Qin and Han · Healer and Diviner

Zhangfang 长房

Attested AD 25 - AD 220

Passages: 10
Chapters: 1
Histories: 1

Overview

Zhangfang was a Healer and Diviner.

Life and dates

Death

Killed by ghosts after losing talisman
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 269

Attested activity

AD 25 to AD 220 汝南岁岁常有魅
Uncertain · Book of Later Han 93, passages 256-257

Family

Kinship Role family members · Quantity unspecified
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 251

Career and standing

exorcist-healer 方术之士
Strongly inferred · Book of Later Han 93, passage 254

Places and affiliations

Polity Eastern Han 东汉 · Relation Lived under
Strongly inferred · Book of Later Han 93, passage 256
At Runan 汝南 · Relation Active in
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 256

Learning and skills

Skill commanding and flogging ghosts 鞭笞百鬼 · Level able
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 254
Skill healing diseases 医疗众病 · Level able
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 254
Skill appearing in many places a thousand li apart in one day 一日千里数处 · Level reported
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passage 268

Works and attributed material

Speech · Speaker · Quote true
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 252, 255, 258, 263, 265-266

Events and relationships

Bound Eastern Sea lord three years causing drought then released for rain
Legal ritual · Judge
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 262-264
Exposed fox that stole earth god's horse
Exposure · Exorcist
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 265-266
Forced Runan goblin to true form and death
Exorcism · Exorcist
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 257-261
Rode bamboo staff home
Return from training · Returnee
Directly stated · Book of Later Han 93, passages 246, 249

References in the histories

Search passages

History

10 passages

Book of Later Han, Chapter 93Volume 82b: Biographies of Alchemists 2 · 10 passages

长房辞归，翁与一竹杖，曰：“骑此任所之，则自至矣。 Zhangfang took leave to return; the old man gave him a bamboo staff, saying, "Ride this wherever you wish to go, and you will arrive of yourself.

長房乘杖，須臾來歸，自謂去家適經旬日，而已十餘年矣。 Zhangfang rode the staff and returned in an instant, thinking he had been gone barely ten days, but more than ten years had passed.

长房曰：“往日所葬，但竹杖耳。” Zhangfang said, "You buried only bamboo."

时魅适来，而逢长房谒府君，惶惧不得退，便前解衣冠，叩头乞活。 One day the creature arrived just as Zhangfang called on the prefect; trapped, it stripped its costume and begged for mercy.

长房呵之云：“便于中庭正汝故形！”」 Zhangfang barked, "Show your true shape in the courtyard!"

长房复令就太守服罪，付其一札，以敕葛陂君。 He sent the creature to confess its guilt to the prefect and gave it a writ addressed to the spirit lord of Ge Marsh.

后东海君来见葛陂君，因淫其夫人，于是长房劾系之三年，而东海大旱。 Later the Eastern Sea god visited Ge Marsh and seduced its goddess; Zhangfang jailed him three years, and the Eastern Sea withered in drought.

长房至海上，见其人请雨，乃谓之曰：“东海君有罪，吾前系于葛陂，今方出之，使作雨也。” Zhangfang walked the shore where priests begged rain and said, "The Eastern Sea deity sinned; I chained him at Ge Marsh and have only now freed him to pour storms."

长房曾与人共行，见一书生黄巾被裘，无鞍骑马，下而叩头，长房曰：“还它马，赦汝死罪。” Walking with a friend he saw a scholar in yellow headcloth and fur cloak riding bareback; the man kowtowed. Zhangfang said, "Give back the horse and I spare your life."

人问其故，长房曰：“此狸也，盗社公马耳。” Asked to explain, he said, "A fox-thief borrowed the village god's mount."