It is because they do not violate the thirteen sites of death. This indicates that the illuminated spirits protect them, and so these creatures do not dare harm them.
This quote can be read to support the position that if one properly regulates and limits the flow of qi out of the orifices and limbs, the inner organs connected to these outer body parts will be strong, but most importantly the spirits that live within the organs will be strong. When the spirits of the organs are perfectly strong, then a person may transcend all danger. Yet, this passage could also be read to indicate that the external spirits that would offer protection to those who do not waste their vitality. This may be accurate, but then the reading would require the steps of first storing the qi to a point where one can communicate with these external spirits, such that then they become guardians of one’s body.
The result of this sense of both the limbs and orifices as dangerous places, yin substances that engage in yang mode, but also have use in connecting to the universe, confirms the importance of yin mode and yang substance. When one seals the orifices and avoids movement of the limbs, it leads to yang substance because the orifices and limbs can absorb yang substance just as they can lose it. Therefore, when they exist according to yin mode, they can draw in and seal the refined substance without losing it.
This is how they participate in the flow of qi while maintaining a yin mode. Exactly how this relates to the relationship of the external and internal spirits is a particularly slippery topic in Heshanggong to be discussed in detail below.
4. Questions of Spirit
In the study of Early China, the meaning of the term shen , “spirit” or “god”
(either singular or plural) has been widely debated. Scholars agree that this word can indicate some kind of external individual deities (gods of stars, etc.) or an abstracted
“divinity.” Scholars also concur that the term refers to part of the human self, again either as an abstracted force or as multiple souls or god residing in the body. The basic dispute for both the external and internal shen revolves around the issue of abstract force opposed to individualized beings or the singular versus the plural. Some scholars view these different senses of the term as arising from historical semantic drift that shifted from a superstitious world of gods to one of rationally conceived natural forces; others argue for the continued prominence of deities within Early China, framing the naturalistic world as
tangential to the main culture of the time, a view that also helps explain continuity between Pre- and Post-Han Daoism.
These two views correlate with the still-persisting division of Philosophical Daoism, with its holistic and naturalistic world of qi flow, against the Religious Daoism that emphasizes a cosmos managed by transcendent deities. Not surprisingly, this
argument mirrors the question of whether cultivation aims for subversion or deification of the self, but even more fundamentally the issue of monism and dualism in both humans (mind-body) and the cosmos (spirit-matter). The key questions are as follows: Do we find cosmologies where the divine is universal and the foundation of the human mind, which results in “mystical” systems that promote the integration of the particular human shen (spirit) into the cosmic shen? Or do we find a world full of individualized deities that must be controlled and dominated, something that helps the innate human divinity attain more power? Or is it possible to have a mixture of these two and if so how to know the meaning in various contexts? Lastly, can we see any distinct historical shifts in regards to these two interpretations or is this a matter of hermeneutical perspective?
As the present discussion seeks to unravel Heshanggong’s vision of the self, this topic is of special importance, not the least because shen holds such an elevated status in his system. When he uses shen , does he mean an abstract force, a singular divine
“soul,” multiple divine beings, or a combination of these? Are any of these shen
transcendent or are they part of an imminent and holistic world? Carefully examining this question goes a long way to clarifying the nature of the individual in Heshanggong’s
world, and explaining his particular avoidance of exclusive transcendence or integration, monism or dualism.
Almost every Early China scholar of medicine, philosophy, and religion touches on this topic in some way, but a few especially exemplify the basic positions. To start with, one finds the paradigmatic historians of Chinese medicine: Manfred Porkert and Paul Unschuld. The first argues that shen is a type of energy, an abstract force of animation and structure. He translates it as "configurative force.”195 This approach accords with his overall interpretation of the Han worldview, which understands the universe as different combinations of a single qi. Thus, the person is composed of various forces or substances that are all abstract and part of a natural flow. This position easily accords with the spontaneous self Livia Kohn emphasized—a self integrated into the flow of the Dao. It also accords with many scholars who propound the centrality of mysticism within Early Daoism, e.g. Harold Roth. In Roth’s work on the Neiye and the Huainanzi, he underscores the fluid or energetic quality of shen. He translates it as “numen,” and takes a more psychological approach, promoting shen as a key part of the mind, as an abstract substance or quality related to mystical gnosis.196 He goes so far as to take guishen (generally interpreted as ghost and spirits) as the abstract “ghostly and
numinous.”197 Shen mediates between the mind and the cosmic Dao. It is this component of the mind that enables such dissolution of the self.
195 Manfred Porkert, The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine: Systems of Correspondence (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974), 27.
196 Roth, Original Tao, 106.
197 Ibid., 82.
Unschuld approaches the early Chinese body, not from a view of cosmic or natural flow, but as developing out of and in concert with the tradition of the spirit world.
