“Taoism and Medicine in Harmony”: The Taoist Culture of Nurturing Life Through Medicine and Food

Hu Ketao

One scholar has observed: “Over more than a thousand years of historical development, Taoism and traditional medicine formed a two-way mechanism of mutual integration, mutual absorption, and mutual promotion.” [1] “Taoism and medicine in harmony” runs through the traditional Taoist ideas of nurturing life through medicine and food.

1. An Analysis of the Features of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

Taoism and Chinese medicine have a certain kinship. Taoist health cultivation through medicine and food clearly draws on some of the basic guiding ideas of Chinese medicine:

First, the Unity of Heaven and Humanity Is the Philosophical Foundation of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

The Taoist theory of nurturing life through medicine and food rests on drawing analogies between heaven and humanity. In the Taoist view, heaven and earth give birth to humans, and humans receive the numinous qi of heaven and earth, so they are the most precious of all beings. Since humans are the quintessence of heaven and earth, it naturally follows that the finest minerals, plants, and even animals between heaven and earth can be used to nourish life. From this Taoism developed the idea of “eat a thing to strengthen the same thing in yourself.” At the same time, Taoism understood heaven and earth as the macrocosm and the human body as the microcosm, and advocated following the laws of heaven by eating health-giving medicines or foods that match the succession of the four seasons. These ideas are undoubtedly products of the simple Taoist thinking of the unity of heaven and humanity.

Second, Yin-Yang and the Five Phases Are the Core Idea of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

The theory of yin and yang and the Five Phases was not only accepted by traditional medicine but also absorbed by Taoism. Taoism holds not only that illness in the body results from disharmony between yin and yang, but also that different medicines are yin or yang in nature and, when applied to the body, either nourish yin or strengthen yang. The Five Phases are matched not only with objective things in nature, such as the five fruits, five grains, five domestic animals, and five vegetables, but also with the body's organs and even subjective sensations, such as the five zang organs and the five flavors. On this basis, Five Phases theory was combined with yin-yang theory to explain the principles of nurturing life through medicine and food.

The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing) divides the five flavors into two groups according to their yin or yang nature: pungent, sweet, and bland flavors are yang, while sour, bitter, and salty flavors are yin. If the use of medicines and foods keeps yin and yang in balance and the five flavors in harmony, it will yield good health benefits.

Third, the Way of Centrality and Harmony Is the Methodological Principle of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

The way of centrality and harmony is not unique to Confucianism; it is in fact one of the important features of traditional culture. In Taoist thought on nurturing life, the way of centrality and harmony means arranging one's diet sensibly according to the nature of the body, medicines, and foods, and according to time and place. The principle of eating is: neither hungry nor full, neither too much nor too little, neither excess nor deficiency. One of the “twelve harms” set out in the chapter “Utmost Words” of the Baopuzi (Inner Chapters) is “harm from food”: “Do not wait until extremely hungry to eat, and do not eat to excess; do not wait until extremely thirsty to drink, and do not drink too much. Overeating forms knots and accumulations; overdrinking forms phlegm and fluid retention.” [2]

Moreover, the reason Taoist health cultivation through medicine and food lays down all kinds of dietary taboos is to control and regulate the quantity, timing, and frequency of food intake, keeping the physiological and nutritional systems in balance so as to maintain health.

Fourth, Inner and Outer Cultivation Together Is the Basic Principle of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

In the Tang dynasty, Sun Simiao gathered and prepared medicines himself and collected proven and secret folk remedies, while bringing health practices such as breath regulation, massage, daoyin (guiding and pulling exercises), and qi circulation into the scope of medicine, enriching the content of inner and outer cultivation in Taoist medicine. He proposed that daoyin exercises before meals could stimulate the appetite; likewise, daoyin and massage after meals aid digestion and make the body feel comfortable. In the use of medicines and foods, Taoist medicine opposes excessive reliance on drugs, instead using its religious strengths to reinforce a person's own agency and help medicines take better effect.

The Scripture of Great Peace (Taiping Jing) contains methods and formulas to accompany the use of medicines and foods, such as the “Method of Warding Off Calamity with Music,” the “Formula of Divine Incantation Texts,” and the “Formula for Saving the Dying Through Fasting and Meditation on the Spirits.” Through inner and outer cultivation together, Taoist medicine breaks through the limits of treatment by medicine and food alone and takes into account all kinds of subjective and objective factors, thereby displaying the distinctive character of Taoist medicine and health cultivation.

