Gosajeon is one of the collections of biographies of ancient Chinese figures, in the miscellaneous-notes genre, compiled by Huangfu Mi (皇甫謐) of the Jin dynasty. It consists of 91 short anecdotal entries (covering 96 persons) in three volumes, and records the words, deeds, and anecdotes of lofty and pure men, from Bei Yi (被衣) in the era of Yao to Jiao Xian (焦先) at the end of Wei.
Overview
"Gaosa" (高士) means "a noble-minded scholar" or "a reclusive gentleman of the countryside," and is used with the same meaning as "eunsa" (隱士, hermit). In general, the "sa" (士, scholar) of ancient China, especially after the Warring States period, refers mainly to scholar-officials, and these can be divided into two groups: "sa" and "eunsa." Those who served as officials at court or in local government and lived on state stipends are called "sa," while those who maintained spotless integrity, preserved their lives and natural dispositions, and regarded wealth and honor as worthless are called "eunsa." Such hermits or lofty men are also called by other names, including cheosa (處士), ilsa (逸士), yugin (幽人), gogin (高人), cheoin (處人), illin (逸民), yumin (遺民), eunja (隱者), and eungunja (隱君子). Many factors contributed to the formation of this class of lofty men, but the main ones may be found in the social sphere, in the search for a kind of method of self-preservation to cope with the chaotic conditions of the eras of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the Western Han and Eastern Han periods, and the transition between Wei and Jin, and in the realm of thought, in the Daoist ideology of withdrawing from the world and living in seclusion that prevailed in times of disorder.
Anecdotes of this withdrawn and secluded tendency have a strong Daoist coloring, and at the same time possess the features of "zhiren" (志人) fiction, one of the mainstream genres of the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties period. For this reason, the work is regarded as one of the important texts for studying ancient Chinese Daoist literature and miscellaneous-notes fiction. Gosajeon has the transitional characteristics of the stage in which zhiren fiction broke free from the constraints of traditional historical-biographical literature (史傳文學) and became settled as an independent fictional form. In addition, some of the anecdotes recorded in Gosajeon were frequently used as allusions (典故) by many later writers, and their influence is considerable. Moreover, Gosajeon is the oldest extant "collection of biographies of recluses" (隱逸專集), and it had a great influence on the formation of the "Biographies of Recluses" (逸民列傳) in the Book of the Later Han, which in turn established the custom in most later official histories (正史) of compiling separate "Biographies of Recluses" (隱逸傳).
Background of Compilation
In his preface to Gosajeon, Huangfu Mi briefly stated the background to the compilation of the work as follows:
然則高讓之士, 王政所先, 厲濁激貪之務也. 史·班之載, 多所闕略, 梁鴻頌逸民, 蘇順科高士, 或錄屈節, 雜而不純, 又近取秦·漢, 不及遠古. 夫思其人, 猶愛其樹, 況稱其德而贊其事哉! 謐采古今八代之士, 身不屈於王公, 名不耗於終始, 自堯至魏, 凡九十餘人. 雖執節若夷齊, 去就若兩龔, 皆不錄也.
Here Huangfu Mi stated that the background to compiling Gosajeon was to supplement the omissions and sketchiness in the records of "gaosa" (lofty men) in the Shiji and the Hanshu, and to supplement the fact that the selection standards of earlier biographies of recluses and lofty men, such as those by Liang Hong and Su Shun, were impure and the range of persons selected was narrow. He then clearly presented the scope of persons included in Gosajeon as "the scholars of eight dynasties, past and present," that is, "more than ninety persons from the era of Yao to the Wei dynasty," and restricted the selection standard to "those whose persons did not bow to kings and dukes and whose names were not damaged throughout their lives." In accordance with this strict standard, Huangfu Mi did not include in Gosajeon even Bo Yi and Shu Qi, praised by Confucius and Sima Qian, or the Gong brothers, commended by Ban Gu. The reason seems to be that, although Bo Yi and Shu Qi possessed such lofty integrity that they refused to eat the grain of Zhou and died of starvation, he regarded their grabbing the reins of King Wu's horse to remonstrate with him (叩馬而諫) and the brief government service of the Gong brothers as acts of "self-abasement" (自屈).
The period in which Huangfu Mi lived ran from the late Eastern Han to the early Western Jin. This was a truly chaotic era, beginning with the peasant uprisings at the end of the Eastern Han, followed by the contest for supremacy among Wei, Shu, and Wu, and then the struggle between the Cao clan and the Sima clan. Under the uncertain rise and fall of power, the fortunes of the scholars associated with it were also uncertain. Under these conditions, the Daoist ideology of withdrawing from the world and living in seclusion spread widely among intellectuals, the study of chapters and verses (章句之學) that Han scholars had devoted themselves to had already been abandoned, and in its place Xuanxue (玄學, "Learning of the Mysterious"), centered on the Laozi, the Zhuangzi, and the Yijing, overwhelmed all currents of thought. Huangfu Mi was originally from a scholar-gentry (士族) family, but by his own generation he held no office, his family was extremely poor, and he was also sickly, so he had no basis for participating in public life. Therefore, it seems that Huangfu Mi naturally withdrew from the rapidly changing and chaotic times he faced and chose a way of self-preservation by living in seclusion and preserving his life and nature.
