Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism
Taoism sees nature, society, and the human body as a whole that shares one root and source, constituting and resonating with one another—a system through which the universe runs in its normal course. How humans, within nature and society, can keep their bodies healthy and their spirits calm and detached, not going against the workings of nature and creation, and not harmed by the changes and accidents of the human world—this is taken as the highest state of following, guarding, and cultivating the Tao. This thought was especially prominent in Tang-dynasty Taoism, and by the mid-Tang its methods of cultivation had taken many forms and reached a high level.
1. Food and Drink Are the Foundation of Human Nature and Life
The chapter “The Conveyance of Rites” in the Book of Rites says: “In food and drink and in men and women lie the great desires of humankind.” Appetite for food and sexual desire are humanity's two great desires, and of the two, food and drink outweigh the pursuit of sex, for they are the starting point for sustaining any living thing. The True Classic of Penetrating the Mystery (Tongxuan Zhenjing) says: “Food is the root of the people”; people cannot do without it for a single day.
Taoism holds that “human nature forms one body with heaven and earth” (in the words of Sima Chengzhen, an eminent Taoist of the Tang dynasty). The Tang-dynasty Diagrams of Tonifying and Draining the Five Zang Organs and Six Fu Organs According to the Inner Landscape of the Yellow Court says: “Heaven governs yang and feeds people with the five qi. Earth governs yin and feeds people with the five flavors. Qi and flavor resonate and bind together into the five zang organs; the qi of the five zang organs disperses into the four limbs, the sixteen parts, and the three hundred sixty joints, extends into the sinews and vessels, fluids, blood, and marrow, gathers into the six fu organs, the Triple Burner, and the twelve meridians, and opens into the nine orifices.” “The five flavors are the essence of the Five Phases” (Diagrams for Preserving Life Through the Four Qi), and the essence of the Five Phases is the numinous power of heaven and earth. So humans, receiving the numinous qi of heaven and earth and nature, become one of the Three Powers, and the human body becomes the vessel of a higher, spiritually endowed life. Food is the foundation of nature and life; but if one eats improperly and the five flavors are out of balance, food becomes the source of illness.
2. Taoist Eating Must Accord with the Tao and with Virtue
“The Conveyance of Rites” in the Book of Rites says: “Ritual began with food and drink.” The etiquette of eating is also part of the rules for members of the Taoist community. Those who set their hearts on the Tao must, on approaching a meal, set their hearts right and clarify their minds and keep in mind the spirits within the body. Before eating they should first think of those spirits, and then silently recite the incantation “Food nourishes life; heavenly spirits guard and protect” (Scripture of the Great Vows of the Four Directions of the Most High Cavern Mystery Numinous Treasure). After eating, they should also recite in their hearts the prayer: “The hundred grains enter the stomach, uniting spirit and qi. Carefully replenish blood and fluids, and let the corpse-demons fall away. Rise beyond the Golden Pass and live as long as heaven and earth. Command the Six Ding deities to attend and guard the numinous lad.” (Illustrated Secrets of the Five Dippers and the Three Ones of the Divine Lord of the Golden Portal of Highest Clarity)
In addition, Taoist priests must not speak while eating. As Perfected Sun Simiao's Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold for Emergencies (Beiji Qianjin Yaofang) says, quoting “Daolin's Nurturing of Nature”: “Do not speak while eating; eating while talking brings pain in the chest and back.” One must not make chewing noises while eating, must not drop food on the ground, and so on—the rules are many. This attention to etiquette bears the distinctive mark of religious faith.
Taoist dining etiquette places great importance on harmonizing eating with nature, and takes as the highest ideal of Taoist eating a dietary order that follows the cycle of the four seasons, the seasonal rhythm of daily life, the movement and stillness of one's conduct, and a suitable environment. This thought became the core of Taoist food culture. As the section “On Eating and Drinking” in the Essential Records for Preserving Life (Baosheng Yaolu) says: “Food and drink are what nourish a person's blood and qi. The blood makes the body flourish, and the qi guards the four limbs. The finest part becomes marrow and essence; the next becomes muscle and flesh. One should never wait until extremely hungry to eat, nor until extremely full to clear the table; one should always be as if full within hunger and hungry within fullness.” It also says: “One should feel hunger before eating and thirst before drinking, for one should not force oneself to eat or drink.” And it says: “One should not eat hot food first and then follow it with cold things, for cold and heat will surely clash and cause illness. In every meal, eat hot food first, then warm food, and only then a little cold food. In eating, what is too hot harms the stomach, and what is too cold harms the sinews.”
