The Shenxian Zhuan, sometimes given in translation as the Biographies of the Deities and Immortals, is a hagiography of immortals and description of Chinese gods, partially attributed to the Daoist scholar Ge Hong (283-343). In the history of Chinese literature, the Shenxian Zhuan followed the Liexian Zhuan ("Collected Biographies the Immortals"). Title The Shenxian Zhuan title combines three words: shen 神 "spirit; god; divine; supernatural; awareness; consciousness" xian 仙 "transcendent; immortal; saint; celestial being; alchemist" zhuan 傳 "commentary on a classic (e.g., Zuozhuan); biography; tradition" The word shenxian 神仙 can be parsed either as shénxiān "gods and transcendents" or as shénxian "divine transcendent". Shenxian commonly occurs in Standard Chinese usage. Examples (with literal meanings) include both words like shenxianyan 神仙眼 (with "eyes") "seer; clairvoyant" or shenxianyu 神仙魚 ("fish") "angelfish", and phrases like shenxian xiafan 神仙下凡 ("come down to earth) "an immortal becomes incarnate" or shenxianzhongren 神仙中人 ("among people") "the happiest mortal alive". Scholars have variously translated Shenxian Zhuan as: Biographies of Taoist divinities and adepts Lives of the Divine Hsien Lives of Spirit Immortals Lives of the Holy Immortals Lives of Divine Transcendents Traditions of Divine Transcendents Biographies of Divine Immortals Zhuan 傳 is consistently translated as "biographies" or "lives", with the exception of Robert Ford Campany's "traditions", based upon the meaning "to transmit". Livia Kohn criticizes Campany's translation that "ignores the fact that the word was obviously used in dynastic historical and other collections to mean "biography." Authorship The Shenxian Zhuan is traditionally attributed to the Jin dynasty scholar and religious practitioner Ge Hong, who is best known as author of the Baopuzi "Master Who Embraces Simplicity". "The majority of Chinese critics," Sailey notes, "believe that the version which we have today is probably not the same one that Ge Hong wrote." Ge's autobiography (Baopuzi Outer Chapter 50) records that he completed writing the Shenxian Zhuan and several other books during the Jianwu 建武 era (317–318), when Emperor Yuan of Jin founded the Eastern Jin dynasty. In all I wrote 著 [Baopuzi] neipian 內篇 in twenty chapters, [Baopuzi] waipian in fifty chapters, one hundred chapters of inscriptions 碑, eulogies 頌, poems 詩, and rhapsodies 賦 and thirty chapters of military dispatches 軍書, proclamations 檄移, memorials to the throne 章表, and memoranda 箋記. I also compiled 撰 biographies of those not listed as a matter of course – Shenxian Zhuan 神仙傳 – in ten chapters and biographies of those who