Organización de actividades de transferencia

Moderation and elementary healing are also at the core of the next sources on healing exercises, from the fourth century c.e., written by literati aris-tocrats of southern China. Engaged in different social contexts and cultural pur-suits, they include imperial officials striving to attain a more balanced and longer life, hermits withdrawing to the mountains to find longevity and prepare the concoction of an alchemical elixir, and Highest Clarity Daoists pursuing contact with the gods and ascension to the heavens of the immortals.

All three had in common that they had the means and the leisure to be con-cerned with their physical health and spiritual well-being. They all practiced ex-ercises in continuation of the medical tradition as established in the early manuscripts: applying seasonal awareness and moderation in food, sex, and ac-tivities and working with the classical combination of physical exercises, breath-ing, and the sensory refinement of eyes and ears. In addition, they developed the earlier tradition through the creation of short, organized sequences; the use of specific dates and times of day; an emphasis on early morning practice; the inte-gration of several other practices, notably swallowing the saliva, clicking the teeth, and various forms of self-massages; and the connection to divine forces, be they demons to be kept at bay or divinities to be attracted or activated.

While the three aristocratic groups of the fourth century have all this in com-mon and provide a clear picture of how the exercise tradition developed in the early middle ages, they are yet different in accordance with their varied goals. Imperial officials were interested in a harmonious life within society that would allow them to enjoy mundane pleasures and a long life. Hermits lived on the fringes of society.

Like officials, they encouraged moderation but less to enjoy life than to become physically strong enough for higher attainments. Also, they proposed breathing and other techniques for exorcism rather than self-enhancement and strongly em-phasized that control of qi was very useful but would not in itself lead to immortal-ity or transcendence, which ultimately required the concoction of the cinnabar elixir. Followers of Highest Clarity, finally, had largely given up on this world; they were interested primarily in interacting with the deities and ascending to the oth-erworld. Their texts accordingly speak less about moderation and healing, focusing

instead on interior palaces of body gods and various methods to activate divine connections. The latter two groups, moreover, provide the first documents that show how healing exercises expanded into religious dimensions.

Why all this attention to long life and religious activity among southern aris-tocrats of the fourth century? What was their social and political situation at the time? What kinds of texts did they leave behind? What audience were they ad-dressing? And how did they adapt the exercises in accordance with their social position and overall goals?

Aristocratic Endeavors

The main event that predicates the new unfolding of the Daoyin tradition is the move of the imperial capital from the northern city of Chang’an 長安 (modern Xi’an 西安) to Jiankang 建康 in the south, the city on the southern bank of the Yangzi now known as Nanjing 南京. This move was caused by the invasion of Huns (Xiongnu 匈奴), who had come under economic and geographical pressure and were seeking additional space. Instead of peacefully tending their herds on the steppe, they came to ransack wide stretches of northern China with strong military power. Led by a group called Toba, the Huns consisted of a considerable federation of tribes who, in the course of the fourth century, extended their do-minion over all of northern China. Ruling under the dynastic name of Wei 魏, they were gradually sinicized and came to spread their newly adopted creed of Buddhism in China, thus greatly contributing to the East Asian adaptation of the Indian religion. Far from stable and peaceful, however, the Toba rule was fre-quently shaken from within, both by rival chieftains rising in rebellion and by messianic Chinese cults spreading discontent and apocalyptic revolts.¹

In 317, the Toba conquered the capital of the then-ruling Jin dynasty. The imperial court together with the army and large contingents of retainers as well as masses of ordinary people fled southeast, thereby transforming the dynasty from the Western to the Eastern Jin. Within a few years, they had settled in Jian-kang, where they displaced the local administration of the province and filled all major positions with émigré northerners. Resident southern aristocrats could do nothing but return home to their landed estates, where they engaged in various cultured activities, some letting themselves go into gluttony and excess, others turning to long-life and religious practices.

Newly installed northerners and those southerners who still hoped for offi-cial employment were eager to stay healthy and keep active so they could enjoy

1. For more on Toba history, see Eberhard 1949, Warshaw 1987.

their power. They pursued personal health and well-being and on occasion dis-covered new, interesting ways of living it up without getting too seedy and de-bauched. Disenfranchised and disappointed southern aristocrats, on the other hand, turned their backs on society. Some began to learn longevity and alchemi-cal techniques that might lead to otherworldly dimensions, enhanced personal powers, and eventual ascent to the higher spheres. Others sought official rank and appointments in newly discovered heavens of high quality, creating status well beyond the petty positions to be had in the northern-infested capital. The sources we have on healing exercises echo these three main tendencies.