The same section of the Essential Records for Preserving Life also says: “Do not indulge one-sidedly in the things you like; indulging one-sidedly brings injury and illness. Do not entirely give up the flavors you dislike; giving them up entirely leaves the qi of the organs unbalanced.” And: “In none of the four seasons should one eat much of the flavor that is dominant or the flavor that restrains it, for both can harm the organ that is dominant. One should eat flavors that generate it, to aid the dominant qi. When the five zang organs are not harmed, the five qi are increased, eating and drinking are in due measure, and cold and warmth are suitable, then illness does not arise.”
In ancient China, Confucianism emphasized engagement with the world, Buddhism emphasized the heart and nature, and Taoism emphasized caring for the body; and in the historical development of health cultivation, Taoist medicine and cultivation of the Tao were the most important. Medicine aims chiefly at removing illness, and Taoism devotes itself to nurturing life. So the ancient ideas that “preserving life values the mysterious” and that “medicine and the Tao share one source” reflect a mechanism by which the two connect and support each other. That is why many famous Taoists in China were both renowned physicians and pharmacologists and eminent Taoist masters.
3. Taoist Eating Emphasizes “Harmonizing the Five Flavors” and “Valuing Treatment Through Food”
Taoist health cultivation is grounded in the daily life and diet of ordinary people, and focuses on “the benefits and harms of the five flavors” and on “using food to prevent and treat illness.”
Taoism holds that the physiological phenomena and pathological changes of the body all “are balanced with the two modes and correspond to the Five Phases” (Sima Chengzhen, Discourse on the Essential Meaning of Cultivating Perfection (Xiuzhen Jingyi Lun)), and that “the spirit takes in primordial qi, and the body eats the five flavors.” In daily life, in practice and cultivation, and in choosing food, Taoist priests all follow the laws of mutual generation and overcoming among “the unity of heaven and humanity,” the Five Phases (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth), the five flavors (pungent, sour, salty, bitter, sweet), the five zang organs (lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, spleen), and the five seasons (spring, summer, late summer, autumn, winter), and follow the patterns of correspondence of the five governed tissues (skin, sinews, bones, vessels, muscles), the five colors (white, green-blue, black, red, yellow), the five tones (shang, jue, yu, zhi, gong), the five sense organs (nose, eyes, ears, tongue, lips), the five fluids (nasal mucus, tears, spittle, sweat, drool), the five grains (broomcorn millet, hemp seed, rice, wheat, foxtail millet), the five fruits (peach, plum, chestnut, apricot, jujube), the five vegetables (scallion, Chinese chives, bean leaves, Chinese onion, mallow), and so on. This system of classification gathers together and sorts the natures and flavors of foods and their affinities with the body's five zang organs, meridians, and five sense organs, forming a system of the human body. This thought first arose in the Warring States period, was further systematized and refined after the Han dynasty, and became the cornerstone of traditional Chinese medical theory; it was later absorbed by Taoism and applied directly in daily life and in the practice of nurturing body and nature.
The understanding behind preventing and treating illness through food comes from this: “Food can expel evil and settle the organs, and spirit can refresh the will, so as to support blood and qi. For one who preserves life, when qi is upright the flavors are in accord; when the flavors are in accord, spirit and qi are clear; when spirit and qi are clear, the numinous power that unites with the true is complete; and when it is complete, the five evils and hundred illnesses cannot intrude.” (Words of Bian Que, the famous physician of the Warring States period)
“One who can use food to settle illness, release the emotions, and send disease away may be called a good physician. The extraordinary method of eating for long years into old age is the height of the art of nurturing life.” (Sun Simiao, the “King of Medicine,” Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold, “Treatment Through Food”) This thought goes back to the Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), compiled in the pre-Qin period. The Rites of Zhou divides the physicians of the time into four kinds: physicians of illness, dietary physicians, physicians of sores, and veterinarians. The “dietary physician,” ranked second, was the nutritionist in charge of the food hygiene of the king and nobles. His duty was “to take charge of harmonizing the king's six foods, six drinks, six dishes, hundred fine delicacies, hundred sauces, and eight treasures.” This was an important part of dietary health cultivation among the ancient ways of preserving life.
In the “Treatment Through Food” chapter of the Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold, Sun Simiao says: “When the body is balanced, one need only take good care of it and should not take medicine rashly. Of all breathing creatures, none does not depend on food to live, yet they do not know that food can bring success or failure. The foundation of a secure life must depend on food; the way of curing illness must rely on medicine. One who does not know what food is suitable cannot keep oneself alive; one who does not understand the taboos of medicines cannot remove illness. So one who preserves life must first thoroughly understand the source of illness and know what has been violated, and treat it with food. If dietary therapy does not cure it, only then prescribe medicine.” The overall principle is: “Harmonize the five flavors and value treatment through food; if dietary therapy does not cure, then apply medicine.”
