Dongxianzhuan 洞仙傳

Dongxianzhuan 洞仙傳 "Biographies of immortals from the cavern" is a collection of biographies of Daoist masters compiled by an anonymous author during the Song period 宋 (960-1279). It includes the stories of 77 persons from ancient times, like the "Lord of the Origin" 元君 to Jiang Bozhen 姜伯真 and other historical persons like Laozi's 老子 disciple Yu Ji 于吉, Xu Fu 徐福 from the Qin period 秦 (221-206 BCE), Wang Qiao 王橋 from the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), Guo Pu 郭璞 from the Jin period 晉 (265-420) and Kou Qianzhi 寇謙之 from the Northern Wei period 北魏 (386-534). The Dongxianzhuan is first mentioned in the imperial bibliography Jingjizhi 經籍志 in the official dynastic history Suishui 隋書, where it is listed with a length of 10 juan "scrolls". The Jiutangshu 舊唐書 says that a certain Suzi 素子 was the author. Although the Dongxianzhuan is not listed in private bibliographies from that time, like the Junzhai dushu zhi 郡齋讀書志 or Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題, it is often quoted in the encyclopedic collection Taiping guangji 太平廣記 and the Daoist encyclopedia Yunji qiqian 雲笈七籤 (which quotes the full text of the Dongxianzhuan). It is mentioned in the tiyao 提要 commentary to the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, for which a copy of Wang Ruli 汪汝溧 had been used.