Yangsheng (Daoism)
Daoist self-cultivation practices / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In religious Daoism[broken anchor] and traditional Chinese medicine, yangsheng (Chinese: 養生; lit. 'nourishing life'), refers to various self-cultivation practices aimed at enhancing health and longevity. Yangsheng techniques include calisthenics, self-massage, breath exercises, meditation, internal and external Daoist alchemy, sexual activities, and dietetics.
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Yangsheng | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Traditional Chinese | 養生 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 养生 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Literal meaning | nurturing life | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Korean name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Hangul | 양생 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hanja | 養生 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Japanese name | |||||||||||||||||||||
Kanji | 養生 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hiragana | ようじょう | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Most yangsheng methods are intended to increase longevity, a few to achieve "immortality"— in the specialized Daoist sense of transforming into a xian ("transcendent", who typically dies after a few centuries, loosely translated as "immortal"). While common longevity practices (such as eating a healthy diet or exercising) can increase one's lifespan and well-being, some esoteric transcendence practices (such as "grain avoidance" diets where an adept eats only qi/breath instead of foodstuffs, or drinking frequently poisonous Daoist alchemical elixirs of life) can ironically be deadly.