at court to speak to the emperor about supernatural affairs.
This passage about Emperor Wu and Li Shaojun, the earliest historically reliable document, is "surprisingly dense, relating as it does waidan to mythology, hagiography, ritual, and even state ceremonies." It is unclear whether Li's elaborate method represented a long but undocumented tradition before him or simply reflects his attempt at picking as many features as possible that would capture the emperor's interest and combining them into a secret "alchemical recipe".
Lunheng
The skeptical philosopher and author Wang Chong's c. 80 CE repeatedly mentions Li Shaojun in the chapter to demonstrate that while some individuals have had very long lives, no one has ever become a Daoist immortal. Wang's narrative generally follows the biography of Li Shaojun but adds some reasons to doubt its veracity.The narrative of Li's introduction to Emperor Wu has some different vocabulary than the, for instance, writing with the variant character in place of and using the common name instead of.
At the time of Han Wu Ti there lived a certain Li Shao Chün, who pretended that by sacrificing to the "Hearth" and abstaining from eating grain he could ward off old age. He saw the emperor, who conferred high honours upon him. Li Shao Chün kept his age and the place where he was born and had grown up secret, always saying that he was seventy old, and could effect that things did not grow old. On his journeys he visited all the princes around and was not married. On hearing that he could manage that things did not age, people presented him with much richer gifts than they would otherwise have done. He had always money, gold, dresses, and food in abundance. As people believed that he did not do any business, and was yet richly provided with everything, and as nobody knew, what sort of a man he really was, there was a general competition in offering him services.
The makes some minor changes in the two stories indicating that Li Shaojun was hundreds of years old. First, when Li meets the nonagenarian at the Marquis of Wu'an's party, instead of "The old man had in fact, when he was a child, accompanied his grandfather, and remembered visiting the place that Li Shaojun mentioned." says, "Li Shao Chün indicated to him the places which his grandfather frequented, when shooting. The old man knew them, having visited them as a child with his father." Second, when Li recognizes the ancient bronze vessel, the dates it from "the 15th year" instead of "the tenth year" of the reign of Duke Huan of Qi.
More significantly, the omits both the entire passage about Li Shaojun's multipart proposal for the emperor to achieve immortality and the emperor's doubts that Li actually died. The Duke Huan story concludes, "The whole Court was startled, and thought that Li Shao Chün was several hundred years old. After a long time he died of sickness." Wang Chong adds some reasons to doubt that Li avoided death through shijie corpse substitution.
Those who now-a-days are credited with the possession of are men like Li Shao Chün. He died amongst men. His body was seen, and one knew, therefore, that his nature had been longevous. Had he dwelt in mountain-forests or gone into deserts, leaving no trace behind him, he would have died a solitary death of sickness amidst high rocks. His corpse would have been food for tigers, wolves, and foxes, but the world would again have believed him to have disappeared as a real immortal. The ordinary students of have not Li Shao Chün's age. Before reaching a hundred years they die like all the others. Yet uncultured and ignorant people still hold that they are separated from their bodies, and vanish, and that, as a matter of fact, they do not die.
Lastly, Wang Chong gives three reasons to doubt the narrative about Li Shaojun.
The Grand Annalist Sima Qian was a contemporary of Li Shao Chün. Although he was not amongst those who came near to Li Shao Chün's body, when he had expired, he was in a position to learn the truth. If he really did not die, but only parted with his body, the Grand Annalist ought to have put it on record and would not have given the place of his death. The reference to the youth of the nonagenarian in the court would prove Li Shao Chün's age. Perhaps be was fourteen or fifteen years old, when the old man accompanied his grandfather as a boy. Why should Li Shao Chün not know this, if he lived 200 years? Wu Ti's time is very far from Duke Huan, when the bronze vase was cast, and Li Shao Chün cannot have seen it. Perhaps be heard once that in the palace there was an old vessel, or he examined the inscription beforehand to speak upon it, so that he was well-informed, when he saw it again. When our amateurs of to-day see an old sword or an antique crooked blade, they generally know where to place it. Does that imply that they saw, how it was wrought?... Li Shao Chün taught and a method to keep off old age by means of sacrificing to the "Hearth." He determined the period of a tripod cast under Duke Huan of Ch'i, and knew the places frequented, when hunting, by the grandfather of a nonagenarian, and yet he did not really attain to. He was only a long-lived man, who died late.