(, "embryonic breathing" or "embryonic respiration") refers to Daoist meditation and Inner Alchemy methods, the principle of which is to breathe like an embryo or fetus in the womb, without using nose or mouth. Techniques developed for embryonic breathing include , , , and .
In the history of Daoism, Tang dynasty (618-907) Daoist Internal Alchemists fundamentally changed the nature and understanding of embryonic breathing from the ancient theory of to the new theory of . Instead of inhaling and retaining air, adepts would circulate and remold visceral energy, which was believed to recreate the received at birth and gradually depleted during human life. was associated with the , which was originally a Chinese Buddhist concept that Tang Daoists developed into a complex process of symbolic pregnancy giving birth to a spiritually perfected doppelganger of oneself.
Terminology () is a linguistic compound of two common Chinese words: () fetus, embryo; womb; something encapsulated like a fetus. embryonic, fetal; source, origin; e.g., (Daoism) , embryonic breathing, technique of "pneuma circulation" in which an adept breathes in stillness, without using nose or mouth, as when in the womb; early stage of development; something in an unfinished state. give birth to; spawn; congenital. ... () exhale; respiration, suspire, breathe ... to desist from, give up; abate, pause, interrupt, suspend, rest; respite; "blow out," extinguish, put an end to; abandon, lose. to comfort, calm, assuage; treat an illness; e.g., , calm oneself, compose one's mind, be of tranquil mind; (Buddhism) , "companion of the tranquil mind," translation of Sanskrit one who has left passions behind, monk, religious ascetic. ...(Kroll 2017: 440, 484; condensed)
Chinese can ambiguously be translated as English embryo, fetus, or womb. The Chinese lexicon differentiates this gestational semantic field with words such as , , , , and .
Chinese () has various English translations. "Embryonic Respiration" "embryonic respiration" "embryo respiration" "Embryonic Breathing" "womb breathing" "embryonic respiration" or "womb breathing," "embryonic breathing" or "embryonic respiration"; "Womb Breathing" "Embryonic Breathing" "embryonic breathing"(Pregadio 2018: 398) Although these translations consistently use embryonic rather than fetal, a newly developing human is typically referred to as an embryo until the ninth week after conception, and subsequently referred to as a fetus.
Catherine Despeux explains how "womb respiration" or "womb breathing" can alternately translate , which refers to "a manner of respiration that does not involve the nose or the mouth but rather the pores of the skin." When adepts are said to "breathe like an embryo", this expression may also denote the sensation of "something expanding and contracting, or 'breathing' somewhere inside their bodies". And if the term is read as "womb" or "matrix," then takes on the sense of "womb respiration." This introspective sensation of expansion and contraction attributed to a breathing embryo is firmly situated in the lower or lower abdomen, where the womb is located.
In Daoist textual terminology, one and one comprise one —compare the common word . Generally speaking, the air was to be inhaled through the nose, retained as long as possible with the technique, and then exhaled through the mouth. This presents an "obvious parallel with the conviction that there was vitality in certain secretions of the body so that all losses of them should be avoided."
Ancient Theory of External Breaths Kristofer Schipper notes that, "embryonic breathing is not a late development in the breathing exercises, but has always existed under different names". As Daoist adepts began to practice embryonic breathing, "things got to be horribly varied and complicated", they developed myriad, and sometimes contradictory, techniques such as the "holding of breath, slowing of breathing, swallowing of air, swallowing of saliva, mental guiding of , and inner visualization of internal organs, colored or deities."
The origins of the term embryonic breathing go back at least to the early centuries of the Common Era. The Book of the Later Han, which was compiled in the 5th-century from late Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) sources, may be the earliest extant reference to and the uncommon cognate . This historical text's biography of the ("esoteric master") Wang Zhen (, fl. c. 200) says that he looked under fifty years old when he was over a hundred. It records that Wang and He Mengjie () were both from Shangdang (modern-day south and east Shanxi Province). Wang Zhen practiced "embryonic breathing , 'embryonic eating ,' subsistence on his own saliva , and incessant bedchamber arts"; while He Mengjie had the "capacity to go without eating and shut up his breath ."; cf. , "methods of fetal breathing and fetal eating"; and , "were able to practice embryonic breathing and feed themselves like an embryo"). From this description of Wang Zhen, Eskildsen says, "it would appear as though the embryonic breathing method was perhaps not actually a breathing technique but rather a method of swallowing saliva. However, it could be that the swallowing technique described here constitutes only 'embryonic eating,' and that there was an accompanying breathing technique that constituted embryonic breathing but is not described." Li Xian's c. 675 commentary to the Book of Later Han notes, "To practice breath holding and gulping it down is called , to practice coughing up saliva and swallowing it is called ."
Both "embryonic fluid" () and "pure water of the jade lake" () refer to saliva, which is called the "water of life" and is supposed to prolong life. The Han people already practiced the method of swallowing saliva to improve the physique and nurture life.
