摘要
This study focuses on the methods used to compose Daoist hagiographies in China’s early-medieval era (220–581 ad). We analyze different textual layers of one of this period’s longest hagiographies, Qingling zhenren Peijun zhuan 清靈真人裴君傳, or, The Traditions of Lord Pei, the Perfected One of Clear Numinosity. The resulting evidence illuminates the ongoing process of revelation used by Daoist mediums; it also contributes to our understanding of the ways that Daoist writers continued to add to and edit texts after they first appeared. Furthermore, sustained attention to this one hagiography helps us better understand the central role that biography and life-writing played for early Daoists. By situating the text within its contemporary hagiographic, ritual, and literary contexts, we demonstrate ways in which revelatory literature represents a pastiche of ritual and textual conventions. The authors conclude that attention to the ritual and textual worlds found within Daoist hagiographies makes us more aware of the writers, editors, and readers who created these texts.
關鍵詞
biography, Daoism, hagiography, life-writing, ritual, textual transmission
