Yang-sheng Chin., lit. “nourishing life,” also “nourishing the body”; Taoist exercises aimed at attaining immortality. This includes the various breathing exercises such as “allowing the breath to circulate” (hsing-ch’i), “melting the breath” (lien-ch’i), “absorbing the breath” (fu-ch’i), “swallowing the breath” (yen-ch’i), “embryonic breathing” (t’ai-hsi), and an exercise known as “expelling the old and taking in the new” (t’u-ku na-hsin). In addition, abstention from eating grain (pi-ku) and various gymnastic exercises (tao-yin) as well as sexual practices (fang-chung shu) fall under the general heading of yang-sheng.
Many Taoists believe these exercises to be indispensible for prolonging life and attaining immortality. Philosophical Taoism (tao-chia), on the other hand, attaches only secondary importance to such practices, because it is of the opinion that the meditative technique known as “nourishing the mind” (yang-shen) alone is able to bring the practitioner to immortality.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Eastern Philosophy and Religion: Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zen. Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Yang-sheng documents
Books on Yang-sheng
External links