Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇 (Inner Chapters of Master Embracing Simplicity): An Annotated Translation of Gě Hóng's 葛洪 (283-343) Masterwork (Volume 2) (Daoist Translation Series) Hardcover – December 8, 2025

The first complete annotated English translation of the Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇(Inner Chapters of Master Embracing Simplicity) by Gě Hóng 葛洪 (283-343 CE)The Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān 抱朴子內篇 (Inner Chapters of Master Embracing Simplicity; DZ 1185; ZH 980) is a major early medieval Daoist literary work. Consisting of a preface and twenty chapters, it was composed by Gě Hóng 葛洪 (Bàopǔ 抱朴 [Embracing Simplicity]; 283-343 CE), who was a member of the once-prominent, Jiāngsū-based Gě 葛 family as well as a key representative and systematizer of the Tàiqīng 太清 (Great Clarity) movement. Dating to 320, but first completed around 317 and revised around 330, the text is a summa of early medieval Chinese and Daoist religiosity, with a specific focus on Jīndān 金丹 (Golden Elixir), or external alchemy (wàidān 外丹). This involves the gathering, refining, and transmutation of various alchemical substances with the aspiration to complete the elixir of immortality. The current publication is the first complete annotated English translation of Gě’s masterwork. In addition to translating the entire received text with attentiveness to text-critical issues, the present English rendering includes reproductions of all of the Daoist talismans contained in Chapter 17: “Dēngshè登涉” (Ascending and Fording), that is, a key material culture dimension excluded from most publications. The accompanying, extensive annotations address alchemical, herbological, historical, intertextual, mineralogical, and text-critical dimensions and issues. Volume I includes the front matter, general introduction, and chapters one through ten. Volume II includes chapters eleven through twenty, the appendices, and the bibliography. The five appendices explore Gě’s autobiography and library as well as the pharmacopoeia, bestiary, and lexigraphy associated with the Bàopǔzǐ nèipiān. The Chinese Daoist source-text in turn invites readers to undertake a fascinating contemplative journey, one in which aspirants ascend mountains and ford rivers in search of the elixir of immortality. Read more