The Daoist scholar Ge Hong's 318 CE ("Master Who Embraces Simplicity") is described as "one of the major sources on breath control practices in pre-Tang China". is mentioned in three of the esoteric . Chapter 19 ("A Taoist Library") is a bibliography that mentions a , which is the name of the possibly related received text (discussed below).
Chapter 3 ("Rejoinder to Popular Conceptions") remarks that since a Daoist adept knows "the great age attained by tortoises and cranes, he imitates their calisthenics so as to augment his own life span", and quotes a poem: "He who swallows Cinnabar and keeps the One / Will only finish in Heaven / He who makes the Essence return and practises Embryonic Respiration / Will have longevity unlimited".; cf.
In Chapter 8 ("Resolving Hesitations"), Ge Hong praises embryonic breathing and tells an underwater breath-holding anecdote about his granduncle Ge Xuan (164–244), who was prominent in early Daoism and the first recipient of the Lingbao sacred scriptures. Ge Hong seems to have understood as the culmination of long-term daily practice of "pneuma circulation". First, he describes as a potent panacea and gives a detailed description of timing breath-holding by counting heartbeats. By practising the circulation of the one can cure the hundred diseases, one can walk through the midst of plagues and epidemics, one can ward off snakes and tigers, stop bleeding from wounds, stay under water or walk across it, free oneself from hunger and thirst, and protract one's years. The most important thing is simply to (know how to) breathe like an embryo . He who can breathe like a foetus will respire as if still in the womb , without using nose or mouth; thus will the Tao be achieved. When one first begins to learn how to circulate the , one must inhale through the nose and then close up that breath. While it is thus hidden within, one counts up to 120 heart-beats , and then exhales it (gently) through the mouth. Neither during exhalation nor inhalation should one hear with one's ears the sound of the breathing, and one should make sure that more goes in than comes out. A wild goose feather may be placed in front of the nose and mouth, and during exhalation this should not show any movement. After continual practice one may very gradually increase the number of heart-beats (during which the breath is held) to as much as 1000 , and when this proficiency is reached, an old man will be able to grow younger daily, returning to youth by one day every day. Compare Ware's translation, "The most important part of it is simply to breathe like a fetus. He who succeeds in doing this will do his breathing as though in the womb, without using nose or mouth, and for him the divine Process has been achieved." Second, in a context about how few people can successfully practice the art of breath circulation, Ge again mentions his granduncle. "My ancestral uncle , whenever he was overcome by wine in the heat of the summer would incontinently retire to the bottom of a deep pool and stay there till the evening—this was because he could retain his breath and respire like a foetus in the womb ."; cf. "to hoard his breaths and breathe like a fetus"). The fetal condition "was considered worth reverting to because doing so was thought to constitute a reversal of the aging process and a restoration to the condition that existed when your vital forces had not yet begun to be expended."
also occurs in one of the exoteric : "It is like 'embryonic-breathing-in-which-the-Mystery-is-preserved' . In deep breathing we throw out the old and take in the new, retaining the vista and looking inwards." The translator Sailey interpreted the practice of "breathing as in the embryo, … a kind of very deep breathing with both the nose and the mouth enabling one to achieve a state analogous to that of a foetus in a womb."
In addition to the , Ge Hong wrote the c. 4th-century (with later additions) (Biographies of Divine Transcendents), which mentions in four hagiographies.
Two repeat the above phrase . The Wang Zhen () hagiography quotes the description of his "embryonic breathing, 'embryonic eating', subsistence on his own saliva". The Ji Liao () or Ji Zixun () entry has two consecutive sentences, where Campany compared sources and omitted the first "Because he proclaimed methods of embryonic breathing, embryonic eating, stopping aging, and turning white hair black again" and translated the second "In over two hundred years his countenance did not age."
The other two hagiographies mention in the phrase . The entry for Huang Jing () records that "he is said to have circulated pneumas, abstained from grains, subsisted on his saliva, practiced embryonic breathing and interior vision" . The hagiography for Huang Hua () or Jiuling zi () says "He obtained Ways of turning back the years, banishing aging, and fetal breathing ".
The c. 4th-5th century CE ("Classic of the Great Peace") biography of the Daoist Zhou Yishan () says: "Every morning after dawn, when the sun was rising, he stood up straight facing due east, and having rinsed out his mouth, swallowed (much) saliva, then he absorbed the more than a hundred times. This being done he turned towards the sun and saluted it twice. And every morning he repeated these procedures." The air "must be inhaled slowly through the nose, held for as long as possible, and finally exhaled through the mouth".
The also ranks the importance of strict dieting for adepts practicing embryonic respiration, "In the first place feed upon airy breath ; in the second place feed upon drugs; in the third place eat little." The best diets, thus, were those that dispensed with all solid food; either feeding upon saliva, or upon air. The first method was called "Embryonic Nourishment" () with a name paralleling "Embryonic Respiration" (). The second was called "Feeding upon Breath" ( or ) or "Feeding by Respiration" ().
Side effects