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Alchemy in Taoism

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Religions and Society in China

国立高等经济大学

4.5（86 个评分） | 5.9K 名学生已注册

This course provides an introduction to the study of the history, major teachings, and practices of the major Chinese religions and spiritual practices and is deigned to give conceptual tools to appreciate diverse religious practice in East. It covers the development of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and wide range of popular and local religions. From historical perspective we will also explore the development of key theological, religious and philosophical doctrines as well as associated practices. An effort will be made to spend time on each tradition according to its importance to Asia as a whole. We will explore the role of religions in politics and social relations in East and South, South East Asia and China in particular, and will analyze the origins, central teachings, divisions and branches, rituals and practices, influences on culture, and responses to modern challenges for each tradition. The emphasis throughout the course is on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Asian religions in particular. We will explore new Asian religions as dynamic, ongoing forces in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies. Do you have technical problems? Write to us: coursera@hse.ru

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4.5（86 个评分）

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SG

Nov 15, 2018

This gave me a thorough understanding of religions in China and how this helps to understand how Chinese people think. Excellent!

JV

Jun 08, 2017

It was an AMAZING course. Thanks to everyone involved in putting it together. It was a delightful experience.

从本节课中

Taoism in Chinese society: main religious practises

This module's content describes the paths of development, which were taken by Taoist cults in their history, explains the ways that connected Taoist philosophy and social practice of religious cults and organisations.

Taoism and the Idea of Immortality11:55

Alchemy in Taoism12:31

Taoist Practises: Mind and Body11:00

教学方

Aleksey A. Maslov
Head

脚本

[MUSIC]

One of the main way of practice for Taoism became an alchemy.

That's very strange word for Chinese language,

because it's very hard to translate.

We'll just call the [FOREIGN] or [FOREIGN] in Chinese tradition.

That's why from the 19th century

European scores try to fast like this work as a alchemy.

And will use this world alchemy, but with understanding that is all

the through the right completely correct translation of the Chinese practice.

But anyway let's start from the very, very beginning.

Wasn't alchemy in Chinese tradition?

This transformation first of all of three different treasures, or

three different points.

The first one which is very important for all Taoist tradition is called Qi.

Which could be translated as breath, your internal energy,

your piranha and Qi is everywhere, is all around.

People or every people born from the Qi of his parents, mother and father.

The mixture of Qi gives you a birth and

also the dissolution of Qi gives you a death.

So Qi's insight and you can absorb this Qi with your breath or with your food.

It's not outside, it's everything that it's our world around.

So Qi is a part of all human being and of the world around.

Not the first point and the first treasure.

The second one is the Jing which could be translated as a semen.

It's a lot richer translation, but at the same time it's a vitality.

It means that the Jing could be only by the human being.

So we could find a Jing only inside human beings, not in the world around.

In the later Taoist text, Jing was considered for

the men and for male and sheer or

blood was a part of thewoman's practice.

But anyway, Jing, sheer or semen, and blood are the vital

points of the transformation inside the human body.

Qi could be observed with your breath.

This Qi could be connected with a Jing, and this mix of Jing and

Qi could be transferred through your body, and

to wash out of bad Qi or diseases from your body.

So using Qi and Jing, you could wash out all your disease.

That the first transformation of Qi and Jing.

Finally, there's a third point, the highest point, the Shen which is a spirit.

Spirit usually, the point spirit resolve its human hat.

At the same time, its kind of prison for this spirit of this Shen.

You should connect your spirit, your Shen, with Qi and Jing.

And finally, to get a pill with these three main treasures and

to use this pill as a very, very small elixir as a real kind of medicine.

And to use this pillar to wash out all your channels or

all your meridians inside your body, that's the idea of three treasures.

We just in the previous section, we spoke about the ten souls.

Seven of them are Earth souls and three of them Heaven souls.

So these Qi, Jing, Shen are the Heaven souls.

Every human being has such a three treasures but not everyone could use it.

So the main idea, how to use it, how to practice the breath exercises?

And according to these three treasures, Qi, Jing, and Shen,

there are three ways of practices.

Qi for breath exercises and right food, dietology.

Jing, semen is for sexual practice.

And finally Shen, for meditational practice.

So breath exercises, sexual practice and

meditation could be bring together to form a practice of Taoism.

These three transformation of Qi, Jing and Shen could happen inside human body.

