Ge Hong's Historical Position in Taoist Health Preservation
Ge Hong (283-363) was born in Jurong County, Danyang County (now Jurong County, Jiangsu Province). He was a Taoist theorist, a famous alchemist and a medical doctor in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and was called Little Fairy. Bao Puzi inherited and developed alchemy since the Eastern Han Dynasty, which had a great influence on the development of Taoist alchemy and provided valuable historical materials for studying the history of alchemy in China and ancient chemistry. Ge Hong also wrote 100 volume of medical works Fang Yuhan (lost) and 3 volumes of Elbow Emergency Prescription, covering various medical subjects, including the earliest record of treating smallpox and other diseases in the world. There are more than ten kinds of his works in Orthodox Taoist Collection and Wanli Continued Taoist Collection.