Komjathy, Daoist Tradition:
An Introduction 2013
by Louis Komjathy
by Louis Komjathy
Table of Contents
Part 1: Historical Overview
1. Approaching Daoism
2. The Daoist Tradition
Part 2: The Daoist Worldview
3. Ways to Affiliation
4. Community and Social Organization
5. Informing Views and Foundational Concerns
6. Cosmogony, Cosmology, and Theology
7. Virtue, Ethics and Conduct Guidelines
Part 3: Daoist Practice
8. Dietetics
9. Health and Longevity Practice
10. Meditation
11. Scriptures and Scripture Study
12. Ritual
Part 4: Place, Sacred Space and Material Culture
13. Temples and Sacred Sites
14. Material Culture
Part 5: Daoism in the Modern World
15. Daoism in the Modern World
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8 Dietetics
Dietetics refers to food consumption and to theories related to eating and nutrition. Conventionally speaking, dietetics is primarily about food and liquids, especially consumable beverages. In contemporary America, the dominant view of food is based on modern theories of nutrition and modern scientific categorizations, though there are also cultural and religious minority viewpoints. In addition to fruits and vegetables, grains, dairy, and meat, the dominant view includes scientific analysis based on “vitamins and minerals,” “sugars,” “proteins,” carbohydrates,” and so forth. Such views differ from those of traditional Chinese and Daoist dietetics, a point which highlights the cultural dimensions of diet. The most common analytical framework in Chinese dietetics centers on yin (cold/cooling/moistening)yang (hot/warming/drying) and Five Phase characteristics (e.g. the five flavors). Such categorization is also utilized in Chinese pharmacology and the classification of herbal substances. Like other dimensions of the Daoist tradition, such as the foundational cosmology (see Chapter 6) and certain views of self (see Chapter 7), Daoist dietetics is, first and foremost, rooted in traditional Chinese views and consumption patterns.
Although “dietetics” technically refers to theories and practices related to food intake, and especially to the modern study of nutrition in terms of health, Daoist dietetics is much more complex than “food consumption.” In addition to the conventional, therapeutic, and cosmological ingestion of food, Daoist dietetics includes ascetic, alchemical, and monastic approaches. Considered comprehensively, it encompasses dietary modification, fasting regimens, herbology and mineralogy, as well as vegetarianism, avoidance of the five strong-smelling vegetables, and abstention from intoxicants. Daoist dietetical views, the religious rationales and motivations behind one’s relationship to food, consumable substances, and forms of nourishment, are also diverse. As is the case with Daoist Yangsheng practice (see Chapter 10), motivations range from health and healing through vitality and longevity to immortality.
1] Food intake
The traditional Chinese, and thus Daoist, diet centers on the consumption of grains, vegetables, beans and legumes, as well as fruit, with smaller, supplemental amounts of eggs and the flesh of slaughtered animals (“meat”). Before the modern period, dairy products were scarce, if not nonexistent in the Chinese diet. This was a shared Chinese and pan-East Asian diet. In certain regions, the standard Chinese diet also includes mushrooms, nuts and seeds, and seaweed. Water and tea, hot water infused with dried leafs from the Camellia sinensis tree, were the primary beverages of traditional China. Various types of grain alcohol were also consumed.
Daoist dietetics related to food intake involves a therapeutic orientation and parallels classical Chinese medicine. A Daoist therapeutic diet emphasizes the complex interplay among one’s constitution and energetic tendencies, climate and seasons, and qualities of food. On the most basic level, it categorizes things in terms of yin (cold, cooling, moistening, etc.) and yang (hot, warming, drying, etc.). Next, it categorizes things in terms of the Five Phases (wuxing), namely, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water (see Chapter 6). One’s constitution may have, for example, an excess of Water and Earth, and a deficiency of Wood and Fire. Each of these is associated with particular organs, tissues, conditions, seasons, flavors, grains, vegetables, meat, etc. (see Chapter 6; Liu 1995; Pitchford 2003). A common use of correlative cosmology with respect to dietetics involves the five flavors, namely, sour (Wood/liver), bitter (Fire/heart), sweet (Earth/spleen), spicy (Metal/ lungs), and salty (Water/kidneys). The ideal meal consists of a balance of each of the five flavors. One may, in turn, adjust one’s lifestyle and diet to return to an increased condition of equilibrium and homeostasis, of health and wellbeing. At the same time, one may simply be attentive to the energetic qualities of specific foods in relation to one’s constitution. One may consume food in a more therapeutic and energetic way.
From a Daoist perspective, a therapeutic diet includes a seasonal and energetic component (see Chapters 5 and 6). This takes us to another dimension of Daoist dietetics, namely, cosmological attunement. A cosmological orientation again utilizes correlative cosmology, that is, yinyang and the Five Phases. One becomes attentive to the energetic qualities of specific seasons: spring (minor yang), summer (major yang), fall (minor yin), and winter (major yin), and adjusts one’s lifestyle and diet accordingly. The primary factors in one’s health, after cosmological, ancestral, and environmental influences, are food (spleen/stomach) and breath (lungs). From this perspective, clean air, nourishing food, and good sleep are the foundations of health and wellbeing. Connecting these insights to seasonal awareness, one adjusts one’s sleeping and eating patterns in relation to the corresponding seasons: in spring, one goes to bed early and wakes up early; in summer, one goes to bed late and wakes up early; in fall, one goes to bed early and wakes up early; in winter, one goes to bed early and wakes up late (see Komjathy 2008a, v. 3). That being said, many Daoist practitioners find that they require less sleep and less food as their practice deepens. With respect to eating, one eats foods in season. In a contemporary, industrialized context, this is often difficult to determine, as food grown all over the world is transported to international locations. However, in a traditional context, one can observe the principles of seasonality and bioregionalism, that is, eating local, seasonal, and organic foods. An interesting modern example, which expresses some classical Daoist principles, is Masanobu Fukuoka’s (1913–2008) The One Straw Revolution (1978).
