Alchemy, Medicine, and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung

Never before published in any Western language except in fragments, this classical work of Chinese mysticism is a fundamental _ and fascinating _ source for the study of Taoism (Deism) as belief and as practice.
In the China of the 4th century A.D., alchemy, medicine, and religion were so closely interrelated as to form a single study; the Western gap between science and religion, and between scholarly study and moral practice did not obtain. This work, in effect, is a compendium of the state of knowledge and the mode of life open to the initiated in Ko Hungs time. In particular, it recounts the actual ways of Taoism as they have existed until fairly recent times _ and it has been a prime canonical perpetuator of those ways. Taoism has tended to be known in the Occident only through the pure philosophical distillations attributed to Lao tzu and Chuang tzu. It was, however, the extraordinary amalgam of mystical insight, wild speculation, superstition and legend, disciplined observation, and intellectual control which together give the Nei Pien its unique flavor. Ko Hung was apparently the first to break the taboo against putting this strictly oral tradition of a secret cabala into writing.