Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
1. The Early Taoist Study of the Alchemical Way
Across more than 1,800 years of Taoist history, eminent Taoists of every age made many exploratory attempts at cultivating the body and becoming an immortal. The alchemical Way, as the foremost path to immortality, can be broadly divided into two kinds: outer alchemy (waidan) and inner alchemy (neidan).
In the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, Taoist inner alchemy gradually matured, reaching its peak in the Song and Yuan. Yet the formation and perfection of any doctrine must pass through a long period of development, and in fact early outer alchemy already contained fragmentary ideas of inner alchemy.
Ge Hong was the great synthesizer of the theory of immortality. His contribution to the Taoist alchemical Way lies in organizing the theory of outer alchemy and advancing its shift from theory to practice. It should be noted that although the Baopuzi (Inner Chapters) highly esteems the doctrine of “becoming an immortal through the Golden Elixir,” it also records many inner-alchemy methods of health cultivation. Taking the Inner Chapters as its main source, this article seeks, through Ge Hong's scholarly theory of inner-alchemy health cultivation, to explore the philosophical foundations of early Taoist inner alchemy.
2. Qi: The Mechanism of All Things
Qi is one of the basic categories of Chinese philosophy, and Confucian scholars and eminent Taoists of every age have expounded it to varying degrees. Laozi, the ancestor of the Tao, said: “The Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to the myriad things. The myriad things carry yin on their backs and embrace yang, and through the blending of qi they attain harmony.” (Tao Te Ching, chapter 42)
In the Taoist view, although the Tao is the highest ontological ground of the universe and all things, it cannot in fact generate them directly; it must pass through three processes, accompanied by the continuous evolution of the original qi, the two qi of yin and yang, and the three qi of yin, yang, and their blended harmony. Though the Tao is nameless and unmanifest, it brings all things into existence through the form of qi. One may say that the Tao is the root of the generation of all things and qi the mechanism of their change. As a Taoist priest who also practiced medicine, Ge Hong discussed qi, the mechanism of all things, chiefly in two respects: generation and the causation of disease.
As said above, the Tao is an “immaterial absolute existence” that cannot be seen, heard, or touched, and it cannot directly produce the material world. So qi takes on the role of intermediary, connecting and linking the Tao with matter.
Ge Hong said: “People are within qi, and qi is within people; from heaven and earth to the myriad things, there is nothing that does not depend on qi for life.” (Inner Chapters, “Utmost Principles”) In the Taoist view, the condensing of qi marks the birth of life and its dispersal marks the end of life; the arising of all things requires qi, and so does their change. Ge Hong pointed out: “A person at birth first receives essence and spirit from heaven and earth, then receives qi and blood from father and mother.” (Inner Chapters, “Diligent Seeking”) Before birth, a person first receives the essence and spirit of heaven and earth outside, and after the intercourse of yin and yang receives the qi and blood of the parents. One may say that a human being is the product of the union of the essence and spirit of heaven and earth with the qi and blood of the parents.
The mystery of qi is shown not only in the external environment it constructs but also in the crucial role it plays in the internal environment of the human body. Chinese medicine holds that all life activity depends on qi. The body's internal environment and nature's external environment are in dynamic balance; if the balance is broken, illness readily follows. So only a person whose “yin is calm and yang is sealed” and whose “qi and blood are in harmony” is healthy. Only by truly “keeping the upright qi within” can one keep all illness at bay. Seen this way, qi, as the mechanism of all things, plays a key role both in the generation and change of natural things and in human reproduction and survival. On the basis of this philosophical reflection on qi, Ge Hong put forward a systematic method of qi circulation and breathing exercises (tuna). Through the arts of circulating qi and breathing, one on the one hand exchanges matter and information with the natural world, and on the other hand is enabled to ward off evil outwardly and to dispel illness and extend life inwardly.