Finally, with respect to food intake, Daoists have often followed standard Chinese dietary principles, principles which have a root in Yangshang (“nourishing life”) practices (see Chapter 10). One is encouraged to recognize the ancestors (human and non-human) before eating. One adjusts one’s diet with attentiveness to age, season, and health issues. One eats pure and fresh foods. One eats food containing the various flavors. One eats a nourishing meal during the time of the stomach (7 a.m. – 9 a.m.). One primarily eats vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans. One takes at least 100 steps after finishing a meal. One enjoys the food and company that surrounds one. With respect to dietary prohibitions, one is advised to avoid eating anything discolored or bad-flavored. One avoids eating anything not well cooked. One avoids eating anything that is rotten, old, or stale. One avoids eating late at night and eating a full meal at dinner. One avoids over-eating. One avoids lying down immediately after eating. One avoids negative emotions when eating. In a modern context, one also avoids drinking ice water with meals, as it taxes the spleen-stomach and inhibits digestion, which is sometimes compared to a warm stew (see Flaws 1998). There are also specifically monastic guidelines (see below), which parallel Daoist ideals of ritual purity (see Chapter 13). One avoids eating strongly flavored dishes (garlic, onions, leeks, etc.), which are associated with the creation of heat and activation of sexual energy. One abstains from smoking. One abstains from drinking alcohol (see also Liu 1990).
While these dietary principles derive from a variety of sources, both Daoist and “non-Daoist,” both ancient and modern, it is noteworthy that one already finds a precursor in the fourth-century BCE “Neiye” (Inward Training) chapter of the Guanzi (Book of Master Guan; see Roth 1999a).
THE WAY OF EATING
Considering the way of eating,
If you over indulge, your qi will be injured.
This will cause your body to deteriorate.
If you over restrict, your bones will be weakened.
This will cause your blood to congeal.
The place between over-indulgence and over-restriction, We call this “harmonious completion.”
Here is the lodging-place of vital essence.
It is also where knowing is generated.
When hunger and satiation lose their regulation, You must make a plan to rectify this.
If you are overly satiated, engage in activity.
If you are hungry, expand your thinking.
If you are old, forget your worries.
If you are overly satiated and do not move,
The qi will not circulate through the limbs.
If you are hungry and do not expand your thinking, When you finally do eat you will not stop.
If you do not forget your worries when old, The wellspring of your vitality will dissipate. (“Neiye,” Chapter 23)
2] Ascetic diets
Although the majority of Daoists throughout Chinese history have followed a “traditional Chinese diet,” Daoists have advocated different diets and dietary approaches. Above, we already encountered three approaches: (1) Standard/Conventional, (2) Therapeutic, and (3) Cosmological. To these we may add the following: (4) Ascetic, (5) Life-prolongation, (6) Alchemical, and (7) Monastic. The ascetic diet emphasizes the modification or cessation of food intake, often with wild or foraged foods replacing an agrarian diet. Life-prolongation diets aim to increase vitality and longevity. Alchemical diets, here primarily referring to external alchemy (waidan), aim at immortality. While each Daoist dietary approach, with its corresponding views, principles, and practices, developed within different contexts, they eventually became part of “Daoist dietetics” more broadly conceived. That is, although Daoist asceticism emerged during the early medieval period, one can find ascetic tendencies among later and even contemporary Daoist adherents and communities.
The eighth-century Laozi shuo fashi jinjie jing (Scripture on the Prohibitions and Precepts for Ceremonial Eating Revealed by Laozi; DH 80; P. 2447; abbr. Fashi jinjie jing), a Dunhuang archaeological manuscript composed within the Tang monastic system (see Chapters 3 and 4), contains a hierarchical map of “types of foods” and corresponding dietetic practices.
LATE MEDIEVAL DAOIST “FOOD GROUPS”
Eating everything is not as good as eating vegetables. Eating vegetables is not as good as eating grains. Eating grains is not as good as eating mushrooms and excrescences. Eating mushrooms and excrescences is not as good as eating gold and jade [metals and minerals]. Eating gold and jade is not as good as eating primordial qi. Eating primordial qi is not as good as not eating at all. By not eating at all, even though Heaven and Earth may collapse, one will survive forever. (Kohn 2004b:
124–5; Kohn 2010: 12)
One might thus identify “basic Daoist food groups”: (1) Vegetables, (2) Grains, (3) Mushrooms and fungi (wild and foraged foods), (4) Herbs, metals and minerals (herbal and alchemical formulas), and (5) Qi (subtle breath and primordial vapor). According to the Daoist systematization expressed in Fashi jinjie jing, there is a hierarchical order to these substances and the associated diets.
Here a number of points deserve emphasis. First, the text expresses a particular monastic perspective and ought not be regarded as representative of the tradition as a whole. Moreover, the text presents itself as normative discourse, prescribing what one ought to do based on a distinct worldview. As will become clear below, such totalizing statements are tempered by other Daoist dietary principles, approaches and views. Second, the text conceives Daoist dietetic practice in terms of increasing levels of rarification. Food is the most basic level of sustenance; it is one of the foundations of health for ordinary human beings. However, as one progresses through various Daoist diets and related religious practices, one becomes less dependent on actual food consumption (material sustenance). The text advises the aspiring Daoist adept to move from food intake to herbology and mineralogy (external alchemy) to qi ingestion (proto-internal alchemy; see below). Eventually, one merges with the cosmos, and, with separate personhood dissolved, one no longer needs to ingest anything, even qi. This is the movement from ordinary, coarse ontological conditions (yin/corporeal/ terrestrial) to refined, subtle ontological conditions (yang/spiritual/celestial).
The above passage from the Fashi jinjie jing thus represents a late medieval synthesis of earlier Daoist dietetic approaches and serves as an orientation point for understanding Daoist dietetics from a more nuanced and comprehensive perspective. In its outline of graduated Daoist dietary practice, it incorporates views and methods from ascetic, life-prolongation, and alchemical approaches. While distinct on some level, these approaches often overlap and parallel each other. With respect to the fourth major approach, Daoist ascetic diets involve decreasing or eliminating food intake (see Eskildsen 1998). They involve self-restraint and a biologically transcendent orientation. Daoist ascetic diets may replace cultivated food with wild foods, with elimination diets, or with temporary or prolonged fasting. Ascetic diets frequently replace cultivated foods, substances produced through agriculture and animal husbandry, with foraged foods. In this way, Daoist ascetic diets often overlap with life-prolongation orientations (see Chapter 10). Daoist ascetic diets may have been partially inspired by the Primitivist strain of classical Daoism and may be thought of as a practical diet for hermits living in the mountains, which became incorporated into larger Daoist religious commitments.
