Records of Nourishing Nature and Extending Life养性延命录

Also known as

Records of Nourishing Life and Extending the Lifespan

Author / transmission

Tao Hongjing

Period

Liang of the Southern Dynasties · Traditionally attributed to Tao Hongjing (456–536), with some attributing its compilation to Sun Simiao; probably compiled in the Southern Dynasties period, in two fascicles.

Canon division

Dongshen Section, Methods (Fangfa) category

Collected in

Zhengtong Daozang, Dongshen Section, Fangfa category.

Category

Medicine and Nourishing Life

Fascicles

2 juan

Synopsis

Records of Nourishing Nature and Extending Life is the most systematic surviving compendium of life-nourishing arts from the Six Dynasties, divided into six sections: Admonitions, Dietary Admonitions, Miscellaneous Admonitions and Prohibitions for Averting Harm and Seeking Good Fortune, Ingesting Qi and Healing Illness, Daoyin and Massage, and The Benefits and Harms of Sexual Congress. The work compiles the teachings of earlier figures found in the Huangdi Neijing, the Laozi, the Zhuangzi, the Baopuzi, the Yangsheng yaoji, and the writings of Zhang Zhan, Ji Kang, Pengzu, and the 'Blue Ox' Daoist (Qingniu Daoshi), asserting that 'the essentials of nourishing life are ten: first, conserving spirit; second, cherishing qi; third, nourishing the physical form; fourth, daoyin; fifth, guarding one's speech; sixth, diet; seventh, sexual congress; eighth, going against vulgar custom; ninth, medicine; tenth, taboos,' and emphasizing that 'the reason people fall ill so often is that they are unable to nourish their nature.' The Six-Syllable Breath Formula recorded in the text (xu, he, hu, si, chui, xi) is the earliest complete record of this practice to survive, and the Five Animal Frolics of Hua Tuo and daoyin exercises such as 'the wolf crouching and the owl gazing back' are likewise preserved thanks to this work. Building on the occult arts of the Han and Wei and opening the way for the life-nourishing scholarship of the Tang and Song, the text is a shared classical source for both Chinese-medical life-nourishing theory and Daoist inner cultivation, cited without interruption by physicians and alchemists across the centuries.

Key Ideas

• A compendium of Six Dynasties life-nourishing arts in six sections
• The ten essentials of nourishing life: conserving spirit, cherishing qi, nourishing the physical form, and others
• The earliest complete record of the Six-Syllable Breath Formula
• The Five Animal Frolics and daoyin-and-massage methods
• A shared source for Chinese-medical life-nourishing and Daoist inner cultivation

Structure

Two fascicles in six sections: Admonitions; Dietary Admonitions; Miscellaneous Admonitions and Prohibitions; Ingesting Qi and Healing Illness; Daoyin and Massage; The Benefits and Harms of Sexual Congress.

Editions

• Zhengtong Daozang edition
• Zhonghua Daozang edition
• Critical edition published by the People's Medical Publishing House

Commentaries

• Ding Guangdi, Yangxing yanming lu jiaozhu

Translations

• Portions appear in Livia Kohn, Chinese Healing Exercises (2008)

Full Text & Online Resources

• Wikisource: Records of Nourishing Nature and Extending Life
• CTEXT: search

Related scriptures

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