Fifth, Treating Both Root and Branch Is the Ultimate Aim of Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food

The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic established the principle of “treating illness before it arises,” giving disease prevention an extremely important place. From the standpoint of nurturing life through medicine and food, “food first, medicine after” is broadly affirmed by both traditional Chinese medicine and Taoism. Taoism in particular, driven by the idea of becoming an immortal through ingestion, developed the art of ingesting elixirs and drugs, that is: “selecting minerals and plants, along with a small number of animal-derived medicines and foods, which after processing, combining, and preparation are made into elixirs or prescriptions, taken mainly internally to act on the body, so as to lighten the body, benefit qi, extend life, transcend the world, and even achieve ‘immortality.’” [3]

In his Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies (Beiji Qianjin Yaofang), Sun Simiao also devoted a separate chapter to “Treatment Through Food,” setting out the principle that “a physician must first thoroughly understand the source of the illness and know what has been violated, and treat it with food; only if dietary therapy fails should he prescribe medicine.” [4] From the standpoint of prevention and health care, he systematically summarized the medicinal diet formulas handed down through the ages, including formulas for nurturing life taken directly from Taoism.

2. The Contributions and Role of the Taoist Culture of Nurturing Life in Which “Taoism and Medicine Are in Harmony”

Taoist health cultivation through medicine and food has made a twofold contribution to Chinese health culture. On the one hand, it developed a distinctiveness that sets it apart from other Chinese health cultures and became an organic part of Chinese health culture. In the course of Taoism's development, it not only formed distinctive schools of nurturing life, such as the dietetic school and the alchemical cauldron school, but also developed a whole range of health techniques, such as “yellow and white” alchemy, grain avoidance (bigu), and taking medicines and foods combined with talismans and incantations. On the other hand, Taoist exploration in nurturing life through medicine and food greatly broadened and enriched Chinese materia medica and the study of formulas.

According to the properties of medicines and foods, Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin listed three kinds of immortality drugs: first, metal and mineral drugs; second, jade fungi; and third, herbal and woody drugs with tonifying effects, such as poria (fuling), rehmannia root, ophiopogon root (maimendong), goji berries, asparagus root (tianmendong), pine and cypress resin, pine nuts, and sweet chrysanthemum.

Tao Hongjing of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, in his Collected Commentaries on the Classic of Materia Medica (Bencao Jing Jizhu), separated food materia medica from drug materia medica, promoting the later emergence of specialized works on dietary materia medica and giving an important push to the spread of dietary therapy among the people.

By the Tang dynasty, dietary therapy was flourishing. In the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies, Sun Simiao devoted special chapters to “Treatment Through Food” and “Dietary Therapy for the Elderly,” laying a good foundation for the formation and development of the study of dietary therapy. A contemporary scholar, discussing the influence of Taoist medicines and foods, specifically pointed out: “China's traditional literature on nurturing life through ingestion provides an extremely rich source of material for today's research on anti-aging drugs … As Chinese medicine goes out to the world, the ancient Chinese Taoist arts of nurturing life through ingestion will surely make a positive contribution to the health and longevity of all humanity!” [5]

In Taoist fasting, grain avoidance is an important aid to practice. Some forms of grain avoidance are combined with qi ingestion, achieving grain avoidance by ingesting qi; others substitute medicines and foods for grain, such as eating ginseng, honey, poria, jujubes, and other nourishing substances. Of course, there is no consensus on whether grain avoidance can bring long life; Ge Hong in the Baopuzi expressed reservations about it. Even so, as an important part of Taoist health culture, grain avoidance still deserves further study and exploration.

After the Tang dynasty, the Taoist school of ingesting elixirs and drugs declined, but its methods and theories were absorbed by traditional physicians and made into many kinds of preparations, such as pastes, elixirs, pills, powders, and decoctions. Taoist priests, following traditional Chinese medicine, drew some metal and mineral preparations from outer alchemy (waidan) and combined them with inner alchemy for their own daily health care. Looking at the works on nurturing life through medicine and food that appeared after the Tang, it is not hard to see that Taoist health cultivation through medicine and food developed by absorbing and merging with the dietary therapy ideas of Chinese medicine.

