Fei Zhangfang 费长房

Names

Identity

Historicity

Uncertain

Identification

Named

Sex

Male

• Sex: male
  Strongly inferred · houhanshu:093:s0224

Roles

• Named Individual
• Official
• Student

Family

• Kinship Role: family members (家人) · Quantity: an unspecified household · Note: an unnamed household whom he worried about, who mistook the hung bamboo for his corpse, believed he had hanged himself and buried it
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0237, houhanshu:093:s0239

Career and standing

• Label: market clerk / 市掾 · Action: held formerly
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0225
• Status: sworn to secrecy about the gourd · Source Text: 翁约不听与人言之
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0231

Places and affiliations

• Place: Runan commandery / 汝南 · Relation: native-of
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0224

Learning and skills

• Belief: the Way (pursuit of transcendence) / 道 · Relation: sought · Note: hindered by his concern for his family
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0237

Events and relationships

• Kind: uncanny · Role: subject · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: a green bamboo cut to his height was hung behind the house; his family took it for his body and buried it while he stood beside them unseen · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0238, houhanshu:093:s0239, houhanshu:093:s0240
• Kind: uncanny · Role: witness · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: alone saw from an upper storey the old apothecary leap into his hanging gourd when the market closed, thought it strange and went to bow twice and present wine and dried meat · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0226, houhanshu:093:s0227
• Kind: ordeal · Role: postulant · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: followed the old man into the deep mountains, trod brambles among a pack of tigers and lay alone in an empty chamber under a ten-thousand-jin stone hung by a rotting rope gnawed by snakes, without moving · Outcome: the old man stroked him and said he could be taught · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0241, houhanshu:093:s0242, houhanshu:093:s0243
• Kind: uncanny · Role: guest · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: returned at dawn and entered the gourd with the old man, where they feasted in a splendid jade hall before coming out · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0229, houhanshu:093:s0230
• Kind: personal · Role: host's helper · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: sent men, and then ten men with poles, to fetch the wine jar downstairs; none could raise it, until the old man lifted it on one finger · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0234, houhanshu:093:s0235, houhanshu:093:s0236
• Kind: ordeal · Role: postulant · Other Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁) · Action: was made to eat dung containing three worms of extreme foulness and could not stomach it · Outcome: the old man told him he had come within a little of obtaining the Way but had failed here · Date Context: Source Date: Text: 费长房事（无纪年，东汉） · Western Interval: Start: AD 25 · End: AD 220
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0244, houhanshu:093:s0245

Assessments and attributes

• Assessment: came within a little of obtaining the Way but failed at the final test · Provenance: Mode: named-source-report · Source Person Id: Old Man of the Gourd (老翁)
  Explicit · houhanshu:093:s0243, houhanshu:093:s0245