Chinese Healing Exercises: The Tradition of Daoyin

Chapter Two Officials, Hermits, and Ecstatics

Officials, Hermits, and Ecstatics 63 instead on interior palaces of body gods and various methods to activate divine connections. The latter two groups, moreover, provide the first documents that show how healing exercises expanded into religious dimensions. Why all this attention to long life and religious activity among southern aristocrats of the fourth century? What was their social and political situation at the time? What kinds of texts did they leave behind? What audience were they addressing ? And how did they adapt the exercises in accordance with their social position and overall goals? Aristocratic Endeavors The main event that predicates the new unfolding of the Daoyin tradition is the move of the imperial capital from the northern city of Chang’an 長安 (modern Xi’an 西安) to Jiankang 建康 in the south, the city on the southern bank of the Yangzi now known as Nanjing 南京. This move was caused by the invasion of Huns (Xiongnu 匈奴), who had come under economic and geographical pressure and were seeking additional space. Instead of peacefully tending their herds on the steppe, they came to ransack wide stretches of northern China with strong military power. Led by a group called Toba, the Huns consisted of a considerable federation of tribes who, in the course of the fourth century, extended their dominion over all of northern China. Ruling under the dynastic name of Wei 魏, they were gradually sinicized and came to spread their newly adopted creed of Buddhism in China, thus greatly contributing to the East Asian adaptation of the Indian religion. Far from stable and peaceful, however, the Toba rule was frequently shaken from within, both by rival chieftains rising in rebellion and by messianic Chinese cults spreading discontent and apocalyptic revolts.1 In 317, the Toba conquered the capital of the then-ruling Jin dynasty. The imperial court together with the army and large contingents of retainers as well as masses of ordinary people fled southeast, thereby transforming the dynasty from the Western to the Eastern Jin. Within a few years, they had settled in Jiankang , where they displaced the local administration of the province and filled all major positions with émigré northerners. Resident southern aristocrats could do nothing but return home to their landed estates, where they engaged in various cultured activities, some letting themselves go into gluttony and excess, others turning to long-life and religious practices. Newly installed northerners and those southerners who still hoped for official employment were eager to stay healthy and keep active so they could enjoy 1. For more on Toba history, see Eberhard 1949, Warshaw 1987. 64 Chinese Healing Exercises their power. They pursued personal health and well-being and on occasion discovered new, interesting ways of living it up without getting too seedy and debauched . Disenfranchised and disappointed southern aristocrats, on the other hand, turned their backs on society. Some began to learn longevity and alchemical techniques that might lead to otherworldly dimensions, enhanced personal powers, and eventual ascent to the higher spheres. Others sought official rank and appointments in newly discovered heavens of high quality, creating status well beyond the petty positions to be had in the northern-infested capital. The sources we have on healing exercises echo these three main tendencies. Officials The health practices of officials in service or in waiting are mainly documented in the Yangsheng yaoji 養生要集 (Long Life Compendium) by the aristocrat and official Zhang Zhan 張湛. He is best known as the first and most important commentator to theDaoistphilosophicaltextLiezi列子 (BookofMasterLie;trl.Graham1960),which supportsasimilarviewofthebodyastheYangshengyaoji(seeSakade1986a,10;Kohn forthcoming).2 ZhangZhan,alsocalledChudu處度,doesnothaveabiographyinthe dynastichistoriesdespitethefactthathewroteseveralphilosophicalcommentariesin the Profound Learning (Xuanxue 玄學) tradition of Daoism, authored two compendia on longevity practices, served as imperial secretary under the Eastern Jin, and was born into a family of senior officials under the Western Jin (Despeux 1989, 228). Rather, information about him is anecdotal, some found in the story collection Shishuo xinyu 世說新語 (A New Account of Tales of the World; trl. Mather 1976), some in the biographies of contemporary officials and later descendants. According to these sources, Zhang Zhan was philosophically minded and a follower of Dark Learning thinkers such as the Zhuangzi commentator Guo Xiang 郭象, whom he frequently cites in his Liezi commentary. He also had medical knowledge and was eager to improve the qi in his residence by planting various kinds of pine trees. The Jinshu 晉書 (History of the Jin Dynasty) biography of Fan Ning 范寧 further mentions that he was susceptible to eyestrain, for which he took...