Xingqi (circulating breath)

Ge Hong's 4th-century Baopuzi (below) quotes Shiji 128 with a different version of this tortoise-bed legend [江淮閒居人為兒時 以龜枝床 至後老死 家人移床 而龜故生], with young rather than old men.

When the men living between the Yangtze and the Huai are young, they place their beds on tortoises, and their families do not remove the beds until those boys have died of old age." Thus, these animals have lived at least fifty or sixty years, and, given that they can dispense this long with food or drink and still not die, it shows that they are far different from common creatures. Why should we doubt that they can last a thousand years? Isn't there good reason for the Genii Classics to suggest we imitate the breathing of the tortoise? (3, tr. Ware 1966: 56-57)

Another interpretation is putting a tortoise into, rather than on a bed. "It is allegedly common in the area of the Yangtse and the Huai to put a tortoise into the bed in childhood; when people die of old age, the tortoise is still alive. (tr. Eberhard 1968: 321). This Baopuzi context repeatedly mentions cranes and tortoises (Chinese exemplars of longevity) using daoyin calisthenics without xingqi. For instance, "Knowing the great age attained by tortoises and cranes, he imitates their calisthenics so as to augment his own life span" (Ware 1966: 53); "Therefore, God's Men merely ask us to study the method by which these animals extend their years through calisthenics and to model ourselves on their eschewing of starches through the consumption of breath" (1966: 58); "the tortoise and the crane have a special understanding of calisthenics and diet" (1966: 59).

The c. 2nd-century to 1st-century BCE

The c. 1st-century CE Baihu Tong text, which is traditionally attributed to Ban Gu (32–92 CE), frequently mentions the Wuxing (Five Elements or Five Phases). Tianxingqi (天行氣, Heavenly Circulation of Qi) occurs in The Five Elements section explaining the xing (行) in wuxing: "What is meant by the 'Five Elements' wu-hsing [五行]? Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The word hsing is used to bring out the meaning that [in accordance] with Heaven the fluids have been 'put into motion' hsing [天行氣]." (tr. Tjan 1952: 429). Wuxingqi (五行氣, Five-Phases Qi) occurs in the "Instinct and Emotion" section: "Why are there five Instincts [五性] and six Emotions [六情]? Man by nature lives by containing the fluids of the Six Pitch-pipes [六律] and the Five Elements [五行氣]. Therefore, he has in [his body] the Five Reservoirs [五藏] and the Six Storehouses [六府], through which the Instincts and Emotions go in and out." (tr. Tjan 1952: 566).

Six dynasties

The historical term "

The c. 3rd-4th century Huangting jing (黃庭經, "Scripture of the Yellow Court") contrasts the respiration of ordinary people and Daoists inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth. Ordinary people's breath supposedly descends from the nose to the kidneys, traverses the Five Viscera (kidneys, heart, liver, spleen, and lungs), then the Six Receptacles (gall bladder, stomach, large intestine, small intestine, triple burner, and bladder), where it is blocked by the "Origin of the Barrier, [guanyuan 關元, the Bl-26 acupuncture point], the double door of which is closed with a key and guarded by the gods of the spleen, both clad in red," whereupon the breath rises to the mouth and is exhaled (Maspero 1981: 341). Daoist adepts knew how to control their breath to open these doors and lead it to the Lower Cinnabar Field or Ocean of Breath [qihai 氣海], three inches below the navel.

Then is the moment of "leading the breath", [xingqi], in such a way that "the breaths of the Nine Heavens (= the inhaled air), which have entered the man's nose, make the tour of the body and are poured into the Palace of the Brain". The "breath is led" by Interior Vision, [neiguan], thanks to which the Adept sees the inside of his own body and, concentrating his thought, steers the breath and guides it, following it by sight through all the veins and passages of the body. Thus it is led where one wishes. If one is sick (that is, if some passage inside the body is obstructed and hampers the regular passage of air), that is where one leads it to reestablish circulation, which produces healing.