But at the same time, we can provide the same transformation outside human body and

to combine external and internal transformation.

For the external transformation, to make an external pillar of the immortality.

We should use some furniture and some ingredients like this on this picture, and

we'll discuss it a little bit later.

So the external and

internal transformation are called the external and internal alchemy.

Usually the result should be the same.

The riching of the immortality, but we use inside and

outside a little bit different ingredients.

So external alchemy, it's a making a pillar of special medicine

outside human body and to use several key ingredients.

First of all it should be quicksilver and the lead, quicksilver and

lead a main ingredients for this period.

At the same time different schools use also a gold, silver,

different kind of herbs, different kind of pearl.

So a lot of ingredients and the main secret was how to combine all these

ingredients, and it's called the waidan.

After some years to make in this waidan,

you can take this pillar with a small potion step by step and

eventually reach immortality.

But at the same time if you are not practicing the same time internal alchemy.

This elixirs could be a real poison for you and

the ordinary man will die without the internal practice.

So you should combine external and internal practice.

An internal alchemy is the making the same pillar inside human body,

it's called the Neidan.

The main practice in the breathing excercise and meditation.

And inside your body you can find the same ingredients, the same quicksliver and

the same lead, but represented by different symbols.

So from the beginning the external alchemy, especially the third, fourth,

fifth centuries AD was a main practice for many schools.

But step by step they eparated, and

finally internal alchemy became a independent piece of the practice.

So all these three ingredients could be brought

together in three main fields inside human body.

And it's called a Dantian, the field of the pill.

There is the lower, the middle and the higher fields of the pill.

So the law for the Qi, the middle for the Jing and

finally the higher field is for the spirit.

And these refills should be bring together to make a one pill from three ingredients.

Making a pill is a long way, this picture how to make

this pill outside your body is an external electricity.

So you should melt down lead and quicksilver,

and finally, to take it inside or to drink.

For example, this character for the [FOREIGN].

[FOREIGN] means wine today.

But if you look back to the initial character,

we can find the same cauldron to make this elixir.

So it means that first, the initial meaning of the wine was to make

pill or a special elixir for the long life.

Making an elixir is once again, it's a long way.

And sometimes it takes not just one generation, but

several generations to work out all these ingredients and to bring them together.

That the picture from the real monasteries,

Taoist monasteries and this old man which may be 80 years old or

maybe 100 years old is making the pill of immortality.

And he told me that he is the third-generation who tries to,

To reproduce the secrets of the pill of immortality.

He used different herbs because he already made a base for

this pill from the quicksilver and lead.

And finally to make some kind of amalgam for them.

And right now step by step, every day he just

drops some herbs in this elixir.

So once again, sometimes it takes years and years to make this elixir.

The Neidan practice of the practice of the internal argument.

It's a reproduction of the Neidan, you can see in this pictures from

different scriptures and from different purist, we can see the same idea.

There is a cauldron inside the human body, the silver part of the human body.

This is reproduction of the cauldron of for external alchemy.

There is a fire just near this cauldron which

make this cauldron hot and there is a water from outside.

Fire and water should be brought together at the same time, be in equilibrium.

So it means that water and fire should mix, but

still at the same time as two different things.

And so when fire and water are mixed together,

it's the beginning of the elixir of the pill of the immortality.

So that's one of the examples how this

old tradition came to the everyday life.

It means that initially it was a secret tactics and

no one wrote down all these tactics.

But step by step, we can see the process of the especially in the 12th and

13th centuries.

We can find a lot of scriptures describing this called the secret

knowledge of the internal alchemy.

Finally, this internal alchemy became a symbol by itself.

For example, this is the picture of the called World Inside.

Actually this shape of the man of the human being

practicing the sitting meditation on the lower level.

We can see the so called the first the basis for the pill.

The second level, the so-called the middle Dantian, and

in the highest Dantian, in the human head,

we can find at least two persons, the one is Laozi, the god of the Taoist.

At the same time we can find a buddhakarma or [FOREIGN], the god or

the high saint of Chinese Buddhism.

So this is one example of the secreties of this tradition.

There is a text just inside this picture and

this text it's a reciept how to make this pill inside your body.

So it mean that after the Yuan Dynasty, it means after the 12th and 13th centuries.

The internal alchemy became just a popular art, a popular exercise in China.

[MUSIC]

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