in their nobility refused office – Yinyi zhuan 隱逸傳 – in ten chapters. In addition, I made an anthology of three hundred and ten chapters of military affairs 兵事, techniques 方伎, miscellaneous entries 短雜 and oddities 奇要 by copying excerpts 抄 from the five classics, the seven histories and the one hundred philosophers, and made a table of contents. Compare other translations of this ambiguous description of the Shenxian Zhuan: "I also compiled a book on those who are not normally listed, which became the Shen hsien chuan in 10 scrolls." "In addition, he composed writings in which the common people (among the scholar class) were not interested, including the Shen-hsien chuan 神仙傳, in ten chapters." "I also compiled biographies which are not passed down among the common people – Shenxian Zhuan – in ten chapters." "I also compiled (zhuan 撰) traditions of those not conventionally listed to form Shenxian Zhuan in ten fascicles." Ge Hong specifically uses the verb zhuan 撰 "compose; write; compile" for the Shenxian Zhuan and Yinyi Zhuan "Biographies of Recluses", which is no longer extant. Thus, Durrant writes, "Most of the biographies are extracted from various earlier works, so Ko is really much more of an editor than an author of Shen-hsien chuan." Several early sources confirm that Ge Hong wrote the Shenxian Zhuan. The (ca. 429) Sanguozhi commentary by Pei Songzhi (372-451) quotes the Shenxian Zhuan and notes "what was recorded by Ge Hong came close to deluding the masses. But as his writings are so widely circulated, I have selected a few of the events." Liu Xiujing 陸修靜's (437) List of Lingbao texts states that Ge Hong "selected and compiled" the Shenxian Zhuan. The Shui Jing Zhu "Commentary on the Waterways Classic" by Li Daoyuan (d. 527) also attributes the Shenxian Zhuan to Ge. The (6th century) biography of the Shangqing School patriarch Tao Hongjing (456-536) says he "obtained Ge Hong's Shenxian Zhuan and studied it day and night and so mastered its ideas on nourishing life." Campany concludes, We can therefore be as confident that Ge Hong compiled a work titled Shenxian Zhuan as we can of almost any other authorial attribution in this period of Chinese history. But it is equally certain that the Shenxian Zhuan that has come down to us is not exactly the text that Ge Hong wrote. Some scholars have questioned Ge's authorship of the Shenxian Zhuan