The adept then circulates the Ocean of Breath to ascend the spinal column into the Upper Cinnabar Field (brain), go back down to the Middle Cinnabar Field (heart), when it is expelled by the lungs and goes out through the mouth. (Maspero 1981: 342).

The Jin dynasty Daoist scholar Ge Hong's 318 Baopuzi ("Master Who Embraces Simplicity") frequently mentions xingqi; written (行氣, with the standard qi character) 13 times and (行炁, with the qi variant character typically used in magical Daoist talismans) 11 times. In this text, the term xingqi "loosely designates various practices in which breath is swallowed and then systematically circulated (often guided by visualization) throughout the body. Such practices were often understood as substituting pure cosmic pneumas for ordinary foods (especially grains and meats) as the staples of one's diet." (Campany 2002: 133). In several of Ge Hong's discussions of the sexual arts of self-cultivation, his consistent position is that they, "along with the circulation of pneumas, are necessary supplements [bu 補] to the ingestion of elixirs for the attainment of transcendence." (Campany 2002: 31).

Chapter 8 (釋滯 "Resolving Hesitations") provides more detailed information about xingqi than any other Baopuzi chapter. First, breath circulation should be practiced along with controlling ejaculation and taking Daoist drugs.

If you wish to seek divinity or geniehood [i.e., xian transcendence], you need only acquire the quintessence, which consists in treasuring your sperm [寶精], circulating your breaths [行炁], and taking one crucial medicine [服一大藥]. That is all! There are not a multitude of things to do. In these three pursuits, however, one must distinguish between the profound and the shallow. You cannot learn all about them promptly unless you meet with a learned teacher and work very, very hard. Many things may be dubbed circulation of the breaths, but there are only a few methods for doing it correctly. Other things may be dubbed good sexual practice, but its true recipe involves almost a hundred or more different activities. Something may be dubbed a medicine to be taken, but there are roughly a thousand such prescriptions. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 138).

Second, Ge Hong lists the supernatural powers of xingqi and connects it with taixi embryonic breathing.

Through circulation of the breaths [行炁] illnesses can be cured, plague need not be fled, snakes and tigers can be charmed, bleeding from wounds can be halted, one may stay under water or walk on it, be free from hunger and thirst, and protract one's years. The most important part of it is simply to breathe like a fetus [胎息]. He who succeeds in doing this will do his breathing as though in the womb, without using nose or mouth, and for him the divine Process has been achieved. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 138-139),

Third, he describes how a beginning xingqi breath circulation practitioner should count their heartbeats to measure time during biqi (閉氣, "breath holding").

When first learning to circulate the breaths, one inhales through the nose and closes up that breath. After holding it quietly for 120 heartbeats [approximately 90 seconds], it is expelled in tiny quantities through the mouth. During the exhalations and inhalations one should not hear the sound of one's own breathing, and one should always exhale less than one inhales. A goose feather held before the nose and mouth during the exhalations should not move. After some practice the number of heartbeats may be increased very gradually to one thousand [approx. 12 minutes 30 seconds], before the breath is released. Once this is achieved, the aged will become one day younger each day. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 138-139; times estimated by Needham 1983: 143-144)

The current world record for static apnea (without prior breathing of 100% oxygen) is 11 minutes and 35 seconds (Stéphane Mifsud, 8 June 2009).

Fourth, using the ancient Chinese daily division between shengqi (生炁, "living breath", from midnight to noon) and siqi (死炁, "dead breath", from noon to midnight), it warns, "The circulating of the breaths must be done at an hour when breath is alive, not when it is dead. … No benefit is derived from practicing the circulating when breath is dead." (8, tr. Ware 1966: 139). Fifth, Ge advises maintaining moderation and tells an anecdote about his great-uncle Ge Xuan (164-244), a legendary Daoist who first received the Lingbao School scriptures.

