Li Shaojun
133 BCE) was a fangshi (master of esoterica), reputed xian (transcendent; immortal), retainer of Emperor Wu of Han, and the earliest known Chinese alchemist.
In the early history of Chinese waidan (External Alchemy), Li is the only fangshi whose role is documented by both historical (for instance, Shiji) and alchemical (Baopuzi) sources.
The Shiji chronicles Li Shaojun as part of a lengthy debate on whether and how Emperor Wu should perform the Feng (封) and Shan (禪) state rituals on Mount Tai in honor of Heaven and Earth.
It was at this time also that Li Shaojun appeared before the emperor to expound the worship of the god of the fireplace and explain his theories on how to achieve immortality through dietary restrictions [祠灶穀道卻老方見].
When people heard of his power to command the spirits and drive away death [使物及不死] they showered him with a constant stream of presents, so that he always had more than enough food and clothing and money.
Some commentators and most translators take wu here to mean guiwu, ghosts and spirits, but we follow those who interpret it as yaowu, chemical substances and drugs.
"This vessel," replied Li Shaojun, "was presented at the Cypress Chamber in the tenth year of the reign of Duke Huan of Qi (676 BC)."
The alchemical process began with cizao (sacrificing to the furnace) in order to summon wu (物, thing; matter; phenomenon), interpreted again as guiwu (鬼物, ghosts; spirits; divine beings), who would transmute cinnabar into gold, which would gradually extend the emperor's life long enough to meet the xian of Penglai Island, and thus learn to correctly perform the feng and shan ceremonies.
He dispatched magicians to set out on the sea in search of Master Anqi and the immortals of Penglai and attempted to make gold out of cinnabar sand and various kinds of medicinal ingredients.
The Daoist Taiqing (太清, Great Clarity) tradition likewise summoned gods and other supernatural beings while making elixirs (Pregadio 2006: 32).
The emperor, however, believed that he was not really dead but had transformed himself into a spirit [化去不死], and he ordered Kuan Shu [寬舒], a clerk from Huangchui [黃錘], to carry on the magical arts which Li Shaojun had taught.
After this, any number of strange and dubious magicians [怪迂之方士] from the seacoast of Yan and Qi appeared at court to speak to the emperor about supernatural affairs.
Watson 1961: 26) This Shiji passage about Emperor Wu and Li Shaojun, the earliest historically reliable document, is "surprisingly dense, relating as it does waidan to mythology, hagiography, ritual, and even state ceremonies."
It is unclear whether Li's elaborate method represented a long but undocumented tradition before him or simply reflects his attempt at picking as many features as possible that would capture the emperor's interest and combining them into a secret "alchemical recipe" (Pregadio 2006: 31).
At the time of Han Wu Ti there lived a certain Li Shao Chün, who pretended that by sacrificing to the "Hearth" and abstaining from eating grain he could ward off old age [以祠竈辟穀卻老方見上].
He determined the period of a tripod cast under Duke Huan of Ch'i, and knew the places frequented, when hunting, by the grandfather of a nonagenarian, and yet he did not really attain to Tao.
Forke 1907: 345-346) The Daoist scholar Ge Hong's c. 320 Baopuzi ("Master who Embraces Simplicity") mentions Li Shaojun in three Inner Chapters passages.
The longer one recounts his biography differently than the Shiji, and two shorter ones mention him in context with the fangshi Luan Da (d. 112 BCE) who promised immortality to Emperor Wu but was executed after failing to provide it.
Also, according to the Annotated Record of Activities at the Han Court (漢禁中起居註), '"When Li Shaojun was about to depart, Emperor Wu dreamed that he was climbing Mount Songgao with him.
Halfway up, a messenger riding a dragon and holding a tally descended from the clouds and announced that Taiyi had invited Li Shaojun.
Ware 1966: 47 "Corpse-freed Genii") Li Shaojun's contemporary Dong Zhongshu (179-104 BCE) was a Confucianist official under Emperor Wu, see the Shenxian zhuan below.
Besides the Baopuzi, Ge Hong also compiled the original c. 318 Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Divine Transcendents) that gives a highly detailed hagiography of Li Shaojun, which Campany classifies in "Group A", the earliest-attested content from before 500 CE.
The Biographies of Divine Transcendents narrative begins with Li meeting Emperor Wu, adding information about his courtesy name "Cloud Wing" and birthplace in Qi (see Duke Huan above).
Having obtained imperial patronage to purchase the expensive alchemical ingredients, Li prepared the immortality elixir for himself, feigned illness, and performed shijie to escape from not only from death but also from his demanding patron (Campany 2002: 226).
When they were halfway up, a [celestial] messenger riding a dragon and holding a seal of office came through the clouds and said that the Grand Monad had invited Li [to ascend into the heavens].
This experience convinced Dong Zhongshu to resign from the imperial court and spend the rest of his life unsuccessfully searching for a Daoist master who could reproduce Li's immortality elixir, and he remained healthy until his death at more than eighty years.
The ox was killed and cut open, revealing "exceedingly strange" words written on the silk, however, the emperor recognized Li's handwriting and had him secretly executed in 119 BCE (tr.
[That is, the work of synthesizing an elixir] If the emperor loves [arts of] caring for oneself, tell him to look for me thirty years hence on Mount Cheng.
For instance, the 7th-century commentary to the Taiqing school classic Jiudan jing (九丹經, "Scripture of the Nine Elixirs") refers to Li's method, saying that the gold of vessels used for eating and drinking "affords longevity as it slowly saturates one's stomach, permeating the system of transmutation of food into nutritional essences".
However, the commentary also blames Li Shaojun because his performance gave more importance to cizao offerings to the deity of the furnace, described as zuǒdào (左道, lit.