The middle chapter of the fifth-century Lingbao wufu xu (Explanations of the Five Talismans of Numinous Treasure; DZ 388) describes seventy dietary regimens. These regimens identify forty-one vegetal substances that act as active ingredients, alone or in combination, for increasing health, purifying oneself, and achieving extreme longevity. The nine most popular ingredients in the text are black sesame seeds (heizhima; found in 18 recipes), wild asparagus root (tianmendong; 12), Chinese foxglove root/Rehmannia (shengdihuang; 9), Chinese root fungus (fuling; 7), pine tree sap (6), poke root (shanglu; 6), lotus tree seeds (lianzi; 6), wolfberries (gouqizi; 4), which are also known as Goji berries in the modern world, and ginger (ganjiang; 4) (see Akahori 1989; Yamada 1989).
FIGURE 10 Daoist Rendering of Tianmendong (Wild Asparagus Root) Source: Tujing yanyi bencao, DZ 768; 769
These ingredients are also common in other early medieval hagiographical texts such as the second-century CE Liexian zhuan (Biographies of Arrayed Immortals; DZ 294) and fourth-century Shenxian zhuan (Biographies of Spirit Immortals; JY 89; JH 54), a text partially written by Ge Hong (287–
347). Other typical wild foods consumed by Daoists throughout Chinese history include pine nuts, wild berries, as well as mushrooms, fungus, and other natural excretions (see Campany 2001; 2002). Pine trees are especially prominent, both actually and symbolically. With respect to the first, various Daoists have believed in the beneficial qualities of pine trees, whether in the form of seeds, nuts, resin, sap, bark, or roots. Second, pine trees, as evergreens, are a symbol of vitality, longevity, and immortality. As one can see from the list of ingredients, some substances utilized in Daoist ascetic diets are also incorporated into more mainstream Chinese cooking and eating (see, e.g. Flaws and Wolf 1985; Zhao and Ellis 1998). One also notices overlap with classical Chinese medicine, as such substances have specific energetic and medicinal qualities (see below). Here we must acknowledge that the connection with Yangsheng practice and Chinese medicine has also had a disturbing consequence, namely, species endangerment or extinction (see Bensky et al. 2004: xxx–xxxi). Some substances associated with “vitality” and “longevity” (read: male virility), such as bear gall-bladder, deer antlers, musk deer secretions, rhinoceros horn, seahorse, and tiger bone, have led to ecological degradation, not to mention individual suffering and extermination.
Another ascetic element of Daoist dietetics involves the elimination of particular foods. One of the most well-known elimination practices from Daoist ascetic dietetics is “abstention from grains” (bigu), also referred to as “avoidance of cereals” (quegu) (see Maspero 1981: 331–9; Lévi 1983; Eskildsen 1998; Campany 2002). Conventionally understood, bigu involves eliminating grains from one’s diet, that is, complete abstinence from eating any grain or grain byproducts. There are different rationales and motivations for the practice, but this ascetic approach to dietetics emerged in the context of early medieval Daoism. In medieval sources, the practice of bigu is associated with eliminating the Three Death-bringers (sanshi; see Chapter 7). The Three Death-bringers are harmful bio-spiritual parasites that depend on cereals or grains for nourishment; they also attempt to bring the human being to early death. As the Three Death-bringers depend on grains for sustenance, grain abstention leads to their expulsion or extermination, and to increased freedom and longevity for the Daoist practitioner.
Certain bigu regimens also have cosmological and theological components. For example, many medieval Daoists claimed that the Three Death-bringers would leave the body on every gengshen day, the fiftyseventh day in the traditional Chinese sixty-day cycle. On this day, they are believed to report one’s moral transgressions to Siming, the Ruler of Lifedestiny or Arbiter of Fate, who would deduct time from one’s lifespan depending on the type of transgression. By staying awake on the gengshen day, one could prevent the Three Death-bringers from making their report. Much more effective, though also more exacting, was observation of a certain period of grain abstention, usually one hundred days, which would eliminate the Three Death-bringers. This perspective stands in contrast to the late medieval monastic one cited above. From an early medieval ascetic perspective, grains seem to be among the lowest forms of nourishment, perhaps because of their connection to sedentary, agrarian civilization; they are below vegetables and wild foods, as indicated by the importance of various vegetal and herbal substances in ascetic, therapeutic, and alchemical dietetics. In addition, the ingestion of certain substances, such as poke root, was believed to expel or exterminate the Three Death-bringers and other, more physical parasites (see Eskildsen 1998: 61–2, 65, 110, 144).
Before moving on to Daoist alchemical dietetics, two additional points need to be made regarding the medieval Daoist preoccupation with the Three Death-bringers and the practice of bigu. First, although early medieval sources unequivocally suggest that the Three Death-bringers are bio-spiritual parasites, late medieval sources seem to begin a process of “psychologization,” a process which culminates in various late imperial presentations of internal alchemy, such as those of Liu Yiming (1734– 1821), whose works have been translated by Thomas Cleary. For example, in early Quanzhen, the Three Death-bringers appear to be harmful psychological states (see Komjathy 2007a). They represent conditions or tendencies that obscure the corresponding spiritual capacities; they are forms of dissipation. In that context, the Three Death-bringers inhabit the three elixir fields (dantian). The upper Death-bringer, associated with the head and with the desire for delicious foods and various other desires, disrupts spirit (shen) and the capacity for higher levels of consciousness. The middle Death-bringer, associated with the heart and with greed and anger, disrupts qi and the capacity for energetic aliveness and cosmological attunement. The lower Death-bringer, associated with the abdomen and/or genitals and with fancy clothing, alcohol, and sex, disrupts vital essence (jing) and the capacity for emotional stability. By “removing the Three Death-bringers,” by purifying oneself through religious training and alchemical praxis, one could attain immortality. This Daoist view also suggests that certain foods produce specific psychosomatic conditions, a view shared by many Daoist monastics (see below).
