In the world of Chinese fables, what does this mean?

[Moshen]

修炼 gets translated everywhere I've looked as "practice," but in the following context I don't quite know what it means.

 

I'm reading a version of 白蛇传, the story of the White Snake, and the text says seems to say that through a long period of 修炼, people can become 神仙, heavenly beings, and thereby can gain supernatural powers.  Only those with a good teacher and talent can make this transformation.  I think I'm missing something, though, and I wonder if 修炼 has a better English counterpart that would make more sense to me.

[Lu]

'Cultivation', perhaps? But there might not be a perfect fit, since the concept itself doesn't exist in the West.

[Moshen]

Is it a Buddhist concept?  Or similar to/influenced by Buddhism?

[Insectosaurus]

Taoism. See the following entry from the Cross-Straits Dictionary.

 

修習道家修道之術，如煉丹、煉氣等活動。

[phoneticsem]

 

修炼 xiūliàn

 

1 (of Taoists) to practice austerities
2 to practice asceticism

 

(of Taoists) practise austerities (or asceticism)

 

Pleco CC and PLC meanings as above. That is the advantage of Dictionary, it would have given the meaning instantly.

[Jim]

There's the similar and related 修真 as early as the Huangdi Neijing; suppose you have to put it together with the conceptual framework of the various energies and ethers that made up the mind-body and were susceptible to being worked on.

[EnergyReaper]

In old 中国神话小说 like 西游记, if you want to become a 神仙, you need to 修炼仙术. Some 仙术 can let you fly. Some can let you have strong fighting power. 仙术 is hard to understand and master, so you need talent. 孙悟空 has better talent than 猪八戒, so he can master 七十二变, while 猪八戒 can only master 三十六变.

In mordern 中国仙侠小说 or 中国玄幻修真小说, you may see 修炼大道, 修炼功法, 修炼肉体, 修炼元神, etc. you can find many such novels in www.wuxiaworld.com.

[Moshen]

Quote

In old 中国神话小说 like 西游记, if you want to become a 神仙, you need to 修炼仙术. Some 仙术 can let you fly. Some can let you have strong fighting power. 仙术 is hard to understand and master, so you need talent. 孙悟空 has better talent than 猪八戒, so he can master 七十二变, while 猪八戒 can only master 三十六变.

 

Thank you.  That is exactly the context I needed.  In Western mythology, entities are generally either human or gods and there isn't a systematic way for going from human to god-like.  At least I can't remember an example of that.

[Insectosaurus]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:48 AM, Moshen said:

Thank you.  That is exactly the context I needed.  In Western mythology, entities are generally either human or gods and there isn't a systematic way for going from human to god-like.  At least I can't remember an example of that.

 

Greek heroes, perhaps?

[Lu]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:51 AM, Insectosaurus said:

Greek heroes, perhaps?

Those were heroes, not gods. And there wasn't really a systematic way of becoming one.

 

Same but different for Catholic saints: in one way it's fairly systematic (being an exceptionally good Christian in life; at least two cases of confirmed miraculous healing, at least so-and-so many years after one's death, I think it was), but there is still a large amount of luck (randomness) involved, the circumstances need to be so that one can actually do things that make one stand out as an exceptionally good Christian. And you have to die first, which is something 神仙 actually avoid.

[Insectosaurus]

On 7/6/2022 at 6:21 PM, Lu said:

Those were heroes, not gods.

 

My only point was that heroes where not "either human or gods", not that they were similar to Taoist concepts. The mutually exclusive categorization is to me not a western concept, but a monotheistic one. I don't know my Norse mythology well enough, but I think there might be examples there as well.