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Medieval Chinese seekers of transcendence--xian, which some prefer to render as "immortality"--and those who achieved xian-hood have often been portrayed as reclusive, secretive figures. In Making Transcendents, Robert Ford Campany counters this traditional view. He argues that many adepts were far from socially isolated but operated instead within a circle of patrons, admirers, skeptics, and clients. In the author's own words, xian-hood should be seen "as a socially constructed, socially enacted attribution rather than as an intrinsic, self-sustained property" (p. 25). The basis for Campany's views is a new reading of predominantly hagiographical material, which has informed much of the author's earlier research. A hagiographic narrative should not be read as a record of a form of belief but as "an artifact of an attempt to persuade an audience" (p. 10).
Chapter 1, "Bringing Transcendents Down to Earth," takes up fundamental issues relating to the interpretation of hagiographic sources, the social role of transcendence seekers, and the use or avoidance of certain concepts or terms, such as "immortal." The characteristic elements that set transcendents apart from ordinary beings--their cultural repertoire, as Campany calls it--are dealt...