The Chinese Hanyu Da Cidian, which is lexicographically comparable to the Oxford English Dictionary, defines fenshen 分身 with four meanings and cites earliest usages.

The Hanyu Da Cidian defines fenxing 分形 with two meanings and cites their earliest usages[2]: 570–571 Chinese Buddhist terminology uses fenshen 分身 "dividing the body" referring to the temporal huàshēn 化身 "transformation bodies; nirmāṇakāya" of the Buddha, "with which he teaches and saves living beings, a Buddha's power to reproduce himself ad infinitum and anywhere"; and fenxing 分形 "varied manifestation" means "to manifest in different forms for different beings simultaneously" (Digital Dictionary of Buddhism).

[7]: 2341 Standard Chinese usage has semantically modernized both these ancient Daoist "body division" words: fenshen is Internet slang for sockpuppet and fenxing is mathematical jargon for fractal.

Translating Chinese fenshen and fenxing into English is problematic owing to numerous different stories about how Daoist and Buddhist masters could multiply themselves.

The names of the 'Master of Technic' whom Cao Cao assembled were Wang Zhen [王真] from Shangdang, Feng Junda [封君達] from Longxi, Gan Shi [甘始] from Ganling [甘陵], Lu Nu Sheng [魯女生], and Hua Tuo, styled Yuanhua, from the land of Qiao; Dongguo Yannian [東郭延年], Tang Yu [唐霅], Leng Shou Guang [冷壽光], Pu Shi [卜式] from Henan, Zhang Diao [張貂], Ji Zixun [薊子訓], Fei Chang Fang [費長房] from Runan, Xian Nu Gu [鮮奴辜], and Zhao Sheng Shi [趙聖卿], the military official for the Wei, from Henan; Que Jian [卻儉], styled Mengjie, from Yangcheng, and Zuo Ci, styled Yuanfang, from Lujiang.

Zuo Ci could change his form [能变形], deceive people's vision and hearing, dispel evil spirits and the like.

They were the sort of people whom the Record of the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli) calls 'mystifiers of the common folk' [怪民] and the Wangzhi [chapter of the Liji] refers to as 'Holding to the Left path' [挾左道者].

[13]: 121–122  The earliest reliable descriptions of fenshen and fenxing are found in two c. 320 texts compiled by the Jin Dynasty Daoist scholar Ge Hong (282-343), the Baopuzi or Master who Embraces Simplicity and the Shenxian Zhuan or Biographies of Divine Transcendents.

The search for It begins in the sun, and is described as "knowing white and preserving black" [所謂知白守黑] or "unsuccessful in the desire for death" [欲死不得者也].

Once these three have become visible, you can continue to increase the number to several dozen, all like yourself [三人已見又轉益之可至數十人皆如己身], who may be concealed or revealed, and all of whom are automatically in possession of secret oral directions.

Through this method [Zuo Ci], [Ji Liao], and my uncle [Ge Xuan] could be in several dozen places at one time.

[8]: 305–306  Robinet notes that Ge Xuan's mundane activities do not distract him from the "major occupation of all Taoists—dreaming alongside running water".

Clouds are raised and rain brought for an area a hundred miles square by means of metal, wood, jade, or rock.

[8]: 316–317  The three xian transcendents Zuo Ci 左慈, Ge Xuan 葛玄, and Ji Liao 薊遼 or Li Zixun 薊子訓 mentioned as masters of fenxing are more fully described in Guo's other compilation below.

Five Shenxian zhuan hagiographies of Daoist xian describe fenxing 分形 or fenshen 分身 body division, usually resulting from the adept taking waidan alchemical elixirs.

First, Zhang Daoling (34-156 CE), first patriarch of the Way of the Celestial Masters, founded the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice movement in 142, and eventually controlled a prosperous theocratic state in present-day Sichuan.

"Behind the amusing and the taunting lies a single lesson: transcendence-seeking adepts are of a superior order of being; rulers' appropriate response to them is respect and veneration, and any attempts to dominate or manipulate are futile.".

Duke Cao was now even more determined to have him killed, and he also wanted to test whether Zuo could avoid death, so he gave orders to have him apprehended.

It was announced that [they were searching for a man who] was blind in one eye and wearing a linen cloth wrapped on his head and a one-layer gown.

The moment this announcement was made, the entire city full of people, numbering several tens of thousands, all turned into men blind in one eye wearing a linen cloth on their head and a one-layer gown.

[10]: 281  Specifically, the one-eyed men all wore qing gejin danyi 青葛巾單衣 "a green kudzu-cloth headwrap and an unlined garment".

[Once] when the weather was cold Ge told his guests, "It is impossible in my humble abode for each of you to have his own fire, but I invite you to warm yourselves in common."

On that day, Ji left in the morning and arrived at the capital before noon, having traveled over a thousand li ("Chinese miles") in a few hours, he then asked the student, "So, who wants to see me?"

He was thoroughly versed in the meanings of the Five Phases, using them to nourish his nature; cure illnesses; dispel misfortune; instantly call forth wind, clouds, thunder, and rain; and change plants, rocks, and pottery into domestic animals, dragons, and tigers.

[10]: 370  In Daoist hagiographies, adepts who have mastered bianhua "transformation; metamorphosis" are portrayed as autonomously free from normal spatiotemporal limitations.

Isabelle Robinet describes this transcendent state as possessing "the gift of ubiquity, [fenxing], which literally means to divide the body into many parts".

[9]: 49  Zuo Ci, Ji Liao, and Ge Xuan used the Guarding the [Mysterious] One method that requires ritual fasting and purification before learning how to envision oneself into three selves, and then up to several dozen.

Four of the five Shenxian zhuan hagiographies concerning body division also mention using waidan alchemical elixirs: Zhang Daoling, Zuo Ci, Ge Xuan, and Yuzi.

According to Daoist legends, these masters of body division most commonly split into around two dozen duplicate selves; Zhang and Ge both used fenshen or fenxing for entertaining all their guests, and Ji Liao simultaneously appeared at twenty-three places.

The c. 1029 Yunji Qiqian Daoist encyclopedia gives methods for creating a yingren 影人 "shadow person" human simulacrum by means of mental concentration.