Officials

The health practices of officials in service or in waiting are mainly documented in the Yangsheng yaoji 養生要集 (Long Life Compendium) by the aristocrat and official Zhang Zhan 張湛. He is best known as the first and most important commentator to the Daoist philosophical text Liezi 列子 (Book of Master Lie; trl. Graham 1960), which supports a similar view of the body as the Yangsheng yaoji (see Sakade 1986a, 10; Kohn forthcoming).² Zhang Zhan, also called Chudu 處度, does not have a biography in the dynastic histories despite the fact that he wrote several philosophical commentaries in the Profound Learning (Xuanxue 玄學) tradition of Daoism, authored two compen-dia on longevity practices, served as imperial secretary under the Eastern Jin, and was born into a family of senior officials under the Western Jin (Despeux 1989, 228).

Rather, information about him is anecdotal, some found in the story collection Shi-shuo xinyu 世說新語 (A New Account of Tales of the World; trl. Mather 1976), some in the biographies of contemporary officials and later descendants.

According to these sources, Zhang Zhan was philosophically minded and a follower of Dark Learning thinkers such as the Zhuangzi commentator Guo Xiang 郭象, whom he frequently cites in his Liezi commentary. He also had medical knowledge and was eager to improve the qi in his residence by planting various kinds of pine trees. The Jinshu 晉書 (History of the Jin Dynasty) biography of Fan Ning 范寧 further mentions that he was susceptible to eyestrain, for which he took a longevity recipe consisting of six ingredients: read less, think less, focus inward, scan outward, sleep late, and go to bed early. He was to mix these ingredients with qi and take them to heart for seven days. This would enhance his vision and extend his life (Stein 1999, 101).

2. The first mention of authorship of the commentary is in the bibliographic section of the Suishu 隨書 (History of the Sui Dynasty) of the seventh century (Despeux 1989, 228). Zhang Zhan is a common name, and it is also remotely possible that the author was an official in northern China known as Zhang Ziran 張自然 (Zhu 1986, 102).

An imperial official and well-educated thinker with time on his hands, Zhang Zhan engaged in wide reading and practiced long-life techniques. He had the material cushion necessary to indulge his interest in medical learning and was well connected to officials and literati. The practices he mentions were prob-ably well known and widely used at the time, and he may well have put together the Yangsheng yaoji to help his fellow aristocrats stay healthy and live moderately despite their riches and newly found leisure, thus using long-life practices pre-dominantly for this-worldly advancement.

The Yangsheng yaoji has not survived as an independent text but was recon-stituted on the basis of fragments.³ It consists of ten sections:

Harboring Spirit

The section on Daoyin exercises is conspicuously short and focuses domi-nantly on maintaining a harmonious qi-flow. In contrast to this, the sections on food and sexual activities are extensive and very detailed (Stein 1999, 187–222).

The one on food and drink notes the best way to eat in the different seasons, pro-vides remedies for overeating and intoxication, outlines the optimal diet during pregnancy, and suggests the healthiest way to eat various delicacies, such as game, pheasant, pork, scallops, and exotic fruits and vegetables. The section on

bed-3. The text appears to have been lost after the rebellion of An Lushan 安錄山 in 755 (Barrett 1980, 172). Fragments and citations appear mainly in three sources: the Zhubing yuanhou lun 諸病源候論 (Origins and Symptoms of Medical Disorders), a medical compendium in 50 juan put together by a committee headed by the court physician Chao Yuanfang and presented to Emperor Yang of the Sui in 610 (trl. Despeux and Obringer 1997); the Yangxing yanming lu 養性延命錄 (Record on Nourish-ing Inner Nature and ExtendNourish-ing Life, DZ 838), a Daoist collection of meditative, breathNourish-ing, and physical practices in two juan, ascribed to Sun Simiao 孫思邈 and probably of the mid-seventh century (trl. Switkin 1987), which also lists the titles of the ten sections; and the Ishinpō 醫心方 (Es-sential Medical Methods), an extensive Japanese medical collection by the court physician Tamba no Yasuyori 丹波瀨康 (912–995), which was presented to the emperor in 984 (Sakade 1989, 3–9). The fragments are collected, translated, and analyzed in Stein 1999.

chamber arts similarly gives seasonal advice and suggests that one should abstain after overeating or getting drunk. The text clearly addresses members of the upper classes with the leisure and material means to indulge their preferences and a correspondingly great need to stay healthy despite their indulgence.

