Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Contents
Bibliographic Information
Author's Introduction
Translation
Chinese Text
Bilingual Text
Bibliography
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Bibliographic Information
Gaoshang yuhuang taixi jing : Scripture on Embryonic Breathing of the Exalted Jade Sovereign: DZ 14.
Abbreviated as Taixi jing .
An anonymous text of uncertain date. The text emphasizes daoyin (lit., "guiding and leading"; gymnastics), qiingestion, and embryonic breathing (taixi ) methods.
(Komjathy, 2004)
Author's Introduction
The following treatise, belonging though it does to a corrupted development of Taoism proper, may claim a place in the
present series as being an amplification of the sixth chapter of the Tao T Ching. It teaches that in the whole Universe there
is but one Breath, or Being, a participation in which results in Life or Birth. This Breath is as it were a vast and
inexhanstible reservoir, whence all things derive their existence; but it is double, embodying the Yin or feminine Principle
of Nature with the Yang, and from these producing all things. The sixth chapter of the Tao T Ching, constituting the text
or key-note of the present essay, is to the following effect:
"The Breath, or Spirit, of the Deep is imperishable. It is called the Azure (Heaven) and the Mother (Earth). The passage
through which these Two Influences emerge and enter is called the root of the visible creation. They are ceaseless in action
as though permanent, and may be used without ever being exhausted."
(Balfour, 1894: 63)
Kao-shang Y-huang T'ai-hsi Ching
Punctuated Text
Respiration of the Embryo
The Embryo is formed by the concretion of concealed Breath;1 and the Embryo being brought into existence, the Breath
begins to move in Respiration.
The entrance of Breath into the body is Life; the departure of the Spirit from the external form is Death.
He who understands the Spirit and the Breath may live for ever; he who rigorously maintains the Empty and Non-existent
may thereby nourish the Spirit and the Breath.
When the Spirit moves the Breath moves; when Spirit is still the Breath is still.
If you desire to attain to immortality, the Spirit and the Breath must be diffused through one another.
If the Heart is perfectly devoid of thoughts neither going nor coming, issuing nor entering it will dwell permanently
within of its own accord.
Bibliography
Balfour, Fredrick. Taoist Texts: Ethical, Political and Speculative. London/Shanghai: Trbner and Co./Kelly and Walsh,
1894: 63-6.
Komjathy, Louis, "Daoist Texts in Translation", 2004.