TRANSCENDENCE THROUGH ELIXIR INGESTION: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF DU GUANGTING AND HUANG XIUFU

Abstract

This paper focuses on the investigation of hagiographies written by late Tang and Five Dynasties’ Daoist thinkers Du Guangting 杜光庭 and Huang Xiufu 黄休復 to analyze the development of elixir ingestion in late Tang and Five Dynasties’ narratives regarding attaining transcendence. Their suggestion requires the preparation of personal virtue and the combination and intervention of other longevity techniques. This paper will examine how the ideas and practices of elixir ingestion are expressed in these two figures’ works to reveal the process of achieving transcendence during this period.Based on the analysis of Du Guangting and Huang Xiufu’s hagiographies about elixir ingestion, I argue that both of them treat moral behavior as prerequisite in the process of being transcendent and suggest contemporary transcendence seekers to do good deeds before elixir ingestion. In addition, Du Guangting and Huang Xiufu are also influenced by Tang Daoist ideas about how to attain transcendence. They combine elixir ingestion with other longevity techniques to complicate the practice of being transcendent and create their own practical systems to attain transcendence.