Method of Description
The method of description adopted in Gosajeon is the so-called "biographical style" (列傳體), established by Sima Qian in the Shiji. Sima Qian recorded in the "Biographies" (列傳) persons according to the status, thought, conduct, and region of the subject, either as individual biographies (分傳) or as joint biographies (合傳). This method of description continued in the Hanshu and the Hou Hanshu, and became the model for the biographies of persons in the official histories. Subsequently, on this basis, individual biographies such as "~ Biezhuan (別傳)," "~ Neizhuan (內傳)," and "~ Waizhuan (外傳)" were written, and further, joint biographies of persons of the same kind under titles such as "Immortals" (神仙), "Virtuous Women" (列女), "Elders" (耆舊), "Former Worthies" (先賢), "Famous Scholars" (名士), "Heroic Men" (列士), "Recluses" (逸士), and "Lofty Men" (高士) became popular independently. Gosajeon adopted precisely this method of description of "biographical style" that was popular at the time, and among these it appears to have been greatly influenced by the format of Liu Xiang's (劉向) Lienüzhuan (列女傳) and Liexianzhuan (列仙傳) of the Han dynasty.
Of the anecdotes recorded in the extant version of Gosajeon, 39 entries were composed by Huangfu Mi himself, while the remaining 52 entries were described by copying directly from various earlier texts, by combining materials copied from several places, or by copying some parts and rewriting others. Looking at the texts from which material was copied, the Zhuangzi supplied the most, 16 entries; next came the Shiji with 8 entries, the Hanshu with 6 entries, the Analects and the Liezi with 5 entries each, the Liexianzhuan and the Lienüzhuan with 3 entries each, and the Zhanguo ce (戰國策), the Hanshi waizhuan (韓詩外傳), and the Huainanzi with 2 entries each. In addition, one entry each was taken from the Zuozhuan (左傳), the Mengzi (孟子), the Han Feizi (韓非子), the Lüshi Chunqiu (呂氏春秋), the Chu Ci (楚辭), the Lunheng (論衡), the Shuoyuan (說苑), and the Kongcongzi (孔叢子).
Persons Included
The format of the extant version of Gosajeon consists of 91 entries in three volumes, recording the anecdotes of a total of 96 persons. The list of entries included is as follows.
Volume 1 (권상)
Total 28 entries, 29 persons
- 〈Bei Yi (被衣)〉 〈Wang Ni (王倪)〉 〈Xie Jue (齧缺)〉 〈Chao Fu (巢父)〉 〈Xu You (許由)〉 (these 5 persons are from the era of Yao)
- 〈Shan Juan (善卷)〉 〈Zizhou Zhifu (子州支父)〉 〈Rang Fu (壤父)〉 〈Shihu Zhi Nong (石戶之農)〉 〈Pu Yizi (蒲衣子)〉 (these 5 persons are from the era of Shun)
- 〈Pi Qiu Gong (披裘公)〉 〈Jiang Shang Zhangren (江上丈人)〉 〈Xiao Chen Ji (小臣稷)〉 〈Xian Gao (弦高)〉 〈Shang Rong (商容)〉 〈Laozi Li Er (老子李耳)〉 〈Geng Sang Chu (庚桑楚)〉 〈Lao Laizi (老萊子)〉 〈Lin Lei (林類)〉 〈Rong Qiji (榮啓期)〉 〈He Kui (荷蕢)〉 〈Zhang Ju Jie Ni (長沮桀溺)〉 〈Shimen Shou (石門守)〉 〈He Diao Zhangren (荷篠丈人)〉 〈Lu Tong (陸通)〉 〈Zeng Shen (曾參)〉 〈Yan Hui (顔回)〉 〈Yuan Xian (原憲)〉
Volume 2 (권중)
Total 35 entries, 39 persons
- 〈Hanyin Zhangren (漢陰丈人)〉 〈Huqiu Zilin (壺丘子林)〉 〈Lao Shang Shi (老商氏)〉 〈Lie Yukou (列禦寇)〉 (these 23 persons are from the Spring and Autumn period)
- 〈Zhuang Zhou (莊周)〉 〈Duangan Mu (段干木)〉 〈Dongguo Shunzi (東郭順子)〉 〈Gongyi Qian (公儀潛)〉 〈Wang Dou (王斗)〉 〈Yan Chu (顔斶)〉 〈Qian Lou Seonsaeng (黔婁先生)〉 〈Chen Zhongzi (陳仲子)〉 〈Yufu (漁父)〉 (these 9 persons are from the Warring States period)
- 〈Anqi Sheng (安期生)〉 (this 1 person is from the Qin)