Hermits

In contrast to this, aristocrats who opted out of the dominant society and pursued otherworldly goals through Daoist cultivation and alchemy used heal-ing exercises for enhancheal-ing control over their qi—thereby lessenheal-ing the need for food and developing magical powers. Their goal was to guide the qi in such a way that the body would be completely satisfied without food and drink and to attain

Fig. 5: A Daoist with magical powers subduing a tiger. Source: Liexian quanzhuan.

powers of control over people, objects, and energetic constellations (fig. 5). This state of physical independence and empowerment then served as the basis for al-chemical experiments.

The best-known representative of this group is the would-be alchemist and scholar Ge Hong 葛洪 (283–343), who called himself Baopuzi (Master Who Em-braces Simplicity 抱朴子). Unlike the northern émigré Zhang Zhan, Ge Hong was born into the southern aristocracy and grew up in a small town near Jiankang. In-spired by a family interest for otherworldly pursuits, he became a disciple of the hermit and alchemist Zheng Yin 鄭陰 at the age of fourteen and studied with him for five years. After serving in the imperial administration in various minor capaci-ties, he resigned his position to study longevity and immortality full-time (Prega-dio 2000, 167). He wandered around the country in search of ancient manuscripts and learned masters, then came home to write down his findings.

In his autobiography—the first of its kind in Chinese literature—he describes how he eschewed official positions and even avoided social interaction with his peers because his one aim in life was to become immortal, that is, reach a state of perfect health and extended longevity that would allow the concoction of an alchemical elixir and ascension to the heavens (Schipper and Verellen 2004, 70–71). For Ge Hong, immortality was not reached primarily through religious observances, such as prayers and rituals, although he certainly believed in the magical efficacy of talis-mans and incantations. Rather, for him the desired state could be attained by laying a groundwork of long life through longevity techniques—exercises, breathing, di-etetics, and meditations—followed by the great alchemical endeavor, which alone could lead to ultimate immortality (Pregadio 2006b, 125). All alchemical work, moreover, had to be undertaken in secrecy in the seclusion of the mountains and required numerous costly ingredients and holy scriptures, revealed either by the gods in séances or by hermit masters after the passing of strict tests (Kohn 1991, 85–86). Although he had never compounded any elixir by the time he compiled his writings, hagiographic accounts suggest that he later retired to Mount Luofu 羅浮山 late in life to devote himself fully to the great work (Ware 1966, 6–21).

His most important work is the Baopuzi neipian 抱朴子內篇 (Inner Chapters of the Master Who Embraces Simplicity, DZ 1185; trl. Ware 1966), which was first completed in 317, that is, “before the influx of refugees from the north was to pro-foundly change the culture and religion of the Jiangnan region” (Schipper and Ver-ellen 2004, 71). A twenty-chapter compendium on the techniques and practices of the immortals, it provides an overview of the religious, medical, exorcistic, and eso-teric practices prevalent at the time, partly based on passages copied or summa-rized from scriptures that Ge Hong had received from Zheng Yin (Robinet 1997, 78–113). The text describes how to use protective measures that will keep demons

and evil spirits at bay; how to reach alignment with the yin and yang energies of the universe; how to absorb the qi of the Sun and the Moon; how to use various herbs and minerals to improve health and extend life; how to attain magical qualities such as being in several places at once, becoming invisible, flying in the air, know-ing the future, and readknow-ing other people’s thoughts; and how to prepare various kinds of cinnabar elixirs that would transform one into an immortal or bestow very long life on earth and power over life and death (Needham et al. 1976, 81–113).

