La Respiration Embryonnaire Et Les Methodes Du Souffle: Sept Ecrits Taoistes Des Tang (618-907)

Translated here are the writings on "breath methods" (qifa), dating mostly from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), which were incorporated into the Ming Taoist Canon. They set out procedures for nourishing life, very popular in the Tang and later periods. These methods consist mainly of gymnastic movements (daoyin), self-massage, diets such as abstinence from grains (bigu), various ways of breathing (tuna), ingesting the breath (fuqi), circulating the internal breath with visualizations of its paths or diffusion in various regions of the body (xingqi), and the use of the breath (yongqi) to heal oneself or others. The techniques mentioned there take root from the end of the Warring States, around the 4th century BC, to reach their peak under the Tang, not without having received the influence of Buddhist techniques of breathing (anapana), visualizations of the body and concentration (dhyana), from the Six Dynasties (3rd - 6th century ). After the Tang, not only will they be part, in the Taoist context, of individual practices of internal alchemy and certain rituals, but they will also spread even more than before in literary and medical circles. Under the Song, the Ming and the Qing, these methods of breathing will be included in medical works and in compilations of scholars, with the aim of "nourishing life", of maintaining good health, or even of treating certain symptoms. Nowadays, they have been mostly simplified and have become one of the bases of what is called qigong.