3. The Tao: The Ultimate Pursuit
The Tao is the core idea of Taoist philosophy and also the highest goal and ultimate pursuit of Taoism. Ge Hong was a Taoist theorist of the Wei-Jin period, influenced by both Taoist thought and the Profound Learning (Xuanxue); in explaining ontology he imperceptibly equated “the Mysterious,” “the One,” and “the Tao.” A passage in the Inner Chapters puts it very finely: “I have heard from my master that if a person can know the One, all things are accomplished. One who knows the One knows everything; one who does not know the One can know nothing. The Tao arises from the One, which is precious beyond compare; each dwells in its own place, representing heaven, earth, and humanity, and so it is called the Three-One.” (Inner Chapters, “The Truth of Earth”)
Here Ge Hong, through a theoretical exposition of “the Mysterious One,” takes the Taoist ontological ground, the Tao, and establishes “the One” as the highest ontological ground. His discussion of the One is not merely an inheritance in the traditional sense; through repeated explanation he places the One more firmly within the categories of Chinese philosophy. We know that “the one” and “the many” are important categories of philosophy. Hegel called the idea of the unity of the one and the many “a great principle.” As Habermas said: “The one and the many, as the abstract relation of identity and difference, form a basic relationship that metaphysical thought regards both as a logical relation and as a relation of being. The one is both principle and essence, both rule and origin. In the senses of justification and of genesis, the many derive from the one; because of this origin, the many appear as an ordered multiplicity.” We can thus see that the difference of the many is, by induction, ultimately reduced to the identity of the one, while the one, as the highest ontological ground, produces and displays the diversity of the many by continual deduction. If the one is the origin and exists independently, the many find concrete expression in the myriad things. Here I have borrowed the Western philosophical expression of the dialectic of the one and the many to show that Ge Hong's transmission of the One was not simple inheritance but a further promotion of the philosophical idea of the One—equal to the Tao, the highest principle of the universe, and the origin of all things.
It is worth noting that Ge Hong also placed great emphasis on the Way of the Three-One, which was a major theoretical transformation. In the Taoist view, the Tao derives from the One and runs through all beings of heaven, earth, and humanity, displaying its absolute value through the objectively existing human relations and kinds of things; it is therefore a whole, the diverse unity of the Three-One, which governs the life, death, survival, and movement and change of things.
Ge Hong turned this Three-One relationship from metaphysical theory into concrete practice. His method of guarding the One can be divided into “guarding the True One” and “guarding the Mysterious One.” Guarding the True One allows the practitioner to enter a state of meditating on the spirits and preserving the true, communicating with the spirits, and obtaining the root of long life. Guarding the Mysterious One guides the practitioner into a state of “mysterious mirroring” and inner contemplation, obtaining the way of dividing the form—that is, dividing from the physical form (one) to see the hun and po souls (three and seven). This is the transformation from “one” to “three,” a process from quantitative to qualitative change.
4. Essence: The Material Basis
Chinese philosophy offers no direct statement of what essence (essence-qi) is; it is explained within terms. The theory of essence-qi grew out of Laozi and Zhuangzi, who early on put forward the concepts of “essence” and “qi” in their writings but did not combine the two. The scholars of the Jixia Academy of the state of Qi, inheriting and reshaping the thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi and absorbing the achievements of the astronomy and medicine of their day, put forward the theory of essence-qi.
This was in fact the formal introduction of the theory of essence. I have summarized the relevant content of the Great Dictionary of Philosophy under roughly three headings: first, as a term of Chinese philosophy, it refers to subtle, numinous matter; second, as a term of Chinese medicine, it refers to one of the most basic substances of the body; third, as a Taoist term, it refers to the original essence in the body. Combining what these three explanations have in common, I offer a rough definition of essence (essence-qi): it is an extremely subtle substance existing within the body that plays a foundational role in a person's basic functions and activities.
Looking across Ge Hong's Inner Chapters, his view of essence seems closer to that of Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine holds that what constitutes the body is called “prior-heaven essence,” which has the function of reproduction, while what sustains life activity is “later-heaven essence,” the nutrients taken in from food, which are indispensable for sustaining life activity and the body's metabolism. The two are closely related: prior heaven is the root of later heaven, and later heaven in turn can replenish prior heaven.
As the root of life, when essence is sufficient, vitality is strong; when essence is deficient, vitality weakens. So physicians since ancient times have attended to nourishing and preserving the body's essence. For this very reason, Ge Hong placed great importance on essence and put forward the inner-alchemy health method of treasuring essence. He said: Nor may a person entirely cut off yin and yang. If yin and yang do not unite, one develops illnesses of blockage and obstruction; hence those who are shut away, resentful, and lonely are often ill and short-lived. Yet indulging the passions without restraint also harms one's years. Only by attaining the harmony of moderation and release can one avoid harm. (Inner Chapters, “Resolving Hindrances”) Two issues must be heeded in treasuring essence. The first is to avoid valuing it so excessively that one cuts off everything, which goes against a person's normal physiological needs and leads to stagnation of qi and blood. The second is undervaluing the importance of treasuring essence and indulging the passions and desires without restraint, which exhausts the true essence and ultimately shortens one's life. Only by achieving “the harmony of moderation and release,” with the union of yin and yang in due measure, can one avoid harm.
The inner-alchemy health teachings of early Taoism were highly scattered and fragmentary. Yet it was precisely these scattered fragments that gave later eminent Taoists the chance to organize and summarize them, continually combining the strengths of different schools to develop and perfect their own inner-alchemy systems. This was an extremely long process of development; one may say that the outer-alchemy era was in fact also a hidden era of inner alchemy.