The book discusses long-life methods as preliminary to alchemy and empha-sizes the antisocial nature of this endeavor. As Ge Hong says,

Those who wish to nourish life settle far away, stay in hiding, conceal their shining radiance, and veil their elegance. They repress the eye’s desire to see and banish the beauties that weaken their vision. They plug the ear’s very thought of sound and put afar the music which only confuses hearing. They cleanse the dark mirror of the mind, maintain a feminine approach, and embrace oneness. Concentrating on their qi to produce softness, they fortify themselves with calm and impartiality. They dis-miss the evils of joy and sadness; they are alien to the glory and disgrace associated with success and failure; and they lop away rich living that later turns to poison. (ch.

5; Ware 1966, 99)

In contrast to this rejection of social involvement, the text also has several short spin-offs that, like Zhang Zhan’s work, address a wider aristocratic audience, hoping to help them with health issues and to guide them away from gluttony and indulgence. Ge Hong, therefore, without giving up on the basic principles of the health regimens, replaces the pursuit of official fame and wholesome indulgence with the search for alchemical recipes that would grant an extensive long life, magi-cal powers over self and others, and the eventual ascension to the immortals.

Ecstatics

The same goals are also apparent in the third set of texts on healing exercises in this period, which go back to a group of southern aristocrats who channeled their officially unwanted energies into interaction with the gods and ecstatic journeys to the otherworld (see Strickmann 1978). Confronted with the religious beliefs of the northern émigrés, some of whom had become followers of the early Daoist move-ment of the Celestial Masters (Tianshi dao 天師道), they were initially uneasy be-cause the newcomers introduced new ways that were neither wanted nor comfortable. Gradually, however, they came to a compromise, which in due course gave way to a degree of integration and merging and eventually led to the growth of an entirely new religious movement, the Dao of Highest Clarity (Shangqing 上清).

It began with the popular practice to establish communication with one’s ancestors with the help of a spirit-medium, mainly to find causes for unexplained illness and misfortune, but also to learn of their fate in the otherworld and to obtain advice on current affairs. In the 360s, Xu Mai 許邁 (301–?) and Xu Mi 許謐 (303–373), two brothers of the aristocratic Xu family who lived in the same village as Ge Hong’s clan, hired the medium Yang Xi 楊羲 (330–386?) to establish contact with Xu Mi’s wife Tao Kedou 陶可斗, who had died in 362. She appeared and told them about her status in the otherworld, explained the overall organiza-tion of the heavens, and introduced the medium to various other spirit figures.

Among them were underworld rulers, divine officers of the dead, spirit mas-ters of moral rules, denizens of the Huayang grotto 華陽洞 on nearby Mount Mao 茅山, as well as some deceased leaders of the Celestial Masters, notably the former libationer Lady Wei Huacun 魏華存 (251–334). Together they provided the medium with a detailed description of the organization and population of the otherworld, and especially of the top heaven of Highest Clarity (Robinet 1993, 3–4; Strickmann 1979, 126). They also revealed specific methods of personal transformation, meditations, visualizations, and alchemical concoctions; gave thorough instructions on how to transmit the texts and their methods; and pro-vided prophecies about the golden age to come.

The Xu brothers recorded everything Yang Xi transmitted from the other-world, however disparate it may have seemed, and created a basic collection of sacred texts. They shared their new revelations with their immediate neighbors and relatives, who included the Ge family of Ge Hong, the Taos of Tao Kedou, and the Wangs of the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (Robinet 1984, 1:108). These aristocrats welcomed these visions heartily, finding in the newly discovered heavens a rank and nobility they had lost on this earth. They learned all about the organization of the thirty-six heavens above and practiced visual-izations and ecstatic meditations to experience the higher planes. They integrated the exercise tradition as part of their practice in a daily routine of stretches,

The Xu brothers recorded everything Yang Xi transmitted from the other-world, however disparate it may have seemed, and created a basic collection of sacred texts. They shared their new revelations with their immediate neighbors and relatives, who included the Ge family of Ge Hong, the Taos of Tao Kedou, and the Wangs of the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (Robinet 1984, 1:108). These aristocrats welcomed these visions heartily, finding in the newly discovered heavens a rank and nobility they had lost on this earth. They learned all about the organization of the thirty-six heavens above and practiced visual-izations and ecstatic meditations to experience the higher planes. They integrated the exercise tradition as part of their practice in a daily routine of stretches,