4. Taoist Methods of Taking Water
The eminent Tang Taoist Sima Chengzhen writes in his Discourse on the Essential Meaning of Cultivating Perfection: “Water is the fluid of the primordial qi and the moisture of hidden yang. All things with form depend on it. So water is the mother of qi: when water is pure, qi is clear. Qi is the root of the body: when qi is harmonious, the body is at ease. Though the body's nutritive and defensive qi have their own inner fluids, the organs of the abdomen also rely on moisture from outside, which can open the belly and stomach and benefit the fluids and qi.” Among the ancient peoples of China, water was believed to have a purifying power; it was a holy and numinous substance.
In Taoism, the water commonly drunk includes well-flower water, incense water, talisman water, and incantation water.
Well-flower water (jinghua shui) is the first water drawn from a well or spring in the early morning. After drawing it, one must first stir it several dozen times and remove the white foam floating on top; only after it has settled can it be drunk. Clarified in this way, well-flower water is sweet in flavor and neutral in nature; it calms the spirit and settles the heart, clears heat and supports yin, and removes bad breath.
Incense water is holy water offered on the incense table of the deities, or settled water in which incense ash has been placed.
Talisman water refers either to water mixed with the ashes of burned talisman paper, of which, after it settles, one drinks the clear water on top; or to water in which talisman paper has been boiled, or boiled together with suitable Chinese medicines, and then drunk. Taoism holds that such water has the power to ward off evil and dispel calamity.
Incantation water is water over which an incantation has been performed. Like talisman water, it is believed to have special powers and effects.
The method of taking water has a long history. In chapter 4 of his Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies (Zhouhou Beiji Fang), Ge Hong of the Jin dynasty records a method of taking water, the “Prescription for Sudden Loss of Provisions, When One Is Starving, Exhausted, and Near Death.” The Song-dynasty General Records of Holy Universal Relief (Shengji Zonglu), chapter 198, in the section “Ingestion Methods of Divine Immortals: Prescription for Sudden Loss of Provisions, When One Is Starving and Exhausted and Near Death,” says: “When a practitioner suddenly finds himself deep in the mountains where no one lives, or has fallen into a ravine or a deep well with nothing to eat, he should swallow saliva, drink water, and ingest qi in place of food.” The Tang-dynasty Supplementary Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold (Qianjin Yifang) by Sun Simiao, chapter 13, “Prescriptions for Grain Avoidance and Taking Water,” includes an entry on “Taboos in Taking Water.” From the method of taking water developed the method of taking water, avoiding grain, and ingesting qi, which was quite popular from the Wei and Jin through the Tang and Five Dynasties.
5. The Taoist Method of “Dining on and Rinsing with Saliva”
The method of “dining on and rinsing with saliva” flourished in the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) school of Taoism around the Sui and Tang dynasties. It mainly refers to methods such as ingesting the “Cloud Sprouts of the Four Poles” and the “True Five Sprouts.” Ya here refers to the teeth (also written with the character for “sprout,” meaning the first shoots of growth), and “five” refers to the five directions of the natural world: east, west, south, north, and center.
Taoism links these five directions with the body's five zang organs and five sense organs, holding that “the east is green-blue; it enters and connects with the liver, opens into the eyes, and in the body is the vessels”; “the south is red; it enters and connects with the heart, opens into the tongue, and in the body is the blood”; “the center is yellow; it enters and connects with the spleen, opens into the mouth, and in the body is the flesh”; “the west is white; it enters and connects with the lungs, opens into the nose, and in the body is the skin”; and “the north is black; it enters and connects with the kidneys, opens into the two lower orifices, and in the body is the bones” (Discourse on the Essential Meaning of Qi Ingestion (Fuqi Jingyi Lun)). Therefore, every morning at dawn, one faces the five directions, draws in the morning qi, and takes it into the belly; then one stirs the tongue around the upper and lower mouth and the inner and outer surfaces of the teeth, puffing and rinsing with both cheeks again and again until the mouth fills with saliva, and then slowly swallows it. This “method of dining on and rinsing with saliva” is “the way of empty reflection and the work of what is so of itself”; guided by the idea of the unity of heaven and humanity, it is a practice of “taking from the essence of heaven and earth afar, and from one's own body near at hand.”
The method of ingesting the five sprouts is also called the drumming-and-rinsing exercise, or the method of ingesting the jade spring. Sun Simiao's Prescriptions Worth a Thousand in Gold, “Preface on Nurturing Nature,” says: “People should ingest the jade spring every morning; it makes them strong and gives them a good complexion. The jade spring is the saliva in the mouth. In the early morning before rising, rinse early with saliva until the mouth is full, then swallow it.” And Chao Yuanfang (a famous physician of the Sui dynasty) says in the Formulas for Nurturing Life: “Swallow it three times and stop. It kills parasites, tonifies deficiency and exhaustion, and makes one strong,” and “it treats a bitter, dry mouth.” From this we know that the method was already current before the Tang.