canon" does not contain a complete version of the Shenxian Zhuan, and most received texts were compiled during the Qing dynasty. Scholars have long suspected, writes Barrett, that "the best-known version currently available was actually confected for commercial rather than academic purposes in the sixteenth century from quotations in other sources, and that the direct tradition of the text has been lost." Some editions of the Shenxian Zhuan have different numbers and arrangements of biographies. Modern versions contain around ninety biographies, which differs from Tang-era versions. Zhang Shoujie 張守節's 736 commentary to the Shiji lists 69 biographies. The Buddhist scholar Liang Su 梁肅 (753-793) reported that the text had 190 biographies. According to Penny, "The unfortunate but inescapable conclusion derived from this text is that modern versions of Shenxian Zhuan are possibly less than half the size of an 8th Century version of Shenxian zhuan, and there is no reliable way of determining which biographies have been lost". Modern Shenxian Zhuan texts exist in several ten-chapter versions, one five-chapter version (1868 Yiyuan junhua 藝苑捃華), and various one-chapter abstracts. Two ten-chapter versions are commonly available, but neither, concludes Penny, "is entirely satisfactory". First, the 1794 Longwei mishu 龍威秘書 edition, which stems from the 1592 Guang Han Wei congshu 廣漢魏叢書 version recompiled from sources including Taiping guangji 太平廣記 quotations, contains 92 hagiographies. Second, the 1782 Siku Quanshu 四庫全書 edition, which stems from the 1641 Jiguge 汲古閣 edition published by Mao Jin 毛晉, contains 84 hagiographies. The best known one-chapter Ming dynasty versions of the Shenxian zhuan include the ca. 1620 Yimen guangdu 夷門廣牘 and 1646 Shuofu 說郛 versions. Textual dating Dating "the original" Shenxian Zhuan text is impossible because its transmission stopped after the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) book burnings. Campany concludes, We can be certain neither that Ge Hong himself wrote even the earliest-attested passages nor that he did not write event he latest attested. What we can be certain of is the date by which each passage existed and was attributed to the Shenxian Zhuan. … Based on these criteria, we can conclude that material concerning 15 adepts is reliably attributed to the Shenxian Zhuan before the year 500, that material about an additional 70 figures is reliably attributed to Shenxian Zhuan by 650, 9 more figures by 700, 22 more by the year 1000, and so on. Imagining these groups of material arranged in concentric circles by source, the