Shèshēng zuǎnlù 攝生纂錄
Anthological Record of Methods for Caring for Life
About the work
An anonymous Táng-period single-juǎn anthology of shèshēng 攝生 (caring-for-life) methods, organised thematically under Dǎoyǐn 導引 (gymnastic), Tùnà 吐納 (breath-and-air), Shíjì 食忌 (dietary taboos) and other sections, drawn from a wide range of earlier source-texts including the legendary attributions to Chìsōngzǐ 赤松子.
Abstract
The opening Dǎoyǐn piān 導引篇 (Gymnastic Chapter) begins with the Chìsōngzǐ zuòyǐn fǎ 赤松子坐引法 (“Master Red-Pine’s Seated-Stretching Method”): “Chángguì liǎngshǒu xiàngqián 長跪兩手向前” (“Kneel long, both hands forward, fingers spread”); follow with kneeling with hands at the waist; then with the right hand pulling backward and the left hand at the abdomen; in successive alternations. Performed regularly, “this Method makes the ears and eyes acute, prolongs the years, increases the life-span; the hundred ailments will not arise.”
The text continues with quotations from the Yǎngshēng yàojí 養生要集 (a now-lost Six-Dynasties / Táng compendium): “the Dǎoyǐn jīng 導引經 says — at clear-dawn before rising, first knock the teeth twice-seven times, close the eyes and clench the fists, rinse the throat with saliva, swallow it three times, hold the breath to the extremity, then slowly thrice tap the heels…“. Subsequent sections cover seated and standing postures, the morning bedside protocol, the fúqì 服氣 (qì-circulation) sequences and the shíjì (dietary cautions) catalogues.
Schipper & Verellen (Taoist Canon 2: 357–358, Catherine Despeux) date the work to the Táng — primarily because of its repertory of citations and its Tang-era anatomical idiom — and treat it as a key intermediary between the early-medieval yǎngshēng tradition and the Sòng-period systematisation.
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: 357–358 (DZ 578, Catherine Despeux).
- Despeux, Catherine. La moelle du phénix rouge. Paris: Editions Trédaniel, 1988 — for the broader dǎo-yǐn tradition.
- Sakade Yoshinobu 坂出祥伸. Chūgoku kodai yōjō shisō no sōgōteki kenkyū 中国古代養生思想の総合的研究. Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1988.