The short answer
Gan Bao (干寶) compiled the Soushen ji (搜神記) as a historian. The Jin Shu (晉書), chapter 82, describes him as the court writer charged with the national history, and before telling a single story his preface states where the material came from and how far his responsibility extended. This article covers only his career, that declaration in the preface, the surviving editions, and the narrative form of chapter 1. It is the first of three parts.
Jin Shu 82 records two events in Gan Bao's household: a maidservant of his father who reportedly revived after being found in the tomb and brought home, and an elder brother who stopped breathing and then woke. The biography explicitly connects these episodes to his compilation of accounts of spirits and transformations. This records the biography's explanation of how the book arose; it does not establish that the reported revivals actually happened.
The Soushen ji read today is not the book Gan Bao wrote. Chinese Wikipedia notes that the original ran to 30 chapters, while what survives is a 20-chapter compilation; the surviving editions split into a 20-chapter text and an 8-chapter text. The immortal tales in chapter 1 show a short form that defines a figure first and then records his deeds.
The career recorded in the Jin Shu 82 biography
The Jin Shu, chapter 82 biography of Gan Bao opens with his name and courtesy name, his birthplace and his family line: “干寶，字令升，新蔡人也。祖統，吳奮武將軍、都亭侯。父瑩，丹陽丞。” His courtesy name was Lingsheng (令升) and his birthplace Xincai (新蔡). His grandfather Gan Tong served Wu as General Who Rouses Valor and as Marquis of Duting, and his father Gan Ying was aide of Danyang. The biography establishes the family's offices before it says anything about the man's character.
The next lines turn to his studies and his appointment: “寶少勤學，博覽書記，以才器召為著作郎。平杜弢有功，賜爵關內侯。” Diligent in study from a young age, he read widely in books and records. The reason given for his appointment is his talent and capacity. He also received the title Marquis Within the Passes for his part in putting down Du Tao. Scholarship and military merit sit side by side in a single sentence.
The passage on his charge over the national history comes in the same biography: “元帝納焉。寶於是始領國史。以家貧，求補山陰令，遷始安太守。” Emperor Yuan accepted Wang Dao's memorial, and Gan Bao took charge of the national history. Because his household was poor, he asked to be posted magistrate of Shanyin, and he later moved on to governor of Shi'an. The biography presents his career as a sequence of offices and nothing more.
The verdict on the history he submitted follows in the same biography: “自宣帝迄於湣帝五十三年，凡二十卷，奏之。其書簡略，直而能婉，咸稱良史。” It covered the fifty-three years from Emperor Xuan to Emperor Min in twenty chapters, and because it was concise, straightforward yet tactful, everyone called it a fine history. Kotobank (コトバンク) dictionary entries note that his talent and capacity won him the post of court writer and that he rose as high as cavalier attendant-in-ordinary. The Seisenban Nihon Kokugo Daijiten lists among his works the Jin ji (晉紀) in 20 chapters and the collection of strange tales Soushen ji in 20 chapters, and gives his birth and death years as unknown.
The father's maidservant and the brother's return to life
The same biography also records what happened in Gan Bao's household: “寶父先有所寵侍婢，母甚妒忌，及父亡，母乃生推婢於墓中。” His father had a favorite maidservant, and his mother's jealousy ran deep. After the father died, she pushed the maidservant alive into the tomb. The biography conveys all of this in brief sentences and nothing more.
The lines on what followed read: “後十餘年，母喪，開墓，而婢伏棺如生，載還，經日乃蘇。” Somewhat over ten years later, the tomb was opened for the mother's funeral. The maidservant lay face down on the coffin as though alive, and after she was carried home she revived a few days later.
A record of the elder brother comes next: “又寶兄嘗病氣絕，積日不冷，後遂悟，雲見天地間鬼神事，如夢覺，不自知死。” The brother stopped breathing from illness, yet his body stayed warm for several days. When he woke, he said he had seen the doings of ghosts and spirits between heaven and earth. The biography passes his words along without judging them.
Dictionaries and encyclopedias treat these two episodes as the spur to his writing. Chinese Wikipedia says that when the coffin was opened ten years later for the mother's joint burial, the father's concubine lay face down on the corpse with some warmth still in her body, and that she lived several more years after the rescue. The same article adds the brother's revival after “several days without breath” to explain why Gan Bao took an interest in the affairs of ghosts and spirits, and a Kotobank dictionary entry likewise reports that the book grew out of the impression made when both of them described the underworld. The Jin Shu account and the encyclopedia summary differ, however, on the number of years and on the aftermath, and which of the two follows the earlier record cannot be confirmed.
Liu Dan's remark and the declaration of responsibility in the preface
Jin Shu 82 also records the scene after the book was finished: “以示劉惔，惔曰：「卿可謂鬼之董狐。」寶既博采異同，遂混虛實，因作序以陳其志曰” Gan Bao showed the book to Liu Dan (劉惔), who called him the Dong Hu (董狐) of ghosts. The biography says he gathered divergent accounts (異同) widely, so that the true and the false became mixed, and that he therefore wrote a preface setting out his intent. That single sentence can be read as explaining why a preface was needed at all.
