Daoist Medicine, Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor
Daoist Medicine is the foundation of TCM/Modern Chinese Medicine. The Daoist concepts underpin the method of medicine and longevity practices, where the way of living and prevention of illness are central. Daoist medicine maintains the underpinning methods that help to achieve natural healing and practices aligned to health cultivation. Like the origins of Daoism, medicine is based on the early Huang Lao Daoism (Taiping Dao) practices. These include the learnings from the earlier classics such as the Dao De Jing, the Yellow Emperor’s Internal Classic, the Yin-Yang, the Five Elements and the Zhou Yi Yi Jing. Daoist medicine is special, as it has included, since the beginning, the integration of emotional, physical and spiritual health.
The key concept that the macro is a reflection of the micro and they mutually impact each other is specific to the core of Daoist Medicine, which applies the metaphysical with the medical, the universal with the individual, and the illness with its prevention, progress and eventual elimination. Whilst many techniques have been developed to cure illness, including the use of herbal medicines, massage, breathing practices, acupressure/puncture/moxibustion, and so forth. Those are just a few elements of Daoist Medicine, which also includes methods such as music therapy, exercise therapy, dietary therapy, and so on. But those are still only the general methods of Daoist medicine. For in Daoist medicine it is the pursuit of nature or the ways of the Dao that allows for the greatest cultivation of health and a content, fulfilling life. In Daoist thought, every part of the universe is interconnected and, although subtle, interacts constantly.
Daoist longevity and health cultivation
Daoist longevity and health cultivation practices date back thousands of years. The first mention of small circulation is found in the Xingqiming (475-206 BC), and the concepts of movement-based Qigong practice were already explained in the YinShu (186 BC) and Daoyintu (168 BC). A specialised treatise on breathing with detailed analysis on methods and timing of practice was outlined in the Que Gu Shi Qi (168 BC). The concepts of the body as the universe, travelling through the viscera and the visualisation of spirits therein were included in the Taiqing text, as was the classic Daoyin Yangsheng Classic in the Fourth Century. There are many, many more classics and treatises on such health cultivation, and throughout history masters and practitioners have, through experimentation and practice, advanced our knowledge of such holistic universal approaches. It is these that the Taiping Yansheng Gong method was compiled with elements from several different practices and the underlying Daoist route to health cultivation.