It must be admitted, however, that it is man's nature to engage in multiple pursuits and he is little inclined to the peace and quiet requisite to the pursuit of this process. For the circulation of the breaths it is essential that the processor refrain from overeating. When fresh vegetables, and fatty and fresh meats are consumed, the breaths, becoming strengthened, are hard to preserve. Hate and anger are also forbidden. Overindulgence in them throws the breaths into confusion, and when they are not calmed they turn into shouting. For these reasons few persons can practice this art. My ancestral uncle, Ko Hsüan, merely because he was able to hoard his breaths and breathe like a fetus, would stay on the bottom of a deep pool for almost a whole day whenever he was thoroughly intoxicated and it was a hot summer's day. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 140).

Compare the above claim that with breath circulation, "one may stay under water or walk on it."

The Baopuzi repeatedly describes practicing xingqi breath circulation along with other longevity techniques, such as drug consumption and Daoist sexual practices above, which warns "one must distinguish between the profound and the shallow". Another context compares these same three methods.

The taking of medicines [服藥] may be the first requirement for enjoying Fullness of Life [長生], but the concomitant practice of breath circulation [行氣] greatly enhances speedy attainment of the goal. Even if medicines [神藥] are not attainable and only breath circulation is practiced, a few hundred years will be attained provided the scheme is carried out fuIly, but one must also know the art of sexual intercourse [房中之術] to achieve such extra years. If ignorance of the sexual art causes frequent losses of sperm to occur, it will be difficult to have sufficient energy to circulate the breaths. (5, tr. Ware 1966, 105).

Chapter 8 mentions the inherent dangers for Daoist adepts who overspecialize in studying a particular technique.

In everything pertaining to the nurturing of life [養生] one must learn much and make the essentials one's own; look widely and know how to select. There can be no reliance upon one particular specialty, for there is always the danger that breadwinners will emphasize their personal specialties. That is why those who know recipes for sexual intercourse [房中之術] say that only these recipes can lead to geniehood. Those who know breathing procedures [吐納] claim that only circulation of the breaths [行氣] can prolong our years. Those knowing methods for bending and stretching [屈伸] say that only calisthenics can exorcize old age. Those knowing herbal prescriptions [草木之方] say that only through the nibbling of medicines can one be free from exhaustion. Failures in the study of the divine process are due to such specializations. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 113).

In a final example, Ge Hong gives practical advice for avoiding illness.

If you are going to do everything possible to nurture your life [養生], you will take the divine medicines [神藥]. In addition, you will never weary of circulating your breaths [行氣]; morning and night you will do calisthenics [導引] to circulate your blood and breaths and see that they do not stagnate. In addition to these things, you will practice sexual intercourse in the right fashion [房中之術]; you will eat and drink moderately; you will avoid drafts and dampness; you will not trouble about things that are not within your competence. Do all these things, and you will not fall sick. (15, tr. Ware 1966: 252)

Taking a fundamentally pragmatic position on yangsheng Nourishing Life practices, Ge Hong believes that "the perfection of any one method can only be attained in conjunction with several others." (Engelhardt 2000: 77).

While several Baopuzi contexts mention healing oneself with breath circulation, one records using it to heal another person. During the Eastern Wu dynasty (222-280), there was a Daoist master named Shi Chun (石春) "who would not eat in order to hasten the cure when he was treating a sick person by circulating his own breath. It would sometimes be a hundred days or only a month before he ate again." When Emperor Jing of Wu (r. 258–364) heard about this he said, "In a short time this man is going to starve to death", and ordered that Shi be locked up and guarded constantly without food or water, excepting a few quarts he requested for making holy water. After more than a year of imprisonment, his "complexion became ever fresher and his strength remained normal." The emperor then asked him how much longer he could continue like this, and Shi Chun replied that "there was no limit; possibly several dozen years, his only fear being that he might die of old age, but it would not be of hunger." The emperor discontinued the fasting experiment and released him (15, tr. Ware 1966: 248–249). The Baopuzi bibliography of Daoist texts lists the Xingqi zhibing jing (行氣治病經, Scripture on Treating Illness with Breath Circulation), which was subsequently lost.

Besides the Baopuzi, Ge Hong also compiled the Shenxian Zhuan (Biographies of Divine Transcendents), in which ten hagiographies mention adepts practicing xingqi along with other methods and techniques.

