, () which has numerous translations such as liberation from the corpse and release by means of a corpse, is an esoteric Daoist technique for an adept to transform into a ("transcendent; immortal"), typically using some bureaucratic ruse to evade the netherworld administrative system of life and death registration. The many varieties of range from deceitful cases, such as a person feigning death by substituting the corpse of their recently deceased grandfather as their own, to supernatural cases, such as using a alchemical sword to temporarily create a corpse-simulacrum, which enables one to escape and assume a new identity.
Terminology Shijie The Chinese term compounds the words and , and has been described as a "rather strange name", "notoriously slippery term", with "the potential for confusion", and sometimes "misrepresented or interpreted in a way too vague to be intelligible".
Shī () has three sets of English translation equivalents in Paul W. Kroll's dictionary of Classical Chinese and Medieval Chinese: person serving as a surrogate for the deceased in a sacrificial ceremony, the impersonator ... memorial tablet corpse, lich; cadaver ... lay out a corpse; expose a corpse be in charge of, have the care or supervision of ... occupy a position without performing the duties attached to it Shis first equivalent of the ceremonial personator who was a stand-in for a deceased relative ("corpse") during Chinese funeral rituals and ancestral rites is a semantic extension of the basic meaning "corpse". Campany describes the "impersonator of deceased ancestors, one who sat in their place during the solemn presentation of food, drink, and announcements and the performance of dances".
Besides the usual meaning of "corpse, dead body", can sometimes mean "body, mortal body"—particularly in contexts. Joseph Needham translates as "release from the mortal part", which is more appropriate than "release from the corpse" because the first step in achieving transcendence is to abandon one's corporeal body. Anna Seidel points out that in the term denotes "all the corruptible aging factors of the physical body," rather than the corpse itself. Fabrizio Pregadio cites a classic Daoist text that clearly uses the word to denote "not specifically a corpse, but in general the 'mortal body', either living or dead". A passage in the c. 200 CE commentary to the (see below) contrasts and , which cannot be read literally to mean "a corpse dies" and "a corpse lives". "When the mortal body dies (), that is wearing out; when the mortal body lives (), that is accomplishment"; this context refers to options for a living person, and not to a postmortem renewal; "its subject, in other words, is not the 'corpse' but the 'mortal body'". However, Campany contends that what is escaped through is not the adept's dead body but the administrative system of death registration.
Owing to the ambiguities of reading the original Chinese character for "corpse; mortal body; personator of the dead; etc.", the basic meaning of "corpse" is clarified with the character that adds to . Compare the word meaning "corpse; dead body".Jie''' () has seven sets of English translation equivalents in Kroll's dictionary: untie, unknot, loosen, release ... doff, take off disjoint, dismember ... dissect; analyze, take apart remove, eliminate ... resolve; (find a) solution, work out (a problem) deliver from, release, liberate, free oneself from; emancipate dissipate, dissolve; disperse; dispel open out; unfurl, unfold; reveal explain, expound; exposition ... Kroll gives as a usage example under both 2. and 4., glossed as "'deliverance by means of a corpse,' in which the adept's supposed corpse is buried but is actually substituted with a personal object (sword, staff, etc.) that temporarily takes on the appearance of the corpse, thus allowing one to escape from the bureaucracy of death; a lower-level means of transcendence."
Scholars propose divergent semantic interpretations of the in : "to molt," "to quarter," "to expel an affliction"; "to divide, separate, disperse, to detach, deliver", "to loosen, dissolve, explain", and "emancipation, liberation" in Chinese Buddhism; and "release, deliverance, escape". The ancient is related with the medical term that combines with .
Varieties The forms of are quite diverse, in its broadest meaning, the term sometimes simply denotes disappearance, "to depart on a journey through foreign lands." It more commonly designates a type of disappearance that leaves a trace behind, such as a body without its bones, or a coffin that contains only a symbolic staff, sword, or sandal. Sometimes can even refer to an adept who comes back to life after apparent death.
The French sinologist Isabelle Robinet compares the common forms of . is considered the most noble method. This technique requires either an inferior "simple sword" or a divine "magical sword" that enables one "to return to your old village under another name" since the subterranean officials no longer have any hold on those who have performed it. is the liberation of those who have been executed, such as the famous Zuo Ci (155–220) who continued to be seen alive in Jingzhou despite the fact that Cao Cao was in possession of his head and the rest of his body had disappeared. , which contrasts with , involves replacing the body with sandals or a staff. Maxime Kaltenmark showed that Daoist magical sandals are birds, which enable the adept to soar aloft and fly away, similar with . is when the body of a drowned person is protected by a compassionate divinity, "On the outside it is said that he drowned; on the inside, in truth, he is secretly saved." involves a Daoist who is burned alive and apparently flies away in the form of a bird. In certain cases, the adept's body undergoes spontaneous human combustion, such as Cai Jing (), whose body burned for three days until his bones dissolved and "only his outer skin was left, intact from head to foot, like a cicada shell." Another variation is , when the adept's bamboo staff served as a temporary stand-in for his real body, which was transformed and vanished away to the realm of the immortals.
