Medieval Chinese seekers of transcendence—xian, which some prefer to render as “immortality”—and those who achieved xian-hood have often been portrayed as reclusive, secretive figures. In Making Transcendents, Robert Ford Campany counters this traditional view. He argues that many adepts were far from socially isolated but operated instead within a circle of patrons, admirers, skeptics, and clients. In the author's own words, xian-hood should be seen “as a socially constructed, socially enacted attribution rather than as an intrinsic, self-sustained property” (p. 25). The basis for Campany's views is a new reading of predominantly hagiographical material, which has informed much of the author's earlier research. A hagiographic narrative should not be read as a record of a form of belief but as “an artifact of an attempt to persuade an audience” (p. 10).
Chapter 1, “Bringing Transcendents Down to Earth,” takes up fundamental issues relating to the interpretation of hagiographic sources, the social role of transcendence seekers, and the use or avoidance of certain concepts or terms, such as “immortal.” The characteristic elements that set transcendents apart from ordinary beings—their cultural repertoire, as Campany calls it—are dealt with in the next two chapters, “The Transcendent's Cultural Repertoire” and “Deeper Repertoire Analysis.” The repertoire includes longevity; dietary restrictions; enhanced physical capacities; mastery of space, time, and the elements; peculiar dwelling habits; mastery of nonhuman beings; and freedom from social convention and constraint. Chapter 3 is an in-depth analysis of grain abstention.
Chapter 4, “Secret Arts, Manifest Wonders,” explores the interplay and the tension between the adepts’ secrecy—the necessity to conceal themselves and their magic methods—and the tendency to display their feats. Campany claims that most masters of esoterica did not attempt to “conceal their possession of esoteric arts or the results of these arts” (p. 128). I should remark that this is not surprising: students of Chinese religion are aware of the crucial importance of efficacy (ling) in Chinese religion and ritual, and efficacy implies actors as well as an audience. Chapter 5, “Verbal Self-Presentation and Audience Response,” examines narratives attributed to transcendence seekers about themselves and considers how these narratives were received by part of their audience.
Chapter 6, “Adepts and Their Communities,” sketches some of the ways in which adepts interacted with their audience. Services often sought from adepts were related to healing or prognostication, and for these services, compensation was offered. In chapter 7, “Adepts, Their Families, and the Imperium,” we turn to the tensions between family members (parents and children, husbands and wives) arising from one's choice to seek transcendence and the (in)compatibility of the path of the worldly ruler with that of the seeker of xian-hood. In chapter 8, “Hagiographic Persuasions,” finally, the focus is on hagiographies as rhetorical devices—attempts to convince readers as to the identities and reputations of individuals.
The primary source material for this book is limited to the period from about 220 bce to 343 ce (Ge Hong's death). Thus, important later developments in the history of Daoism, such as the Shangqing and Lingbao revelations, largely fall outside the scope of the book. This is of some consequence, for in mid- and late medieval times, the ultimate goal of adepts would no longer be transcendence or immortality (xian), but yet more exalted states of being, such as perfection (zhen) and holiness (sheng). One point of criticism concerns the author's view of the study of youxian (wandering as a transcendent) poems by Cao Cao as “a blind alley for research” (p. 143). Poems such as these indeed must not be seen as claims of personal transcendence, but most certainly can be seen as yearnings for transcendence. Furthermore, Campany's suggestion that Cao Cao may only have been “playfully invoking” earlier rulers who had sought transcendence (p. 143) reflects a post-Enlightenment state of mind that refuses to acknowledge the seriousness with which Chinese of all ages and all walks of life (busy military commanders included) have been known to believe in the possibility of transcendence.
These minor criticisms aside, Making Transcendents is an invaluable aid in our understanding of traditional Chinese religion, culture, and society. Thoroughly comparative in its approach and methodologically sound, this book will no doubt stimulate future research. Its main argument about the social roles of seekers of transcendence and about the rhetorical function of the hagiographies that portray the adepts' activities is entirely convincing and will come to serve as a very useful tool in our attempts to clarify other aspects of traditional Chinese culture. If one day we arrive at a more profound understanding of the hidden agendas behind so much of Chinese writing, hagiographical as well as historical, Making Transcendents will undoubtedly have played a significant role in that process.