The second point relates to the technical meaning of bigu. Although conventionally understood as “abstention from grains,” in certain contexts it appears to designate fasting, that is, complete elimination of food (Eskildsen 1998: 43; Campany 2002: 21–4). Eskildsen (1998: 43–68) identifies various Daoist fasting regimens including fasting proper, swallowing saliva, ingesting the Five Qi, ingesting solar and lunar essences, swallowing talismans, sucking on seeds, and herbal formulas (“drug taking”; see below). For example, according to the Tang-dynasty Taiqing zhonghuang zhenjing (Perfect Scripture on the Central Yellow from Great Clarity; DZ 817; abbr. Zhonghuang jing), the practitioner is instructed to stop eating solid foods immediately and to endeavor not to drink fluids. One must ingest qi (fuqi; also rendered as “swallow air”) through the mouth and into the esophagus. This is supposed to suppress hunger and nourish one’s body with original qi (yuanqi ) from the cosmos. Through intensive and sustained practice, one purges the defiling qi of ordinary foods, referred to as “grain qi” (guqi ), from the body and also eliminates malevolent corporeal entities and harmful influences. Once this has been accomplished, the body becomes the abode of celestial deities, and its latent numinous qi can be activated. One is then ready to proceed to “embryonic respiration” (taixi; see Chapter 10), which in this case denotes a rigorous type of breath retention. Holding the breath activates the numinous qi of the five yinorgans, which are united into a subtle body. While engaging in embryonic respiration, one also practices visualization (see Chapter 11) and takes ecstatic journeys through the Daoist sacred realms, especially those of Taiji (Great Ultimate) and Taiwei (Great Sublimity). In this way, the Daoist adept gains a foretaste of the realms that he or she hopes to inhabit after the completion of terrestrial existence (Eskildsen 1998: 44). This type of Daoist fasting thus involves a movement from ordinary existence, here associated with terrestrial food and embodiment (yin), to immortal life, here associated with Daoist sacred realms and spiritual transcendence (yang)—that is, fasting results in rarification and self-divinization.
Moreover, although one might assume that prolonged fasting would have catastrophic consequences, the Zhonghuang jing suggests that severe weakness and emaciation are temporary; they eventually give way to increased vitality as the next phase of fasting (Eskildsen 1998: 51–2). Some contemporaneous fasting regimens also emphasize the importance of consuming herbs and herbal formulas, sometimes discussed as “drug taking” in the sense of medicinal substances (see below). With respect to fasting, it appears that certain substances, such as poke root, suppress hunger; that is, if one took these herbs while fasting, one’s desire for food would possibly diminish. Here we should note that these are not “starvation diets,” with the modern preoccupation with weight loss and socially constructed body image. In addition, there are types of fasting in the Daoist tradition that do not have such a strong ascetic orientation. For example, fasting is sometimes used as a purification method, that is, as a way to break habituated consumption habits, to free oneself from certain types of influences (e.g. cravings based on ancestral influences), and to gain spiritual clarity and higher levels of attunement with the Dao. One might refer to this type of fasting as “cosmological,” “therapeutic,” or “seasonal,” as it is most often undertaken in spring. In traditional Chinese, and thus Daoist, cosmology (see Chapter 6), spring is associated with the Wood phase, which also corresponds to birth, new beginnings, the liver, and so forth. By fasting in spring, one may help to cleanse the liver and to relieve potential stagnation accumulated during the winter. Considered from a larger perspective, Daoists have thus practiced temporary and prolonged fasting, and Daoist motivations for fasting are diverse: from psychosomatic purification through exorcism to rarification.
3] Alchemical diets
In Daoism, alchemical diets refer to the ingestion of specific substances related to external alchemy (waidan), which stands in contrast to internal alchemy (see below). We might also think of alchemical diets as “cuisines of immortality,” because the ultimate goal was to become divine, to transcend the limitations of ordinary human life and the dissolution of the body after death (see Chapter 7). Many Daoist texts provide detailed information on alchemical ingredients and formulas. Of particular note are Ge Hong’s Baopuzi neipian (Inner Chapters of Master Embracing Simplicity; DZ 1185) and Tao Hongjing’s reconstructed Shennong bencao jing (Divine Farmer’s Classic of Herbology; partially lost). With respect to the latter, bencao, which literally means “roots and grasses,” is a Chinese textual genre related to herbal and pharmacological lore; it is frequently rendered into English as “herbology,” “pharmacology,” or materia medica (Latin: “medicinal materials”). The potential connection between Chinese medical herbology and Daoist external alchemy is interesting here. It appears that some of the former derived from the Daoist search for ingredients that would increase longevity and potentially result in immortality. For example, the Shennong bencao jing contains 364 entries, including botanical (252), mineralogical (45), and zoological (67) substances. Each entry is evaluated for taste (wei ) and temperature characteristics (qi ). Toxicity is also carefully noted (Bensky et al. 2004: xv). Tao Hongjing further divides the substances into three categories or grades (sanpin), namely, highest/ superior, medium/average, and lowest/inferior (lit., upper, middle, and lower).
GRADES OF MEDICINAL SUBSTANCES
There are 120 superior class medicinals which are used as sovereigns. They mainly nourish life and correspond to heaven. They are nontoxic and taking them in large amounts and for a long time will not harm people. If one intends to make the body light, boost the qi, prevent aging, and prolong life, one should base [one’s efforts] on the superior class.
There are 120 medium class medicinals which are used as ministers. They mainly nurture personality and correspond to humanity. They may or may not be toxic, and [therefore,] one should weigh and ponder before putting them to their appropriate use. If one intends to control disease, supplement vacuity, and replenish exhaustion, one should base [one’s efforts] on the middle class.
There are 125 inferior class medicinals which are used as assistants and envoys. They mainly treat disease and correspond to earth. They are usually toxic and cannot be taken for a long time. If one intends to eliminate cold and heat and deviant qi, break accumulations and gatherings, and cure disease, one should base [one’s efforts] on the inferior class.
