Page 563 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

HUN DUN

standy awake. Illnesses were deemed to be caused by the hun and po straying
from the body, and death ensued when the hun and po left and did not return.
Accordingly, the *fangshi devised methods to control them whereas others
used rites and ceremonies to summon them back. The three hun and seven
po, moreover, were anthropomorphized and given names, and their individual
attributes were described in detail. To visualize them, *Ge Hong (283-343)
suggests the ingestion of "great medicines" and the practice of a method
called "multiplication of the body" lfenxing 5}%; trans. Ware 1966, 306). He
also mentions an Elixir for Summoning the hun composed of five minerals
(zhaohun dan t-B ~ it; Ware 1966, 87).
The *Shangqing corpus contains several methods for visualizing the hun and
the po. In *neidan, the po plays a particularly sombre role as it represents the
passions that dominate the hun. This causes the vital force to decay, especially
during sexual activity, and eventually leads to death. The inner alchemical
practice seeks to concentrate the vital forces within the body by reversing the
respective roles of hun and po, so that the hun (Yang) controls the po (Yin).

Farzeen BALDRIAN-HUSSEIN
m Brashier 1996; Oespeux 1994, 133-35; Loewe 1979, 9-13; Needham 1974,
85-93; Tu Wei-ming 1985, 35-50; Tu Wei-ming 1987a; Yii Ying-shih 1987
* TAOIST VIEWS OF THE HUMAN BODY

hundun

Chaos; inchoate state

The term hundun, commonly translated as "chaos," has different uses and
meanings both within and outside Taoism: it can denote a mythical being,
function as a descriptive word, or refer to a stage of the cosmogonic process.
Its uses in Taoist texts inherit some elements of ancient myths, traces of
which are found in various sources. In the Zuozhuan ft~ (Commentary of
Zuo), for example, Hundun is a son of *Huangdi, who banishes him for his
incompetence. In the Shanhai jing llJ #¥J ~~ (Scripture of Mountains and Seas;
fourthlthird century BCE?), he is a cinnabar-red animal shaped like a sack
with six legs and four wings; it can dance and sing, but has no face or eyes
(trans. Mathieu 1983, 110). Elsewhere, Hundun is a dog who has eyes and ears
but cannot see or hear; he lives on Mount *Kunlun and is related to thunder.
According to another famous story told in the *Zhuangzi (trans. Watson 1968,