Related terms is similar to the word ("transformation; metamorphosis") and its synonymous components and . For instance, the 499 refers to a superior method of called , and mentions ; and the 983 describes . All types of require a material support, and generally involves "going away by making use of a material object." However, there is an essential difference between them. is a magical trick or the manipulation of a power that the mystic can use while alive; is only practiced at the end of life and is a form of deliverance linked with the purification and refinement of the body.
The in occurs in several Daoist alternative terms for . —with the "release; etc." in —means "liberate the mortal body and attain the Dao". —with "melt away; disintegrate"—means "release the physical body and transform into a " (see the below). —with "feather; wing"—refers to an insect "growing wings; eclosion", which Daoists semantically extended to "die and become a flying up to heaven". Wings are a common feature in depictions of , either riding a mythological flying creature or flying with their own wings (compare , using the character "person").
As detailed in "Early textual usages" below, the term , with , was a near synonym of ("release from the corpse") that was recorded several centuries earlier.
frequently occurs in contexts. Compare the Chinese Buddhist term that was also used in early Daoist texts.
Translations The term has been "variously and often poorly translated". Translational difficulty stems from "corpse", and the term is usually rendered "liberation or deliverance from the corpse". However, Kirkland points out that in most accounts of the subject did not actually die, and although all the appearances of death were involved, no corpse was really left behind.
English translations include: "deliverance of the corpse" "corpse-freed", "release as a corpse "corpse-free", "liberation from the corpse", "release from the mortal part" "deliverance from the corpse" "liberation by means of a corpse" "liberation from the corpse" "release from the corpse" "liberation from the corpse" "body liberation" "escape by means of a simulated corpse" "release by means of a corpse", "mortuary liberation" "deliverance from the corpse" "deliverance by means of a corpse" "release from the mortal body" Within this sample, is usually translated as "corpse", and most commonly as "liberation" or "release".
Early textual usages The word ("release from/of the corpse") is first recorded in the c. 80 CE below, but its near synonym occurs in earlier texts dating from around the 3rd to 1st centuries BCE. They do not use to denote a specific Daoist practice or method, but as general ways of transcending one's limited individuality. While and are both instances of transcending the mortal body, they are not exactly the same, "release from the corpse" requires undergoing death but "release from the form" does not.
Zhuangzi First, "release from the form" refers to a spiritual epiphany in the c. 3rd–2nd century BCE story about Tian Zifang (, Sir Square Field) praising his teacher Dongguo Xunzi (, Sir Accord of Easturb) to the Marquess Wen of Wei (r. 446–397 BCE). After Sir Square went out, Marquis Wen spent the rest of the day in a state of dumb uncertainty. Then he summoned before him the officials who were standing on duty and said to them, "How far we are from the gentleman of complete integrity. At first I considered the words of the sages and the wise men, the practice of humaneness and righteousness to be the ultimate. But now that I have heard about Sir Square's teacher, my physical form is unstrung and I have no desire to move ; my mouth is clamped shut and I have no desire to speak. What I have emulated is only an earthen image, and the state of Wei has truly been an encumbrance to me."
Second, the term describes an advanced self-cultivation exercise in the , a previously-unknown medical book within the c. 200–168 BCE Mawangdui Silk Texts that archeologists discovered in a Western Han tomb. The fourth of the 's ten dialogues (MSVI.A.4) is between the mythical Yellow Emperor and Rong Cheng (), a legendary ancient master of Daoist sexual practices and breath circulation techniques, who says, Longevity is born of growth and accumulation. As for the fullness of that life: above it scans heaven and below it spreads over earth. The person who is capable of it invariably becomes a spirit. Thus he is capable of achieving release of the form. The person who perceives the great way skims the clouds as he moves. … like water flowing he can range far; like the dragon ascending he can rise high. This is the only passage that reflects the likely influence of or "syncretistic-Daoist" ideas about transcendence/immortality in the Mawangdui and Zhangjiashan bamboo medical texts, which primarily discuss maintaining health and attaining longevity. Harper notes that "release from the form" is thought to be synonymous with "release from the corpse", which for the Daoist believer, marked the moment of transformation when a new, immortal physique was perfected and the mortal body sloughed off, leaving behind a husk-like corpse (or an object such as a sword or staff) as evidence that the adept had achieved .(citing Maspero 1981: 445–48) However, it is evident that in this context, with references to "becoming a spirit" above and rising "like the dragon", does not represent the concepts of in religious Daoism.
Shiji