- 〈Heshang Zhangren (河上丈人)〉 〈Yue Chen Gong (樂臣公)〉 〈Gai Gong (蓋公)〉 〈Sihao (四皓)〉 〈Huangshi Gong (黃石公)〉 〈Lu Erzheng Sa (魯二徵士)〉 〈Tian He (田何)〉 〈Wang Sheng (王生)〉 〈Zhi Jun (摯峻)〉 〈Han Fu (韓福)〉 〈Cheng Gong (成公)〉 〈Anqiu Wangzhi (安丘望之)〉 〈Song Shengzhi (宋勝之)〉 〈Zhang Zhongwei (張仲蔚)〉 〈Yan Zun (嚴遵)〉 〈Pengcheng Laoren (彭城老人)〉 〈Han Shun (韓順)〉 〈Zheng Pu (鄭樸)〉 〈Li Hong (李弘)〉 (these 23 persons are from the Western Han period)
〈Xiang Chang (向長)〉 〈Min Gong (閔貢)〉
Volume 3 (권하)
Total 28 entries, 28 persons
- 〈Wang Ba (王霸)〉 〈Yan Guang (嚴光)〉 〈Niu Lei (牛牢)〉 〈Donghai Yinzhe (東海隱者)〉 〈Liang Hong (梁鴻)〉 〈Gao Hui (高恢)〉 〈Tai Tong (臺佟)〉 〈Han Kang (韓康)〉 〈Qiu Xin (丘訢)〉 〈Jiao Shen (矯愼)〉 〈Ren Tang (任棠)〉 〈Zhi Xun (摯恂)〉 〈Fa Zhen (法眞)〉 〈Han Bin Laofu (漢濱老父)〉 〈Xu Zhi (徐穉)〉 〈Xia Fu (夏馥)〉 〈Guo Tai (郭太)〉 〈Shen Tu Pan (申屠蟠)〉 〈Yuan Hong (袁閎)〉 〈Jiang Gong (姜肱)〉 〈Guan Ning (管寧)〉 〈Zheng Xuan (鄭玄)〉 〈Ren An (任安)〉 〈Pang Gong (龐公)〉 〈Jiang Qi (姜岐)〉 〈Xun Jing (荀靖)〉 (these 26 persons are from the Eastern Han)
- 〈Hu Zhao (胡昭)〉 〈Jiao Xian (焦先)〉 (these 2 persons are from the state of Wei)
Influence on Later Ages
Huangfu Mi's Gosajeon is the earliest extant "collection of biographies of recluses" and had a great influence on the formation of the literature of recluses (隱逸文學) in later China. Many of the books influenced by it have been lost, but among them the Xu Gosajeon (續高士傳, also called Ilinjeon), compiled by Huangfu Xie (皇甫涍) in the Ming dynasty, is relatively well known, recording the biographies of 100 recluses (逸士) from the Jin dynasty through the Song dynasty. In addition, the Xu Gosajeon (續高士傳) by Gao Zhao (高兆) of the Qing dynasty records the biographies of 143 lofty men (高士) from the Jin dynasty through the Ming dynasty. Gosajeon also provided many subjects and allusions for the composition of later poetry and prose. Poets of the Six Dynasties such as Zuo Si (左思), Tao Qian (陶淵明), and Xie Lingyun (謝靈運) frequently used anecdotes from Gosajeon as allusions in their works. In particular, the anecdotes of Xu You and Chao Fu were developed into complete stories through Huangfu Mi's hands and were widely transmitted in later times. Prominent poets of the Tang dynasty such as Wang Ji (王積), Chen Ziang (陳子昂), Wang Wei (王維), Li Bai (李白), and Du Fu (杜甫) all used the anecdotes of Xu You and Chao Fu from Gosajeon as allusions in their works.
Gosajeon was also widely used as a source for quotation and compilation in many later texts. Anecdotes from Gosajeon continued to be quoted and collected in commentaries such as the commentary on the Shishuo Xinyu (世說新語), the commentary on the Sanguozhi (三國志), and the commentary on the Hou Hanshu, and in encyclopedias (類書) such as the Yiwen Leiju (藝文類聚), the Taiping Yulan (太平御覽), and the Gujin Tushu Jicheng (古今圖書集成). This fact may be said to reflect the importance Gosajeon holds in Chinese literature.
Transmission to Korea
It is difficult to determine the exact time when Gosajeon was transmitted to Korea, but it is presumed to have arrived around the 1090s, during the reign of King Seonjong of Goryeo. After its transmission into the country, Gosajeon is understood to have influenced many literati and scholars who aspired to seclusion during the Goryeo period and the Joseon period. A representative example is Heo Gyun's (許筠) Hanjeongnok (閒情錄), in which several dozen anecdotes from Gosajeon are recorded.
This document includes content based on the book introduction for "Gosajeon" (https://zmanz.blogi.kr/entry/0083) published under CC-BY-SA 3.0 by Jisikeul Mandeuneun Jisik (지식을만드는지식).