Língjiànzǐ yǐndǎo zǐwǔ jì 靈劍子引導子午記
Numinous-Sword Master’s Record of Calisthenic Postures at the Hours of Zǐ and Wǔ attributed to 許遜 (許旌陽, 述)
About the work
A single-juǎn calisthenic-and-respiration manual attributed in the Daoist canon to Xǔ Sūn (許遜) under the title Xǔ Jīngyáng 許旌陽. The text is the companion volume to KR5b0275 (Língjiànzǐ) and gives the practical yǐndǎo 引導 (gymnastic-and-breath) exercises to be performed at the canonical hours of zǐ 子 (midnight) and wǔ 午 (noon), under which yin and yang are in counter-rotation.
Abstract
The text opens with the zǐshí 子時 (midnight) practice: “Yèbàn zǐ shǎoyáng zhī qì shēng yú yīnfēn, yūshēn zhuǎnchè…” 夜半子少陽之氣生於陰分，紆伸轉掣 (“At midnight zǐ hour, the shǎoyáng qì arises within the yīn portion; therefore one stretches, twists and pulls”). It is set on the Hùnyuán jīng 混元經 doctrine that the xūhàizǐ triad (the three hours immediately before and at midnight) is when the yīn qì arises and the practitioner sleeps; sleep stagnates qì in the joints; hence the yǎngshēng tradition’s rule of “shuì bù yàn suō, jué bù yàn shēn” 睡不厭縮覺不厭伸 (“in sleep one cannot too much contract; in waking one cannot too much stretch”).
A series of postures is then prescribed. The Gǔfù táoqì 鼓腹淘氣 (“Drum the belly and stir the qì”) method: close the eyes, face upward, place both hands at the breasts, kneel sideways with both knees, raise the waist and back, drum the qì-ocean, breathe in and out internally so that one passes nine and then twice-nine breaths; the Yǒngshēn lìngqǐ 踴身令起 (“spring the body to make it rise”): sit straight, cross both hands behind the neck, gaze upward and lift the head. Further postures cover specific organ-systems and seasonal applications.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 769, John Lagerwey) treat the work as the practical-calisthenic complement to KR5b0275. The text is a useful witness to the early-Sòng integration of yǐndǎo gymnastics with the developing nèidān 內丹 inner-alchemical idiom.
Translations and research
- Schipper, Kristofer, and Franciscus Verellen, eds. The Taoist Canon: A Historical Companion to the Daozang. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Vol. 2: 769 (DZ 571, John Lagerwey).
- Despeux, Catherine. Taoïsme et corps humain: Le Xiuzhen tu. Paris: Guy Trédaniel, 1994 — for the broader yǐn-dǎo tradition.