Baopuzi Inner Chapters — Can Longevity Be Learned?
On Immortals and Replying to the World: how Ge Hong argued against the claim that long life is a fantasy, why he broke with Lao-Zhuang quietism, and what 'longevity can be learned' means now.
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Baopuzi Inner Chapters — Introduction: Ge Hong and 'My Fate Rests With Me'
An introduction to Ge Hong's Baopuzi: the man, the war-torn era that produced the book, and the declaration that redirected Chinese thinking about longevity — my fate rests with me, not with Heaven.
Baopuzi Inner Chapters — Merit and Conduct: Ethics as a Longevity Input
On Extremes and Diligent Seeking: how life is worn away by small accumulated harms, and Ge Hong's most distinctive claim — that ethical conduct is a precondition of long life.
Baopuzi Inner Chapters — Breath, Movement, and Moderation
On Subtle Meaning and Resolving Obstructions: breath cultivation, the place of guided movement, and Ge Hong's two-sided position on sexual moderation — against abstinence, and against the cults that promised transcendence through it.