Ge Hong

Ge Hong (born 283, Tanyang, China—died 343, Tanyang) was a figure in Chinese Daoism, perhaps the best-known alchemist, who tried to combine Confucian ethics with the occult doctrines of Daoism.

In his youth he received a Confucian education, but later he grew interested in the Daoist cult of physical immortality (xian). His monumental work, Baopuzi (“He Who Holds to Simplicity”), is divided into two parts. The first part, “The 20 Inner Chapters” (neipian), discusses Ge’s alchemical studies. Ge gives a recipe for an elixir called gold cinnabar and recommends sexual hygiene, special diets, and breathing and meditation exercises. He even prescribes a method for walking on water and for raising the dead. The second part of the book, “The 50 Outer Chapters” (waipian), shows Ge Hong as a Confucian who stresses the importance of ethical principles for the regulation of proper human relations and who severely criticizes the hedonism that characterized the Daoist individualists of his day.