The preface to the Soushen ji names both the moment of writing and the sources of the material: “建武中，有所感起，是用發憤焉。雖考先志於載籍，收遺逸於當時” In the Jianwu era something moved him, and he threw himself into the work. He examined the records of earlier writers in the books and collected the stories scattered about in his own day. The preface thus divides his material into two streams.
The preface also offers examples of records that disagree: “衛朔失國，二傳互其所聞；呂望事周，子長存其兩說。” Citing the account of Wei Shuo losing his state and the account of Lü Wang serving Zhou, it points out that one and the same event was heard differently in different lines of transmission. Another passage marks the limits of the author's responsibility: “今之所集，設有承於前載者，則非余之罪也。” If something was taken over from an earlier record, the error is not his own fault. The same preface leaves this line as well: “若使采訪近世之事，苟有虛錯，願與先賢前儒，分其譏謗。”
These two passages can be read as apportioning responsibility according to where the material came from. A Kotobank dictionary entry judges that Gan Bao wrote the Soushen ji to show that supernatural providence is not empty, and the same dictionary notes that he was fond of yin-yang arts and numbers and interested in the Changes, leaving behind the Zhouyi zhu, the Chunqiu Zuoshi hanchuan yi and the Zhouguan li zhu. The preface quoted in Jin Shu also contains “亦足以明神道之不誣也”, expressing an intention to show that the ways of spirits are not a fabrication. Acknowledging possible errors in transmitted accounts thus coexists with belief in a supernatural world.
From 30 chapters down to a 20-chapter compilation
The Soushen ji that survives is a shortened book. Chinese Wikipedia says the Soushen ji Gan Bao originally wrote ran to 30 chapters, that what survives is a 20-chapter compilation containing 464 stories, and that the original work appears to have been lost already between the Song and the Yuan.
The chapter titles have not survived intact either. Chinese Wikipedia says the Soushen ji was lost long ago and its chapter titles are unknown; only four can be established — “Myths”, “Resonances”, “Monsters” and “Transformations”. That only four titles remain can be taken to mean that the original classification is hard to reconstruct.
There is more than one edition. Kotobank's dictionary entries introduce the Soushen ji as a Six Dynasties collection of anomaly tales compiled by Gan Bao of the Eastern Jin and note that both a 20-chapter and an 8-chapter text survive; the same source explains that the original was lost and that the current text was assembled from quotations in encyclopedic compendia. Mypedia says the original work was once lost and that the extant 20 chapters contain 470 tales about immortals and adepts, strange objects and strange reports, and monsters. Britannica explains that although the work is recorded as having had 30 chapters, the 20-chapter and 8-chapter texts now in circulation belong to different lines and are not the original form.
The number of pieces differs from source to source: Chinese Wikipedia gives 464 pieces, Mypedia 470. Which figure counts which compilation cannot be confirmed. The table below sets out only what the sources say about the two editions.
The Wanli-era printing and Hu Zhenheng's Soushen ji yin
The dictionaries date the extant text. A Kotobank entry states that the surviving text of the Soushen ji was printed in the Wanli era (万暦年間, 1573–1619) of the Ming, and Britannica explains that the two editions now in circulation belong to different lines. Putting the two statements together, the 20 chapters a reader holds today can be regarded as a book that passed through a Ming printing.
Chinese Wikipedia quotes what Hu Zhenheng wrote in his Soushen ji yin (搜神記引): “余得《搜神記》及《搜神後記》讀之，乃知晉德不勝怪而底於亡也。” Having read the two books, he concluded that the virtue of Jin could not overcome the uncanny and so came to ruin. The line shows one reader tying the Soushen ji to the fortunes of a dynasty. How other readers approached it cannot be told from this passage alone.
An assessment of the book's character appears in the same encyclopedia. Chinese Wikipedia says the Soushen ji is treated today as the progenitor of Chinese anomaly fiction, and it judges that Gan Bao wrote in earnest, in the manner of a historian, and that readers of the time read the book as they would read a history. That is the encyclopedia's own assessment; no record directly showing the reactions of contemporary readers appears in the present sources.
The original texts can be read directly in open databases. Chinese Wikisource (維基文庫) carries “晉書/卷082”, “搜神記/序” and “搜神記/第01卷”, and dictionary entries on Gan Bao and the Soushen ji can be consulted at Japan's Kotobank.
How chapter 1 writes Shennong, Chisongzi and Pengzu
The opening passage of chapter 1 deals with Shennong (神農): “神農以赭鞭鞭百草，盡知其平毒寒溫之性，臭味所主，以播百穀，故天下號神農也。” Shennong lashed the hundred plants with his crimson whip, learned all their properties and flavors, and sowed the hundred grains. The closing clause says that is why all under heaven called him Shennong. The structure explains a name by way of deeds.
