Yangsheng

The term yangsheng, "nourishing life," is sometimes suggested as a precursor to qigong. But again, it means something different. The term has also been rendered into english as long-life practices, macrobiotics, or daoist hygiene. It is a more general term that refers to diet, bathing, movement, stillness, trance, calendrical observation, talisman, the ingesting of special foods, and purification for ritual.

Doctors (Zhongyi) traditionally practiced yangsheng. Elisabeth Hsu points out that it was the first part of the transmission of Chinese medical training in the first half of the 20th century. In the Dream of the Red Chamber, the 17th century Chinese epic novel, there is a fascinating scene where a famous doctor has been called to treat one of the ladies of the house. He comes in the evening, acknowledging the urgency of the situation but then says he can not make an accurate pulse diagnosis until the next morning after he has had time to regulate his own pulse.