(Shennong bencao jing; adapted from Yang 1998: ix-x)
Tradition tells us that Tao Hongjing reconstructed his attributed edition of the text from an earlier version. This is partially substantiated by Chapter 11, titled “Medicines of Immortality,” of the Baopuzi neipian.
HIGH, MEDIUM AND LOW GRADE MEDICINALS
In the four classics of Shennong, we are told that high grade medicinals put the human body at ease and extend life-destiny. They enable one to ascend to the heavens as a spirit soaring up and down. One will also be able to command the myriad numens. One’s body will grow feathers and wings, and the Traveling Canteen (xingchu) will arrive. The five excrescences (zhi ) may be consumed, and cinnabar, jade flakes, laminar malachite, realgar, orpiment, mica, and brown hematite may be taken individually. Any of these enable one to fly and prolong life (changsheng). Medium grade medicinals nourish innate nature (yangxing) [disposition]. Low-grade medicinals banish illness and prevent poisonous insects [or, worms] from attacking and wild animals from harming one. They neutralize perverse qi (eqi ) and put negative influences to flight. (Baopuzi neipian, DZ 1185, 11.1a; adapted from Ware 1966: 177)
Both of these passages emphasize a hierarchical ordering of the various medicinal and alchemical substances, and it was the highest type of herbs and minerals that interested external alchemists (see also Ramholz 1992; Teegarden 1985; Unschuld 1986). Daoists have also been particularly interested in baihe (lily bulb), gancao (Chinese licorice root), Gingko, Ginseng, heshouwu (“black-haired He”; flowery knotweed), shihu (dendrobium stem), and so forth.
External alchemy aims at the attainment of immortality, whether physical (corporeal/ terrestrial) or spiritual (non-corporeal/celestial), through the ingestion of various external substances and formulas. It assumes the foundational Daoist view of self as a composite entity destined to dissipate into the cosmos upon death. Eternity and immortality are not ontological givens; they must be actualized or created (see Chapter 7). Early Daoist external alchemy practice involved “decoction.” This involved highly esoteric and technical knowledge of ingredient properties, their correct combination (specific amounts and recipes) into formulas, as well as cosmological and ritualistic elements (see Needham et al. 1976, 1980; Campany 2002; Pregadio 2006a). The external alchemical process takes place in a “laboratory,” called the elixir chamber. The furnace (lu) or stove (zao) is typically placed on a three-tiered platform or altar (tan). The crucible (fu) or tripod (ding) is arranged over the furnace or sometimes inside it (Pregadio 2008b: 1004). These are used for alchemical processes such as “forging” and “refining” (lian), “reverting” (fan; huan), and “firing times” (huohou). The incorrect formula and procedure could lead to illness and to death, especially in the form of self-mummification, an apparently everlasting body absent of vitality and consciousness. This was because of the highly toxic nature of some of the ingredients utilized.
Here I will provide a couple of specific examples of Daoist alchemical diets. First, with respect to an alchemical diet primarily utilizing herbs, we find a poke root recipe in fifth-century Lingbao wufu xu (Explanations of the Five Talismans of Numinous Treasure).
THE POWER OF POKE ROOT
Add one dou of wild asparagus root (tianmendong; asparagus cochinchinensis) powder to ten jin of yeast and three dou of rice. Place the gathered poke root (shanglu; phytolacca acinosa) [in this mixture] for six days. Thereupon, begin eating them, while observing ritual prohibitions. After six days, your food intake will decrease. After twenty days, grains will be eliminated and your intestines will be so large that they can only hold air. The various worms will leave. Your ears and eyes will hear and see clearly. All of your moles and scars will disappear. When the moon resides in the Yugui constellation on a ding-stem day, gather the poke root plant. Eat a piece the size of a jujube three times per day. Daoist adepts always grow this plant in a garden by their meditation chamber. It allows a person to communicate with gods. (Lingbao wufu xu, DZ 388,
2.11a; adapted from Eskildsen 1998, 61)
In terms of the use of herbs in Daoist alchemical dietetics, this passage is noteworthy on a number of levels. It combines the previously discussed ascetic practice of fasting and grain abstention, here apparently meaning the consumption of cooked grains, with the ingestion of poke root. According to the Lingbao wufu xu, the practice results in the expulsion of parasites from the body and increased clarity of consciousness. It also emphasizes the importance of ethics, ritual, cosmology, and meditative seclusion. For present purposes, the recipe is significant on account of its detailed understanding of herbology as well as the application of that knowledge to Daoist ascetic and alchemical training. In addition, this “dietetic practice” is clearly rooted in a larger Daoist soteriological system aimed at selftransformation.
As we saw above, Daoist alchemical diets utilize not only herbal and vegetal substances, but also minerals, including various “heavy metals.” The latter include things like cinnabar (mercuric sulfide; HgS), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), realgar (arsenic sulfide; As4S4), silver (Ag), and so forth. The reason that this Daoist sub-tradition has been referred to using the European category of “alchemy” is because of its parallel concern for refinement and transformation. Just as conventional European alchemy aimed to transmute base metals into gold, so too Daoist waidan aimed to create a “pill of immortality.” Because of its fairly systematic exploration of naturally occurring “elements,” waidan has also been discussed in terms of “Chinese proto-chemistry” (Needham et al. 1976; 1980). In any case, typical Daoist waidan formulas, associated with the Taiqing movement (see Pregadio 2006a), appear in Ge Hong’s Baopuzi neipian.
