early 4th century) was a charlatan faith healer and who died from the plague, and Li Tuo (李脫) was a sorcerer who was executed in 324 for plotting a revolt against the Jin dynasty.
"plum, Prunus salicina") and the hao (號, "pseudonym, sobriquet, nickname given to oneself") Babai (八百, "eight hundred, 800").
Emperor Huizong was a patron of the arts, and during the Chongning era (1102–1106) he sought to reform ancient yayue court music.
The Baopuzi says Babaisui gong (八百歲公, "Eight-Hundred-Year-Old Sire") was the sobriquet of the famous Daoist xian transcendent Li A (李阿, fl.
About a century later, the Baopuzi says the Daoist faith healer Li Kuan (李寬) also from Shu appeared and became popular in Eastern Wu (Jiangsu and part of Zhejiang).
The received edition of the Shenxian zhuan combines an original 4th-century text written by Ge Hong with many later additions dating up to the Song dynasty (960-1279).
The research of Shenxian zhuan scholar and translator Robert Ford Campany reveals that the Li Babai material is reliably attested by the year 500, representing the earliest textual stratum (2002: 127).
This Shenxian zhuan hagiography of Li Babai begins with the standard trope of a transcendent's origins and activities.
Most of Li Babai's account centers around dramatically testing his future disciple Tang Gongfang to determine if he was worthy of teaching.
An Eastern Han stele inscription commemorating the refurbishing of a temple dedicated to Tang in his native Chenggu survived until at least the late Qing dynasty (Ouyang Xiu mentions the stone in 1064) (Campany 1996: 187-192).
Tang hired a physician to compound drugs for him, spending several hundred thousand pieces of cash but not considering it a loss.
Li then manifested ugly ulcers on every part of his body; these disgusting sores oozed blood and pus, and no one could bear to go near him.
Afterward, Li declared, "My ulcers will heal if I can obtain thirty hu of fine liquor to bathe in."
Tang prepared the liquor for him, pouring it into a large vessel, and Li bathed in it; and now his sores were finally healed.
Campany 2002: 216) Other textual versions of the Tang Gongfang legend emphasize that he took along his entire household, including dogs and chickens, when he achieved xian-hood and soared into heaven.
In the region between Zhongzhou (中州) and Jianye (建鄴), he healed the sick with demonic methods (guidao 鬼道) and invested people with official appointments.
dizi 弟子) Li Hong (李弘), who assembled followers on Mount Xin (灊山), proclaimed: "According to a prophecy I shall be King (yingchan dang wang 應讖當王) (tr.
The Northern Wei court's Celestial Master Kou Qianzhi wrote the 415 Laojun yinsong jiejing (老君音誦誡經, Classic on Precepts of Lord Lao, Recited [to the Melody in the Clouds]), Kohn 2008) that denounced diviners who called themselves Li and abused the people.
Some of them led popular, millenarian-type rebellions and were executed for deceiving the masses and causing social disorder (Mollier 2008: 657).
Most of them belonged to the Lijia dao, a "long-lasting sect" that spread throughout southern China during the Six Dynasties (220-589), and was condemned as heterodox by the Daoists themselves (Mollier 2008: 640).