Person
Dong Phung
An immortal in a story taken from Ge Hong’s Shenxian zhuan, recorded in a commentary to the Tam quoc chi as the one who revived Si Nhiep after three days of death; the Complete Annals lift the story into their main text and change both the source book and his courtesy name.
At a glance
- Also known as
- The commentary to the Tam quoc chi gives his courtesy name as Quan Di; the Complete Annals change it to Xuong Di12
- Role
- An immortal who gave Si Nhiep — dead of illness for three days — a pill to swallow, water to hold in his mouth, and lifted his chin and shook it, so that he came round and then recovered completely1
Life
Legend has it
About two hundred years after Si Nhiep’s death, Pei Songzhi wrote a commentary on the Tam quoc chi and set down at the foot of the biography of Si Nhiep a story taken from Ge Hong’s Shenxian zhuan, a book about immortals: Si Nhiep once fell ill and had been dead for three days, and the immortal Dong Phung gave him a pill to swallow, gave him water to hold in his mouth, lifted his chin and shook it; in about the time it takes to eat a meal he opened his eyes and moved his hands, after half a day he could sit up, after four days he could speak, and then he recovered completely. The note gives Dong Phung’s courtesy name as Quan Di.1
The old chronicles say
This is a commentator’s note, and the commentator named his source plainly: a book about immortals. The Complete Annals, though, lift the story into the main text, place it in 226 — the very year Si Vuong died — and change two details: the source book becomes the Liexian zhuan, and Dong Phung’s courtesy name becomes Xuong Di.2
Mentioned in
Sources for this page
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