PREPARING THE ELIXIR FLOWER
FORMULA
The first elixir is called “elixir flower.” One should first prepare the mysterious yellow [substance] (xuanhuang) [perhaps lead-mercury amalgam or mixed oxides]. Add to it a solution of realgar [arsenic sulphide] and a solution of alum. Take several dozen pounds each of rough Gansu salt (rongyan), crude alkaline salt (luxian), alum, [powdered] oyster shells, red bole clay, [powdered] soapstone, and lead carbonate; and with these make the Six-One Lute [and seal (the reaction-vessel) with it]. After thirty-six days, the heating of the elixir will be completed, and anyone who takes it continuously for seven days will become an immortal. (Baopuzi neipian, DZ 1185, 4.5b–6a; adapted from Needham et al. 1976: 83–84; cf. Ware 1966: 76)
Before moving on to other dimensions of Daoist dietetics, we should note that the Daoist ingestion of herbs and minerals has frequently been referred to as “drug taking” (see Akahori 1989; Eskildsen 1998). This may give the false impression that Daoists were taking mind-altering drugs, rather than medicinal, pharmacological, and alchemical substances. It was generally the latter practice to which “Daoist drug taking” refers. Technically, a “drug” is any substance that alters body functions; it designates substances that have psychoactive effects. However, this begs the question as to the place of psychotropic and psychedelic
(“hallucinogenic”)1 substances in Daoist diets. While very little research has been done on the Daoist consumption of “drugs” in the conventional sense, there is some evidence that certain Daoists consumed large amounts of alcohol as well as certain psychotropic substances. The most famous example of the latter is so-called “Cold Food Powder” (hanshisan), also known as the Five Minerals Powder (wushisan). The former name refers to the fact that one had to eat cold food and bathe in cold water to counteract the rise in body temperature produced by the powder (Engelhardt 2008).
According to Sun Simiao’s (581–682) Qianjin yifang (Revised Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces), it contained five minerals— fluorine, quartz, red bole clay, stalactite and sulfur—one animal ingredient, and nine plant substances. It is associated with the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a group of reclusive aristocrats and artists who had Daoistic leanings. The effects of Cold Food Powder are currently unclear, though some sources claim increased vitality and spiritual clarity.
It is also noteworthy that medieval Daoists were especially interested in a category of substance called zhi, which is conventionally rendered as
“mushroom” but which often refers to “excrescences” or various supernatural outgrowths (see Campany 2001; 2002: 25–30; Pregadio 2008c). Although unclear at the moment, it is reasonable to assume that some of these organic materials contained psychotropic properties and that
they resulted in “altered states of consciousness.”
FIGURE 11 Mountain Flower Excrescence Source: Zhicao pin, DZ 1406
4] Monastic diets
Daoist monastic life involves a standardized daily schedule, including fixed communal eating times. In early medieval Daoist monasteries, Daoists gathered together for breakfast and lunch, but they refrained from eating after noon (see Chapter 4). The latter follows one of the five additional Buddhist precepts for monastics. In contemporary Daoist monastic life, Daoists tend to eat three meals, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in refectories.
Daoist monastic diets are most often associated with vegetarianism, avoidance of the five strong-smelling vegetables (wuxin), and abstention from intoxicants (see Kohn 2010: 77–84). Each of these religious commitments was adapted from Buddhism (see Mather 1981; Kieschnick 2005), and they contrast sharply with traditional Chinese practice, as well as the more traditional Chinese diets of Zhengyi priests and religious communities. In contemporary Quanzhen monasticism, vegetarianism, avoidance of the five strong-smelling vegetables, and abstention from intoxicants are, at least strictly speaking, requirements for religious affiliation (see Chapter 3) and part of Quanzhen vows, identity, and ways of life. In Quanzhen refectories, monastics eat simple dishes composed primarily of various vegetables. Quanzhen monastic diets thus tend to be closer to vegan (no animal products, including eggs and dairy) than to ovolacto (eggs and dairy) vegetarian. The vegan dimension also extends to clothing, as Quanzhen monastics tend to avoid dress related to animal slaughter (e.g. leather belts and shoes). However, some Quanzhen refectories serve eggs and dairy products; some Quanzhen monastics eat eggs and dairy, especially in the form of yogurt; and some Quanzhen monastics wear leather shoes. Thus, at least on appearance, vegetarianism is more primary than veganism.
With respect to the two other dimensions of Daoist monastic diets, namely, avoidance of the five strong-smelling vegetables and abstention from intoxicants, the former refers to various kinds of onions and garlic, all of which are plants in the modern botanical genus Allium. They include the following: (1) common onion (hucong; Allium cepa); (2) scallion (cong; Allium fistulosum); (3) garden shallots (xie; Allium ascalonicum); (4) leek (jiu; Allium odorum); and (5) garlic (suan; Allium sativum). According to the standard Daoist perspective, these substances, commonly used as spices in Chinese cooking, activate sexual energy and thus undermine monastic practice, rooted as it is in celibacy, sublimation, and rarification. Strangely, however, in contemporary Quanzhen monastic contexts, the same prohibition often does not apply to red chili paste, ginger, or substances with similar energetic qualities and effects as the five strong-smelling vegetables.
Intoxicants, most often in the form of alcohol, are also avoided. There are a variety of Daoist views on the importance of renouncing intoxicants. Intoxicants are believed to injure the liver, which is responsible for the smooth flow of qi throughout the body; to disturb the heart-mind, associated with consciousness and spirit; and to disrupt one’s connection with the Dao, resulting in various types of deviant and depraved behaviors (e.g. sexual impropriety). Here it is noteworthy that Daoists have traditionally drunk tea. Tea is understood to be a “stimulant” rather than an “intoxicant,” though individuals who have consumed large quantities of high-quality teas may be more inclined to categorize tea as a hallucinogen! From a Daoist perspective, tea leads to greater clarity of consciousness, awareness, and wakefulness; it also can support the religious practice of those who have a tendency towards lethargy and sleepiness. This stands in contrast to alcohol, which decreases spiritual presence and obscures consciousness.
5] Swallowing saliva and qi ingestion
Beyond the various practices related to the ingestion or avoidance of material substances, Daoists have also engaged in saliva swallowing and qi ingestion. From a Daoist perspective, saliva and fluids more generally are vital body substances (see Chapter 7); qi, subtle breath or “energy,” is both a subtle corporeal and cosmological element (see Chapters 6 and 7). Both body fluids and qi are viewed as key aspects of personhood. Here anatomy and physiology include both material and subtle dimensions: the body contains material substances (blood and fluids) as well as more immaterial “substances” or “energies” (qi). Based on this view of the body, the ingestion of primordial qi and freedom from the requirements of mundane nourishment are identified as the highest type of dietetics. That is, one can “eat” subtle substances and primordial vapors.