• Peng Zu "lived past eight hundred; ate cassia and mushrooms; and excelled at 'guiding and pulling' (daoyin) and at circulating pneumas." (Campany 2002: 182). In another textual version, "If there was any illness, fatigue, or discomfort in his body, he would 'guide and pull' (導引) and shut off his breath so as to attack what was troubling him. He would fix his heart by turns on each part of his body: his head and face, his nine orifices and five viscera, his four limbs, even his hair. In each case he would cause his heart to abide there, and he would feel his breath circulate throughout his body, starting at his nose and mouth and reaching down into his ten fingers." (Campany 2002: 417).
• Laozi "made available many methods for transcending the world, including, [first of all,] [formulas for] nine elixirs and eight minerals, Liquor of Jade and Gold Liquor; next, methods for mentally fixing on the mystic and unsullied, meditating on spirits and on the Monad [守一], successively storing and circulating pneumas, refining one's body and dispelling disasters, averting evil and controlling ghosts, nourishing one's nature and avoiding grains, transforming oneself [so as to] overcome trouble, keeping to the teachings and precepts, and dispatching demons" (Campany 2002: 199).
• Liu Gen (劉根) "eventually taught Wang Zhen [王真] how to meditate on the Monad, circulate pneumas, and visualize [his corporeal] spirits, and also methods for sitting astride the Mainstays and Strands [of the heavens] and for confessing one's transgressions and submitting one's name on high." (Campany 2002: 246–248).
• Gan Shi (甘始) "excelled at circulating pneumas. He did not eat [a normal diet] but ingested [only] asparagus root [tianmen dong 天門冬]." (Campany 2002: 150)
• Kong Anguo "habitually circulated pneumas and ingested lead and cinnabar (or "an elixir made from lead"). He reached three hundred years of age and had the appearance of a boy" (Campany 2002: 311).
• Bo He (帛和) received from the physician Dong Feng his "methods of circulating pneumas, ingesting atractylis, and avoiding grains" (tr. Campany 2002: 133).
• She Zheng (涉正) transmitted to all his disciples "[methods of] circulating pneumas, bedchamber [arts], and the ingestion of a lesser elixir made from 'stony brains' [geodes]." (Campany 2002: 332).
• Zhang Ling (c. 34–156) " As for his circulation of pneumas and dietetic regimen, he relied on [standard] methods of transcendence; here, [as with methods of curing illness], he made no significant changes." (Campany 2002: 352).
• Dong Zhong (董仲) "From his youth he practiced pneuma circulation and refined his body. When he had reached an age of over a hundred, he still had not aged [in appearance]." (Campany 2002: 363).
• Huang Jing (黄敬) "is said to have circulated pneumas, abstained from grains, subsisted on his saliva, practiced embryonic breathing and interior vision, summoned the liujia and jade maidens, and swallowed talismans of yin and yang." (Campany 2002: 541).

Tang dynasty

During the Tang dynasty (618-907), Daoists integrated new meditation theories and techniques from Chinese Buddhism and many seminal texts were written, especially during the 8th century.

The Daoist Shangqing School patriarch Sima Chengzhen 司馬承禎, 647–735) composed the 730 Fuqi jingyi lun (服氣精義論, Essay on the Essential Meaning of Breath Ingestion), which presented integrated outlines of health practices, with both traditional Chinese physical techniques and the Buddhist-inspired practice of guan (觀, "insight meditation"), as preliminaries for attaining and realizing the Dao (Engelhardt 2000: 80). The text is divided into nine sections (lun 論, "essays; discourses") describing the consecutive steps toward attaining purification and longevity.

