Page 691 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

LIANXING

~{.\), stop your thoughts, follow the movement of the breath, release and
regulate it .... It is not necessary to practice daily, but mainly when the mind
is clear and relaxed, for example every five or ten days" (CT 825, 23b-25a).
Besides the Xinjiu fuqi jing, other texts containing brief descriptions of the
lianqi method include the Songshan Taiwu xiansheng qijing ~ IlJ :t 1!l'i)t;j: *t
~J~ (Scripture on Breath by the Elder of Great Non-Being from Mount Song;
CT 824, I.7a-b; trans. Huang Jane 1987-90, 21) and the Huanzhen xiansheng
fu nei yuanqi jue il ~)t; j: ij~ I*l j[; *t tfk: (Instructions on the Ingestion of the
Inner Original Breath According to the Elder of Illusory Perfection; CT 828,
5a-b, and YJQQ 60.18b-19C; trans. Despeux 1988, 75-76, from the version in
the *Chifeng sui).

Catherine DESPEUX
W Maspero 1981, 474-76

* yangsheng

lianxing
~ * (or: it :If; )

"refining the form"

Early Taoist texts and sources related to classical cosmology represent "form"
(*xing) as a threshold between the Dao and objects, as an ontologic and cos-
mogonic stage situated between "images" (*xiang) and matter (zhi ]liJ:), and as
a lodging for spirit (*shen). The classical statement in this regard is found in the
Xici ~~ ~1' (Appended Statements) portion of the *Yijing: "What is above the
form is called the Dao; what is below the form is called an object (qi ~~)" (see
Wilhelm R. 1950,323). Other works similarly describe form as an intermediate
element in the onto logic shifr from the Formless (wuxing 1!l'i%) to the "ten
thousand things." Among them is a Han-dynasty apocryphal text on the Yijing
that depicts the shift as happening in four stages: the first is undifferentiated
Chaos (hunlun ~ lifij; see *hundun), while the other three see the emergence
of pneuma (*qi), form, and matter, respectively (Robinet 1997a, 134-35, 139-40;
also in *Liezi I, trans. Graham 1960, 18-19). At the end of this process, form
continues to play its intermediary role as a dwelling for and counterpart of
spirit (shen). In this way, as stated in *Huainan zi I, it is one of the three major
constituents of life, together with spirit and pneuma (breath).
"Release from the form. " Building on this background, *neidan and other tradi-
tions maintain that the locus of self-cultivation is not the material body (ti
'1t1 t ~