Yang Sheng: The art of Chinese self-healing

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One key focus of Chinese Medicine is the idea that disease prevention is the superior form of medicine. The "Taoist Untruths" chapter describes Daoist grain-free diets in terms of bigu (辟穀, "avoiding grains") and shiqi (食氣, "eat/ingest breath"). As we say in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), “Where there is harmony and free flow of qi and blood, there is good health and longevity. Zhang Shijia, a regular consumer of Genki Forest, said drinking sugar-free water gave her the impression that she was leading a disciplined lifestyle.

Methods of waiyang (外養, "outer nourishment") include xianyao (仙藥, "herbs of immortality"), bigu (辟穀, "avoiding grains"), fangzhongshu (房中術, "bedchamber arts"), jinzhou (禁咒, "curses and incantations"), and fulu (符籙, "talismanic registers") (Theobald 2010).The meaning must certainly be that the fluid-eaters breathe, inhaling and exhaling, emitting the old air and taking in the new. A person’s life ( sheng) is sustained by three “treasures,” or principles: jing (“essence”), qi (“vital breath”), and shen (“spirit”). The number of medical texts increased significantly from 36 in the Catalog of the Imperial Library of the Han to 256 in the Catalog of the Imperial Library of the Sui (Yang 2002: 111-112). Many Taoists hold that by regulating one's breath one can nourish one's nature [導氣養性], pass into another state of being, and become immortal. The Daoyin tu (導引圖, "Gymnastics Chart") above contains color illustrations of human figures performing therapeutic gymnastics.

The polymath Ji Kang (223-262), one of the Daoist Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, wrote a text titled Yangsheng lun (飬生論, "Essays on Nourishing Life"). Yang Sheng should be an ongoing process of health maintenance that we apply over the course of our life. He is a firm believer in the philosophy to live in accordance with nature and grow with natural life cycles. Along the development of Neo-Confucianism and the growth of syncretism among Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1636–1912) periods, a number of ethical elements were incorporated into yangsheng (Despeux 2008: 1150). Qi, the foundation of blood, animates and powers the entire body and muscles, nerve flow and immune system.

Simon's specific responsibilities include representing the interests of Professor Zhang in England, accrediting instructors on his behalf, facilitating opportunities for interested practitioners to work with Professor Zhang in Europe and China, the maintenance and promotion of teaching and learning standards within the Association and with membership. With all due respect to the author (and Chinese medicine), go for something perhaps less colourful but more substantive. This book manages to oversimplify practices that have been around for thousands of years (practices followed by different groups of people with different cultural backgrounds interestingly enough) to an extent that makes the reader feel stupid. The Huainanzi uses the term yangxing (養性, "nourishing one's inner nature") to denote mind-body techniques such as dietary regimens, breathing meditation, and macrobiotic yoga.

What I saw was impressive health potential as these elders appeared to be really fit, possessing good muscle tone, balance, movement with grace, and possessing a calming sense of peace. It’s about finding a range of techniques or healthy habits that appeal to you and fit comfortably with your lifestyle.

Some of the recognizable captions refer to the names of exercises, such as xiongjing (熊經, "bear hangs") and niaoshen (鳥伸, "bird stretches"), mentioned in the Zhuangzi and other texts below (Engelhardt 2000: 86). Even more appealing, a key principle of Chinese medicine is balance; that means not being perfect or excluding foods or having too many rules or pushing yourself to exhaustion with overwork or over-exercise. The circa first century BCE Huangdi Neijing ("Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor") discusses varied healing therapies, including medical acupuncture, moxibustion, and drugs as well as life-nourishing gymnastics, massages, and dietary regulation.

In everything pertaining to the nurturing of life [養生] one must learn much and make the essentials one's own; look widely and know how to select. According to Chinese Medicine, one of the most effective ways to stay healthy is to adopt a lifestyle that harmonizes with the changing seasons. Paida Gong exercises are a series of Qigong postures for each of the 12 channels - this demonstrates Kidney Channel. The theories and methods of disease prevention are known as Yang Sheng養生/养生, literally Nourishing Life.

I understand that it is very hard to explain such "foreign" concepts and exercises simple and clearly. Helped principally by the invaluable efforts of Richard and Simon Watson, of the Longfei Tai Ji Quan Association, the English Dao Yin Yang Sheng Gong Association is a thriving one. The Association has four clear aims:-• To acknowledge Professor Zhang as the ultimate authority in all matters relating to Dao Yin Yang Sheng Gong.