a corpse, it contains some other object (talisman, sword, clothing, etc.). Adepts will occasionally change their names as a device to elude detection by spirits in the underworld bureaucracy. In the Baopuzi, Ge Hong ranked shijiexian 尸解仙 "escape by means of a simulated corpse transcendents" as the lowest of three categories, below tianxian 天仙 "celestial transcendents" who ascend into the heavens and dixian 地仙 "earthbound transcendents" who wander in the mountains. Significance Campany lists four reasons for studying the Shenxian Zhuan. For one thing, Ge Hong's works afford us an unparalleled glimpse into certain aspects of Chinese religious life and practice at a critical time in the history of Chinese religions. … For another thing, Ge Hong records elements of religious ideas and disciplines relating to the quest for transcendence that might otherwise remain unknown to us, and his writings constitute a valuable terminus ante quem for them. … With respect to Daoist religious history proper, furthermore, Ge Hong's writings, and the practices, ideas, and values represented in them, constitute an important voice in ongoing inter- or intrareligious rivalries and self-definitions. … Finally, research on Ge Hong's works has at least two contributions to make to the cross-cultural study of religions. The religion he documents was an extraordinary human response to the phenomenon of death. … [and contributes] new material for an as yet unrealized cross-cultural understanding of hagiography as a type of religious writing, a theme in religious studies heretofore largely dominated by Christian and Islamic categories. Penny summarizes why the Shenxian Zhuan is important. The biographies provide a wealth of information about how immortality was viewed in early medieval China, detailing important features of how immortals, and those who sought immortality, lived, their extraordinary abilities, their relationship to other people and society at large, including government at all levels, the way they interacted with other spiritual beings, the drugs they concocted, and how they transformed their environments for themselves. References {{cite book |translator-last=Ware |translator-first=James R. |date=1966 |title=Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei Pien of Ko Hung |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=9780262230223 |ref=CITEREFWare1966 }} Footnotes Further reading Lai Chi-tim. 1998. "Ko Hung's Discourse of Hsien Immortality: A Taoist Configuration of an Alternate Ideal Self-Identity", Numen'' 45:1-38. External links Shenxianzhuan 神仙傳 "Biographies of Deities and Fairies", ChinaKnowledge 神仙傳 chapters 1-5, Internet Archive ebook, 1782 Siku Quanshu edition 神仙傳 chapters 6-10, Internet Archive ebook, 1782 Siku Quanshu