Works such as the Essentials of Food and Drink (Yinshan Zhengyao) by Hu Sihui and the Materia Medica for Daily Use (Riyong Bencao) by Wu Rui in the Yuan dynasty, and in the Ming dynasty the Eight Discourses on Following Life (Zunsheng Bajian) by Gao Lian, the Materia Medica of Foods (Shiwu Bencao) by Lu He, the Materia Medica for Famine Relief (Jiuhuang Bencao) compiled under Zhu Su, and the Compendium of Materia Medica (Bencao Gangmu) by Li Shizhen, either absorbed the health cultivation ideas of earlier Taoists such as Ge Hong, Tao Hongjing, and Sun Simiao, or took earlier Taoist scriptures as their commentary. It can be said that the body of classics shaped by early Huang-Lao Taoism laid the common foundation for later Taoist dietary health cultivation and Chinese dietary therapy, and determined the pattern of their mutual integration throughout history.

3. Taoism and Medicine in Harmony: From Taoist Health Cultivation Through Medicine and Food to Health Cultivation Through Chinese Medicine

Taoist health cultivation through medicine and food takes attaining the Tao and becoming an immortal as its ultimate goal and has a transcendent, religious character. Chinese medicine takes treating illness and saving lives as its goal and has a secular character. Because they were sustained by religious spirit, Taoist priests persevered in refining elixirs no matter how dangerous or costly it was; at the same time, because Taoism holds to the belief that life can be limitless, it always put nurturing life before treating illness.

One scholar has observed: “In Taoist pharmacology, the drugs that secular Chinese pharmacology uses to treat illness are called ‘lower drugs,’ while drugs that prolong life are called ‘upper drugs,’ and these are linked with the ‘yellow and white’ arts of outer alchemy. Taoist medicine and pharmacology are wrapped in the atmosphere of Taoist theology and treat strengthening the body and warding off illness as preparation for becoming an immortal by taking elixirs.” [6] Chinese medicine, by contrast, holds that medicine and health cultivation can treat illness but cannot preserve life, let alone confer immortality. So it takes preventing illness, treating illness, and maintaining health as its aim and starting point. Of course, precisely because the two are each independent, they have flourished in their different ways and developed in different directions.

Since modern times, Chinese medicine has faced the danger of being marginalized, and there have even been debates over “whether to abolish or preserve Chinese medicine.” Against this background, Chinese medicine needs to maintain its own independence and integrate its internal elements, so as to better promote the transformation of traditional Chinese medicine into modern Chinese medicine. In fact, the theory and practice of “Taoism and medicine in harmony” may offer a workable path for the development of Chinese medicine.

As for nurturing life through medicine and food, the deterioration of the ecological environment in modern society and the limitations of large-scale artificial cultivation have reduced the potency of Chinese medicinal herbs. Here, herbs gathered by Taoist priests may be more natural and preserve more of the character of traditional Chinese medicine. Thus the development of Taoist medicine can be seen as an important supplementary force in the development of modern Chinese medicine. Modern medicine holds that diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease are all related to fat accumulation, vascular aging, and raised blood sugar caused by overeating; appropriately eating less or fasting is therefore very beneficial to the health of such patients, which partly confirms the scientific basis of Taoist theories of nurturing life through medicine and food. So Taoist health techniques such as grain avoidance, ingesting elixirs and drugs, and daoyin can be appropriately promoted.

In addition, Taoism has a natural advantage in faith healing, as in its emphasis on the clarity and stability of the spirit and mind in the course of nurturing life through medicine and food. Tapping Taoism's cultural resources and exploring its applications in spiritual care and even grief counseling is a project well worth pursuing.

Within the modern medical system, Taoist medicine is a force that cannot be ignored in enabling Chinese medicine to develop well in modern society. The harmony of Taoism and medicine is not only an important feature of traditional medicine but also the necessary path for the promotion and development of Chinese medicine.

(Hu Ketao, research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, China University of Mining and Technology)

[1] [3] Gai Jianmin, Taoist Medicine (Daojiao Yixue), Religious Culture Publishing House, 2001, pp. 337 and 349.

[2] Wang Ming, Collated and Annotated Baopuzi Inner Chapters (Baopuzi Neipian Jiaoshi), Zhonghua Book Company, 1985, p. 245.

[4] [Tang] Sun Simiao, Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies (Beiji Qianjin Yaofang), Huaxia Publishing House, 2008, p. 463.

[5] Tan Dianbo et al., eds., Taoist Health Cultivation (Daojiao Yangsheng), Yuelu Press, 1993, p. 31.

[6] Hu Fuchen, An Introduction to Inner Alchemy and the Arts of Immortality (Dandao Xianshu Rumen), Social Sciences Academic Press, 2009, p. 44.