The second section "On the Ingestion of Breath" (Fuqi lun 服氣論) gives several methods for adepts to become independent of ordinary breathing, first absorb qi as breath, then guide it internally, and store it in their inner organs. Adepts begin by absorbing the Taiqing xingqi fu 太清行氣符, Great Clarity Talisman for [Facilitating] Qi Circulation), which enables one to gradually abstain from eating grains. They then ingest qi by visualizing the first rays of the rising sun, guide it through the body and viscera, until they can permanently "retain the qi". Sima Chengzhen points out that when one begins abstaining from foods and survives only by ingesting qi breath (and repeats this warning for taking drugs), the immediate effect will be undergoing a phase of weakening and decay, but eventually strength returns all illnesses vanish. Only after nine years of further practice will an adept rightfully be called a zhenren ("Realized One; Perfected Person"). (Englehardt 1989: 273).

The Taiqing wanglao fuqi koujue (太清王老服氣口訣, The Venerable Wang's Instructions for Absorbing Qi, a Taiqing Scripture) differentiates two methods of breath circulation.

There were two ways of making it circulate [yunqi 運氣]. Concentrating the will to direct it to a particular place, such as the brain, or the site of some local malady, was termed [xingqi 行氣]. Visualising its flow in thought was "inner vision" [neishi 內視, neiguan 內觀], differentiated (not very convincingly to us) from ordinary imagination. "Closing one's eyes, one has an inner vision of the five viscera, one can clearly distinguish them, one knows the place of each…" (Needham 1983: 148).

The c. 745 Yanling xiansheng ji xinjiu fuqi jing (延陵先生集新舊服氣經, Scripture on New and Old Methods for the Ingestion of Breath Collected by the Elder of Yanling) defines the technique: "One must carefully pull the breath while inspiring and expiring so that the Original Breath (yuanqi 元氣) does not exit the body. Thus, the outer and inner breaths do not mix and one achieves embryonic breathing" (tr. Despeux 2008: 953). This source also recommends the "method of the drum and of effort" (gunu zhi fa 鼓努之法) xingqi breath circulation for creating a Sacred Embryo.

At the times when you are guiding the Breath, beat the drum [a technical term meaning "grit the teeth"] and perform ten swallowings, twenty swallowings, so that your intestines are filled. After that concentrate upon guiding (the Breath) and making it penetrate into the four limbs. When you are practicing this method, guide the Breath once for each time you swallow. The hands and feet should be supported on things; wait until the Breath has penetrated, and then the heart must be emptied and the body forgotten; and thereupon the hot breath [fanzheng zhi qi 煩蒸之氣] will be dispersed throughout the four limbs; the breath of the Essential Flower [jinghua zhi qi 精華之氣], being coagulated, will return to the Ocean of Breath [qihai 氣海]. After some time, the Embryo will be completed spontaneously. By holding the joints of the members firm, you can succeed in having (the Breaths) answer one another with the sound of thunder; the drum resounds in the belly so that the Breaths are harmonized. "(tr. Maspero 1981: 481)

Li Fengshi's (李奉時) c. 780 Songshan Taiwu Xiansheng Qi Jing (嵩山太無先生氣經, Mr. Grand-Nothingness of Song Mountain's Scripture on Breath) discusses how one's yi (意, "intention; will") plays a major role in circulating breath (Despeux 2008: 1108). For instance, using biqi breath-holding to heal oneself.

If suddenly there is discomfort in cultivating and nourishing (the breath) or occasionally there is some kind of illness, go into a secluded room and follow this method: spread out your hands and feet, then harmonize the breath and swallow it down (guiding it in your thoughts) to where the trouble is. Shut off the breath. Use the will and the mind to regulate the breath in order to attack the ailment. When the breath has been retained to the extreme, exhale it. Then swallow it again. If the breathing is rapid, stop. If the breath is harmonious, work on the ailment again. … Even if the ailment is in your head, face, hands or feet, wherever it is, work on it. There is nothing that will not be cured. Note that when the mind wills the breath into the limbs, it works like magic, its effects are indescribable. (tr. Huang 1988: 22)

The Xingqijue (行氣訣, Secret of Guiding the Breath) chapter describes circulating breaths between the upper and lower dantians (丹田, "elixir fields"): Niwan dantian (泥丸丹田, "muddy pellet elixir-field", or naotian 腦宮 "brain palace") and Xia dantian (下丹田, "lower elixir-field", above the perineum).