Swallowing saliva has been practiced by longevity practitioners, both Daoist and non-Daoist, by immortality seekers, and later by internal alchemists (see, e.g. Kohn 1989a; Kohn 2008a; Eskildsen 1998). Early references to the practice are found in the Mawangdui medical manuscripts dating from the Early Han dynasty (see Chapter 10; Harper 1998). Swallowing saliva could be categorized as a life-prolongation or alchemical practice, rather than as a dietary practice in the Western sense. However, I would like to expand the notion of “diet” through a Daoist lens to include a broad range of “ingestion practices” and alternative types of nourishment.
Generally speaking, here “saliva” does not refer to ordinary spittle; rather, it refers to clear and pure fluids generated during training. There are various Daoist technical terms used to designate this saliva, including gold fluids (jinjin), jade fluids (yuye), jade nectar (yujiang), mysterious pearl (xuanzhu), snow flower (xuehua), spirit water (shenshui ), and sweet dew (ganlu). These pure fluids are often associated with actual mist and dew.
A CLASSICAL DAOIST PRECEDENT FOR
GRAIN ABSTENTION AND QI
INGESTION
There is a spirit being (shenren) living on the distant Gushe mountain, with skin like ice and snow, and gentle and shy like a young child. He doesn’t eat the five grains, but inhales wind and drinks dew. He ascends the clouds and mist, rides a flying dragon, and wanders beyond the four seas. With his spirit coalesced, he can protect beings from sickness and plagues and make the harvest plentiful. (Zhuangzi, Chapter 1)
In addition to the early reference to grain avoidance, this passage describes living on wind and dew and mist. Later Daoist self-cultivation movements interpreted “wind” and “dew” as qi and saliva, respectively, and used the terms “drinking dew” and “imbibing mist” to designate swallowing saliva.
The practice of swallowing saliva is described in a fairly standard way in almost any Daoist text that utilizes the practice. First, through Daoist religious training, including meditation and Yangsheng practice, pure saliva forms in the mouth. One then gathers saliva using the tongue, often in combination with tapping the teeth (see Chapter 10). Next, one swallows the saliva, usually by dividing it into three portions and swallowing three times. In the process, one uses the intent to direct and follow the saliva down the front centerline of the body to the lower elixir field (dantian), which is often referred to as the Ocean of Qi (qihai ). While this practice is clearly evident in early medieval Daoist ascetic and Yangsheng contexts, it is most often associated with internal alchemy, within which it was incorporated into larger systems of self-transformation (see Chapters 7, 10, and 11). In this context, saliva is one of the most important “ingredients,” an ingredient that combines with qi in the lower elixir field to form the “elixir of immortality.” For example, the twelfth-century Jinguan yusuo jue (Instructions on the Gold Pass and Jade Lock; DZ 1156) provides aspiring Quanzhen adepts with instructions on swallowing saliva.
SWALLOWING SWEET DEW
“Now, when one uses this exercise, one should begin sitting cross-legged [full-lotus posture] at the hour of zi [11 p.m.–1 a.m.] and the hour of wu [11 a.m.–1 p.m.] and rub the hands together. If the perfect qi is active in the body, pass it through the Celestial Bridge to the forehead skin. Make it go to the area above the jaws. Using the intention, divide the perfect qi in two and have it flow down to move in the center of the Great Yang Prime. Let it flow deeper into the jaw, ascending into the teeth. Then collect the ye-fluids from the right and left corners of the mouth. This in turn is the Mysterious Pearl and the Sweet Dew. Use the Crimson Dragon to stir and obtain the proper blending, so that it coagulates into a snow flower. White in color, it has a sweet flavor.” (Jinguan yusuo jue, DZ 1156, 8b; also 11b)
This passage utilizes standard esoteric terms for saliva (Mysterious Pearl and Sweet Dew) and the tongue (Crimson Dragon; also referred to as Descending Bridge). The former describes the tongue’s color (crimson) and its capacity for flexible movement (dragon). The designation of Descending Bridge brings one’s attention to the fact that the tip of the tongue ideally rests touching the upper palate, thus linking the Governing Vessel and Conception Vessel (see Chapters 7 and 11). When swallowing saliva, one lowers the tongue, extends the neck slightly, and guides the saliva down.
The primary Daoist rationale for swallowing saliva relates to conservation and non-dissipation. As fluids are associated with vital essence (jing), one’s foundational vitality (see Chapter 7), preserving and reabsorbing saliva increases one’s energetic integrity. At the same time, swallowing saliva relates to fluid physiology. As I have suggested elsewhere (Komjathy 2007a: 204–6), one can attempt to understand the practice in terms of the physiology of internal alchemy in general and elixir formation in particular. Beyond the simplified formula of refining vital essence and qi to eventually become spirit and merge with the Dao, internal alchemy is a complex process of self-refinement and psychosomatic transformation, of rarification and self-divinization. For example, refining vital essence, associated with the kidneys, leads to the production of blood, with the assistance of the lungs and heart, and the production of fluids, with the assistance of the spleen and stomach. These fluids in turn nourish and moisten the muscles, skin, joints, and orifices of the sense organs. In combination with marrow derived from vital essence, the fluids also nourish the brain and spinal cord. Simultaneously, the fluids transferred to the heart become blood, the material basis of spirit. That is, the seemingly simple formula of “refining vital essence to become qi” initiates a complex set of physiological responses. More specifically, producing, conserving, and ingesting fluids leads to both a greater resiliency to disease, through increased protective qi, and an abundance of spirit, through increased blood and marrow production. Nourishing and attending to the various organs and their related substances initiates a dynamic physiological process. This physiology provides a foundation for the activation of mystical body locations, as well as for the patterning of a pathway for the spirit to transcend the mundane world and become an immortal.
