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The main techniques leading to this wondrous state involve the refinement of qi, which is taken into the body as
breath, food, or sexual energy. Immortals accordingly practice control in these areas, using breathing exercises and
gymnastics, dietetics and sexual practices in their own unquie way. Harnessing the breath through methods of “expelling
the old and inhaling the new,” they control breathing and reach high longevity, so that even at an age of several hundred
years they still look as if they were only seventeen: a face clear like peach blossoms, a mouth of cinnabar redness,
vibrant and smooth skin, and glossy black hair and eyebrows. However, even here breathing is only the preliminary
stage, and immortals need to complete the elixir of immortality to fully ascend to heaven (Campany 2002, 357).
Food intake is another major way of achieving bodily transformation. Most commonly this means the ingestion of
only natural substances, such as roots, nuts, berries, or pine needles. An early example for this is Chang Rong, who lived
in the mountains and ate only ash raspberry roots, thereby maintaining the complexion of a twenty-year old for several
centuries before finally being transported to the divine realm (Liexian zhuan 2.5b; Kaltenmark 1953, 152-53). More
famous than she is Yu Jiang, better known as Maonü, the Hairy Woman. A palace woman under the First Emperor of
Qin, she saw the collapse of the dynasty approach and took refuge on Mount Hua. There she met the immortal Gu Chun,
who taught her how to eat pine needles and survive in the wilderness—thus gaining the ability to live without solid food,
become immune to cold and heat, and move as swiftly as if she were flying. After living at ease on the earth for several
hundred years, she ascended to the paradises of the immortals (Liexian zhuan 2.7b-8a; Kaltenmark 1953, 159-60). Still a
highly venerated and respected immortal, she is depicted in a leafy gown and with hairy legs and still venerated today on
various Daoist mountains (Porter 1993, 69).
Another well-known immortal who used dietary techniques is Master Whitestone (Baishi xiansheng). He would
have liked to concoct an alchemical elixir, but his family was poor and he could not afford to do so. Instead, he made it
his habit to boil white stones and use them for food, the reason why he came to be called Master Whitestone, in
combination with bits of dried meat. For the most part, however, he would abstain from all grains and solid foods and
thus reach an age of centuries.
A third major way of controlling qi as it enters and leaves the body is through sexual hygiene. In many cases this
means the practice of celibacy for the preservation of sexual energy and its circulation and refinement within the body
(Eskildsen 1998, 38-40), but it can also involve work with partners. Men might have relations with numerous women in
order to obtain their qi so they could augment their own stock by guiding the precious substance through the body for
greater energetic refinement, but some women are also reported to have used sexual methods for their attainment of long
life and transcendence (see Wile 1992).
In all these cases, longevity techniques are used by religious practitioners for the attainment of higher stages: first a
level of complete health, then a transcendence of health in an extended longevity, often over several centuries, and
finally a transformation of the body’s qi to a more spiritual level of oneness with the Dao. Unlike the organized religious
Daoists of later centuries, the early immortals acknowledged and actively used the continuity of qi to guide them from
healing through longevity to immortality. What, then, is the logic behind this perspective and how can it be part of an
integrated Daoist teaching?....................................................................................................................................................
[To be continued next month with Daoism and the Origins of Qigong, Part 2]
References
Campany, Robert F. 2002. To Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study of Ge Hong’s Traditions of
Divine Transcendents. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chen, Nancy N. 2003. Breathing Spaces: Qigong, Psychiatry, and Healing in China. New York: Columbia University
Press.
Chia, Mantak, and Michael Winn. 1984. Taoist Secrets of Love: Cultivating Male Sexual Energy. Santa Fe: Aurora
Press.
Despeux, Catherine, and Frederic Obringer, eds. 1997. La maladie dans la Chine médiévale: La toux. Paris: Editions
L`Harmattan.
Despeux, Catherine, and Livia Kohn. 2003. Women in Daoism. Cambridge, Mass.: Three Pines Press.
22 Yang-Sheng (Nurturing Life) Volume 1, Issue No. 10