Talk:Liu Xiang (scholar)

Shan Hai Jing
I think there has been a mix up between father Liu Xiang and son Liu Xin in this article. In his bibliographical essay on Shan hai ching (in: Early Chinese Texts. A Biliographical Guide edited by Michael Loewe, ISBN 1-557-29043-1, p.356-367) Rifccardo Fracasso studies thoroughly the authorship and textual transmission of the text. According to this scholar it was Liu Xin who wrote a preface and it was Liu Xin who produced a definitive text. There is no mentioning of Liu Xiang at all in his essay. Guss2 (talk) 14:49, 7 June 2009 (UTC)
 * On August 12th 2009 a reference (Rewriting Early Chinese Texts, pp.2-3) was added which should prove Liu Xiang was the editor of 'Shan Hai Jing' and his son finished it. The reference in note 4 says: ... Liu Xiang's son Liu Xin completed the work, we know for instance that Liu Xin edited the Shan Hai Jing. With work however isn't meant Shan Hai Jing, but Bie Lu (or Seperate Records). This is what Liu Xin completed by editing for instance Shan Hai Jing, Guss2 (talk) 17:40, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

Alchemist
From wiki under "Waidan"

"The erudite Han official Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE) attempted and failed to compound alchemical gold. The Hanshu says that in 61 BCE, Emperor Xuan became interested in immortality and employed numerous fangshi specialists to recreate the sacrifices and techniques used by his great-grandfather, Emperor Wu. In 60 BCE, Liu Xiang presented the emperor with a rare alchemical book entitled Hongbao yuanbi shu 鴻寳苑祕術 (Arts from the Garden of Secrets of the Great Treasure)–which had supposedly belonged to the Huainanzi compiler Liu An–that described "divine immortals and the art of inducing spiritual beings to make gold" and Zou Yan's chongdao 重道 "recipe for prolonging life by a repeated method [of transmutation]". The chongdao context is also translated as "a method of repeated (transmutation)", or reading zhongdao as "important methods by Zou Yan for prolonging life". Emperor Xuan commissioned Liu Xiang to produce alchemical gold, but he was ultimately unsuccessful despite having access to the best available alchemical texts in the imperial library, the expertise of numerous fangshi and metallurgist assistants, and unlimited imperial resources. In 56 BCE, the emperor ordered Liu to be executed yet later reduced the sentence. Dubs concludes that a "more complete and adequate test of alchemy could not have been made"."

Ed 2607:FEA8:4A2:4100:EDC8:79FC:5018:C0C9 (talk) 03:56, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Astronomer
There is no mention of Liu Xiang's achievements as an Astronomer. What is the evidence of his disappearance for 2 years? eg. 'The Missing Astronomer' article https://www.asiaharvest.org/not-without-witness-excerpts-from-our-new-shaanxi-book Zohre6 (talk) 14:57, 17 December 2023 (UTC)