Shenxian zhuan

The Shenxian zhuan (simplified Chinese: 神仙传; traditional Chinese: 神仙傳; pinyin: Shénxiān zhuàn; Wade–Giles: Shen-hsien chuan; literally: "Biographies of Divine Transcendents") is a hagiography of xian "transcendents; immortals", partially attributed to the Daoist scholar Ge Hong (283-343). In the history of Chinese literature, the Shenxian zhuan followed the Liexian Zhuan "Biographies of Arranged Transcendents", attributed to the Confucian scholar Liu Xiang (79-8 BCE).

The Shenxian zhuan title combines three words:

The word shenxian 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:

Zhuan 傳 is consistently translated as "biographies" or "lives", with the exception of Campany's "traditions", based upon the meaning "to transmit". Kohn (2002:329-330) criticizes Campany's translation that "ignores the fact that the word was obviously used in dynastic historical and other collections to mean "biography." He also tends to refer to the content of the work as "hagiographies," never as "traditions," which really means something quite different in English."

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