Qi ingestion is the final aspect of Daoist dietetics that I would like to discuss. There are a variety of Daoist technical terms for this practice, including “ingesting qi” (fuqi ), “eating qi” (shiqi ), and so forth. Qi ingestion involves the ingestion of seasonal and local influences as well as absorption of astral effulgences. That is, there are ecological and cosmological aspects of the practice, as well as different informing views. Some approaches to qi ingestion emphasize cosmological attunement, while others focus on rarification and self-divinization. Early Shangqing was one of the earliest Daoist movements to incorporate qi ingestion into its religious training and soteriological system; in that context, it appears as an element that presages the later systematization of internal alchemy in the late medieval period. Some representative qi ingestion practices include absorbing the qi of the five directions (east, south, center, west, north) and the energies of the sun, moon, stars, and planets.
One key characteristic is the central importance of light (Robinet 1989a, 1993; Miller 2003, 2008). This is so much the case that one might understand the practice as “nourishing on light” or “living on light.” In this way, it connects to various Daoist views and approaches discussed above. It is also noteworthy that Daoist qi ingestion seems to find some support in contemporary astrophysics, especially in its identification of primordial energies circulating through the cosmos and the concepts of “dark matter” and “dark energy”. That is, modern scientific cosmology may support Daoist claims that one can access primordial ethers and vapors.
Here we will be content to examine one Daoist example: the technique known as “Method of Mist Absorption,” which involves ingesting the socalled “five sprouts” (wuya). The method is early on described in various Shangqing and Lingbao texts and was transmitted to the Shangqing medium Yang Xi (330–386) by Wei Huacun (251–334) (Robinet 1989a: 165). According to the standard practice, one absorbs the qi of the five directions and locates the qi in the corresponding yin-organ. The method begins with swallowing saliva while chanting invocations to the original qi (yuanqi ) of the directions. At dawn, one faces the associated direction, usually beginning with the east, and visualizes the qi of that direction in its corresponding colors. A general mist in the beginning, it gradually forms into an orb of light. It then becomes more concentrated, during which stage it decreases in size and approaches the adept’s body. Eventually the size of a pill, the sprout is swallowed and directed to its corresponding yin-organ. According to the late seventh-century Fuqi jingyi lun (Discourse on the Essential Meaning of Absorbing Qi; DZ 277; DZ 830; DZ 1032, j. 57) by Sima Chengzhen (647–735), there are five associated invocations.
FIGURE 12 Ingesting Solar Effulgences Source: Yuyi jielin tu, DZ 435
INVOCATIONS FOR THE FIVE SPROUTS
Green Sprout of the East:
Become absorbed and nourish my green sprout. I drink you through the Morning Flower.
Vermilion Cinnabar of the South:
Become absorbed and nourish my vermilion cinnabar. I drink you through the Cinnabar Lake.
Lofty Great Mountain of the Center:
Become absorbed and nourish my essence and qi. I drink you through the Sweet Spring.
Radiant Stone of the West:
Become absorbed and nourish my radiant stone. I drink you through the Numinous Liquid.
Radiant Sap of the North:
Become absorbed and nourish my mysterious sap.
I drink you through the Jade Sweetness.
(Fuqi jingyi lun, DZ 277, 3ab; also Taixi qijing, DZ 819; Wufu xu, DZ 388, 3.21ab; Robinet 1989a: 165; Eskildsen 1998: 55; Kohn 2008a: 156)
Here the first and second lines refer to the esoteric names of the corresponding external sprout (directional qi) and internal yin-organ (liver, heart, spleen, lungs, kidneys). The final lines are also esoteric names for corporeal locations and substances (root of upper teeth, root of lower teeth, root of molars, saliva inside the lips, saliva on the tongue). After chanting each invocation, one stimulates the salivary glands by rubbing various parts of the mouth with the tongue and swallows the saliva three times for each sprout.
As the late Isabelle Robinet (1989: 166) has pointed out, the sprouts originally are the “germinal essences of the clouds” or “mist.” They represent the yin principle of heaven, that is, yin within yang. They manifest in human saliva, again a yin element in the upper, yang part of the body (“heaven”). They help to nourish and strengthen the five yin-organs. They are tender, comparable to fresh sprouts of plants, and assemble at dawn in the celestial capital, from where they spread all over the universe until the sun begins to shine. Turning like the wheels of a carriage, they ascend to the gates of the nine heavens, from where they continue to the medium level of the world—to the Five Marchmounts ruled over by the Five Emperors of the five directions (see Chapters 6 and 14)—and finally descend into the individual adept. They thus pass through the three major levels of the cosmos, namely, heaven, earth, and humanity.
The technique is part of a Daoist religious training regimen that includes saliva swallowing, cosmological attunement, and chanting esoteric invocations. Through the practice, the Daoist adept becomes rarified and cosmicized. The incorporation of the qi of the five directions, in concert with other astral and celestial energies, results in a new ontological condition. The adept becomes a rarified being composed primarily of cosmic ethers and theological emanations, a being infused with numinous presences who literally circulates something different. This numinous presence is an essential expression of Daoist religious identity and affiliation, a defining characteristic of the Daoist community. It is the qi of the Dao (daoqi ) infusing and manifesting in, as, and through the Daoist adept’s own body.
FURTHER READING
Akahori, Akira. 1989. “Drug Taking and Immortality.” In Taoist Meditation and Longevity Techniques, edited by Livia Kohn, 73–98. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan.
Campany, Robert. 2001. “Ingesting the Marvelous: The Practitioner’s Relationship to Nature According to Ge Hong.” In Daoism and Ecology, edited by Norman Girardot et al., 125–46. Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press.
Eskildsen, Stephen. 1998. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kohn, Livia. 2010. Daoist Dietetics: Food for Immortality. Dunedin, FL: Three Pines Press.
Komjathy, Louis. 2011. “Daoism: From Meat Avoidance to Compassionbased Vegetarianism.” In Call to Compassion: Religious Reflections on Animal Advocacy from the World’s Religions, edited by Lisa Kemmerer and Anthony J. Nocella II, 83–103. New York: Lantern Books.
Liu Zhengcai. 1990. The Mystery of Longevity. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.
Saso, Michael. 1994. A Taoist Cookbook. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing.
Sterckx, Roel. 2002. The Animal and the Daemon in Early China. Albany: State University of New York Press.
—(ed.) 2005. Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics, and Religion in Traditional China. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Unschuld, Paul. 1985. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley: University of California Press.
—1986. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