The passage on Chisongzi (赤松子) is shorter still: “赤松子者，神農時雨師也，服水玉以教神農，能入火自燒。” It defines him first as the rain master of Shennong's time, then says in the same sentence that he took water-jade and taught Shennong, and that he could enter fire and burn himself. The form first states “X is such-and-such” and then adds the powers. This form can be seen as resembling the opening sentence of the Jin Shu biography examined earlier.
Chapter 1 also follows Chisongzi's departure into the mountains: “至崑崙山，常入西王母石室，隨風雨上下。炎帝少女追之，亦得俱去。至高辛時，復為雨師。” He reached Mount Kunlun (崑崙山), entered the stone chamber of the Queen Mother of the West (西王母), and rose and descended with the wind and rain. The youngest daughter of Yandi (炎帝) followed him and left together with him, and in the time of Gaoxin (高辛) he became rain master again. The narration describes no scene, only movements and offices.
The passage on Pengzu (彭祖) follows the same frame: “彭祖者，殷時大夫也。姓錢，名鏗。帝顓頊之孫，陸終氏之中子。歷夏而至商末，號七百歲。” It states his rank first, then adds surname, given name and lineage in order. He was a grandson of Emperor Zhuanxu and the middle son of the Luzhong clan, and he was said to be seven hundred years old. What marks the passage is that a tale of an immortal is written in the grammar of a genealogy.
Dong Yong and the Weaver Maid of Heaven in chapter 1
Chapter 1 also carries the story of Dong Yong (董永), a man of the Han, and it opens: “漢，董永，千乘人。少偏孤，與父居肆，力田畝，鹿車載自隨。” The passage says that Dong Yong lost one parent while young and lived with his father, working the fields and taking his father along in a small cart. The next words, “父亡” (“his father died”), place the father's death later in the story. The opening therefore cannot mean that he had already lost his father in childhood. The order of presentation — period, name, then birthplace — matches the character introductions seen in the previous section.
At the center of the story is a bargain with the master: “主曰：「必爾者，但令君婦為我織縑百疋。」於是永妻為主人家織，十日而畢。” The master had Dong Yong's wife weave a hundred bolts of silk for him, and she finished the work in ten days. The narration records no astonishment, only a figure and a span of time.
The wife reveals her identity in her own words: “我，天之織女也。緣君至孝，天帝令我助君償債耳。” She is the Weaver Maid (織女) of Heaven, and because of Dong Yong's utter filial devotion the Emperor of Heaven ordered her to help him repay his debt. The passage attaches a reason to a marvelous event, and the ground of that reason is the man's conduct. It can be read as a pattern in which filial devotion calls forth Heaven's action.
The closing line of the preface speaks to how such records should be read: “幸將來好事之士，録其根體，有以遊心寓目而無尤焉。” The wish is that curious readers of later days will record the essentials, let their minds roam and their eyes rest, and find no fault. The historian's judgment in the Jin Shu, meanwhile, comes from another angle: “令升、安國有良史之才，而所著之書惜非正典。” Lingsheng and Anguo had the gifts of fine historians, and it is a pity that the books they wrote are not canonical. A Kotobank dictionary entry values the Soushen ji as a work that hints at the mental world of people in the Wei and Jin periods, and notes that Gan Bao's biography stands in Jin Shu, chapter 82.
| Item | 20-chapter text | 8-chapter text |
|---|---|---|
| State of transmission | Chinese Wikipedia says a 20-chapter compilation of 464 pieces survives | Kotobank dictionary entries say only that an 8-chapter text also survives |
| Number of pieces | Mypedia says the extant 20 chapters contain 470 tales | The sources give no number of pieces |
| Relation to the original 30 chapters | Britannica explains that the work is recorded as having had 30 chapters but that its present form is not the original | Britannica explains that it belongs to a different line from the 20-chapter text |
Related reading: Seongjin Has Awakened — So Why Is It Still Called a Dream? (3/3) · The Nine Cloud Dream: How Its Eight Romances Repeat Across Chapters (2/3)
Summary
Even when writing about marvels, Gan Bao established his sources first. Jin Shu 82 describes him as the court writer charged with the national history and passes on the verdict that his Jin ji in 20 chapters was the work of a fine historian. The preface to the Soushen ji admits that accounts differ from one line of transmission to the next, and it divides responsibility between errors inherited from earlier records and falsehoods picked up while gathering recent events. The tales of Chisongzi, Pengzu and Dong Yong in chapter 1 share a short form that defines the figure first and then adds deeds and reasons.
The 20 chapters a reader holds today are a compilation that came down through a Ming printing. Chinese Wikipedia says the original ran to 30 chapters, and Britannica explains that the 20-chapter and 8-chapter texts belong to different lines. So when reading the Soushen ji it is safer to check first which chapter of which edition you are looking at. What parts 2 and 3 will cover is left out of this article.