There are two points on the spine behind the lower [dantian]. They correspond through the ridge vein with the [niwan dantian] which is the brain palace (a point between the eyes above the root of the nose). The Original Breath [yuanqi] is obtained by storing (the breath of) every three consecutive swallowings in the lower [dantian]. Use the mind to take (the Original Breath) in and to make it enter the two points. (You should) imagine two columns of white breath going straight up on both sides of your spine and entering the [niwan] to becloud thickly the palace. Then the breath continues to your hair, your face, your neck, both arms and hands up and to your fingers. After a little time, it enters the chest and the middle [dantian] which is (by) the heart. It pours on into the five viscera, it passes the lower [dantian], and reaches [sanli 三里] (the Three Miles, i.e., the genitals) It goes through your hips, your knees, ankles and all the way to the [yongquan 涌泉] (acupuncture points) which are in the center of your feet soles. That is the so-called [謂分一氣而理] "to share one breath and manage it individually". (tr. Huang 1988: 18-19)

The late 8th-century Taiwu xiansheng fuqi fa (太無先生氣服氣) explains how to circulate the yuanqi Original Breath. Tang Daoist practitioners fundamentally changed the nature and understanding of taixi Embryonic Breathing from the ancient theory of waiqi 外氣), "external qi of the air; external breathing") to the new theory of neiqi (內氣, "internal qi") of one's organs; internal breathing"). Instead of inhaling and holding waiqi breath, adepts would circulate and remold visceral neiqi energy, which was believed to recreate the yuanqi (元氣 "prenatal qi; primary vitality") received at birth and gradually depleted during human life.

According to the Taiwu xiansheng fuqi fa, since it is the Original Breath and not external breath which must be kept circulating through the body, and since its natural place is within the body, there is no need to make it enter or hold it in by effort as the ancients did: no retention of the breath, which is exhausting and, in some cases, harmful. But it does not follow that to make the breath circulate is an easy thing; on the contrary, it requires a lengthy apprenticeship. "The internal breath... is naturally in the body, it is not a breath which you go outside to seek; (but) if you do not get the explanations of an enlightened master, (all efforts) will be nothing but useless toil, and you will never succeed." Common ordinary respiration plays only a secondary role in the mechanism of Breath circulation, which goes on outside it. The two breaths, internal and external, carry on their movements in perfect correspondence. When the external breath ascends during inhalation, the internal breath contained in the lower Cinnabar Field also rises; when the external breath descends, the internal breath descends too and returns again to the lower Cinnabar Field. Such is the simple mechanism which governs the circulation of Original Breath. (Maspero 1981: 468)

This is done in two phases: "swallowing the breath" [yanqi 咽氣] and making it circulate. And if there is only a single way of absorbing the Breath, there are two distinct ways of making it circulate. One consists of leading it so as to guide it where one wishes it to go, to an afflicted area if it is to cure a malady, to the [niwan] if Embryonic Respiration is the purpose, and so on. This is what is called "guiding the breath" [xingqi]. The other consists of letting the breath go where it will through the body without interfering by guiding it. This is what is called "refining the breath" [lianqi]. I shall point out in succession the methods for absorbing the breath, for guiding it, and for refining it. It is the first of these two pulses. Absorbing the Breath, which is properly to be called Embryonic Respiration [taixi]: but the expression is applied also to the exercises in toto. (Maspero 1981: 469–470).

Song dynasty

Xingqi breath circulation continued developing during the Song (960-1279).

Among the many progressive series of Daoist breath-circulating exercises ascribed to famous masters such as

• Anapanasati, Buddhist mindfulness of breathing
• Pranayama, Yogic technique for controlling breath

References

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External links

• 嵩山太無先生氣經, Songshan Taiwu Xiansheng Qi Jing ("Mr. Grand-Nothingness of Song Mountain's Scripture on Breath [Circulation])), Wikisource edition.
• Body Scan Meditation, Jon Kabat-Zinn, modern example of breath circulation