This is a more diachronic sense of these different meanings of shen and one that is historically accretive. Thus, the human body is not just part of a cosmic tide of abstract substances and energies, but also engages with gods and demons that can greatly affect one’s self. Unschuld accepts that the particular Neijing model of the body prioritizes correlations of qi and natural patterns, but he remarks that this model still includes influences of the previously dominant worldview of gods and demons.198 In this
approach, shen in the body is “spirit” as a type of qi that rules from the heart, but one that retains some vestiges of a sense of divine being.
A different set of contrasting approaches come from the scholars of Chinese Religion and Philosophy. Michael Puett, for example, emphasizes diversity and the
“religious” angle, while the team David Hall and Roger Ames hold to a singular abstracted view of Chinese Philosophy. Puett, in accord with his support of the importance—but not exclusive goal—of individual deification, argues that the dual meanings of shen were contested.199 As pre-Han and Han thinkers used this term, they asserted their own senses of its meaning, supporting its connotations either as a deity, an abstract force, or some combination thereof. Hall and Ames argue strongly for a
consolidated vision of Chinese thought that is contextual and not transcendent. They suppose that the term’s inclusion of both divinity and human spirituality (as abstract
198 Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), 54.
199 Puett, To Become a God, 22–23.
force) invokes a broader sense of meaning, a dynamic conceptual continuity that is peculiarly Chinese. This view holds that the term was not contested, but rather invoked a broad semantic range that was intrinsically contextual.200
A specific case in this debate, chapter 7 of the Huainanzi, helps to clarify the issues and stakes. This chapter, entitled “Jingshen,” contains one of the most detailed explications of the relationship of the cosmic shen and the human shen. It begins with this contested passage.
Of old, in the time before there was Heaven and Earth: There were only images and no forms. All was obscure and dark, vague and unclear, shapeless and
formless, and no one knows its gateway. There were two spirits [shen ], born in murkiness, one that established Heaven and the other that constructed Earth.201
Though Puett argued for debates over the usages of shen, he believes that the cosmology of a purely spontaneous and naturalistic world not orchestrated by spirits, when it existed, was only a minority opinion. Because of this he begins his book on the subject, To
Become a God, with the conundrum of why the above Huainanzi passage requires two spirits (in the sense of divinities) to organize the cosmos if everything just manifested spontaneously. Why did they “establish and construct,” or as he translates it, “align” and
“orient”? He explains that, although the passage is so often used to defend a naturalistic view of the cosmos, this language indicates more individuated divine agents. If his argument is correct, then the naturalistic view is not as pervasive as most suppose.202 The broader ramification of this reading is that if this cosmic shen refers to deities, then the
200 Hall and Ames, Anticipating China, 226.
201 This is Harold Roth’s translation, which remains neutral and barely hints at his perspective to be discussed below. Major et al., The Huainanzi, 240.
202 Puett, To Become a God, 1–2.
discussion of the human shen at other points in the chapter must depict humans as deities or potential deities. Therefore, the commentary promotes an individual transcendent perspective, not an immanent or holistic one.
The clearest contrasting view on that specific passage comes from Roth, who specifically affirms the abstract nature of shen in his commentary on this chapter. Though Roth translates the two shen as “spirits,” his introduction to his translation makes it clear that, following a similar tack to Porkert, these two “spiritlike powers” are the forces of naturalistic and spontaneous yin and yang qi. On the cosmic level, he explains shen as an abstracted substance, and follows the view that the Heavenly spiritlike power is
“quintessential spirit” even as it also exists as the part of the human self generally
described as spirit (shen).203 In this vision the cosmic substance, a spiritlike power rather than actual individualized beings, is the animating force of human life. Thus, gods are not part of the picture, only a nonspecific spiritlike power that exists within and without, and can be fully embodied through mystical practice.
These different interpretive moves address the context of Warring States and Early Han writings. They generally do not consider the development within Daoism and in later texts where the human body comes to house multiple differentiated and
individualized shen. This historical shift from perhaps one human spirit (either abstract or not) to multiple ones strikes to the real question about individuation: what is individual, how can something unified be fragmented? If a human body is a unity of substantial forces (qi) that ultimately connect to the cosmos, where is the true discrete individual?
203 Roth, Original Tao, 235, 240.
Simultaneously, if spirits or gods populate the body, then how does it hold together, and how does it relate to the other spirits within humanity and the cosmos?
5. Spirit[s] in Heshanggong
Heshanggong, as a mid-Han case of Daoism, is a useful historical example for this debate, and as such, it may shed light on this shift. It also may reveal that there was no shift, only different systems with different emphasizes, as Puett asserts. As part of the tradition of inner cultivation, it represents the most-likely naturalistic and abstract spirit, and supposedly promotes yang substance; simultaneously, it also presents a body containing multiple spirits, or at least facets of spirit, as well as a world full of gods and ghosts.204 This tension of conception does not answer which is the correct vision for the Huainanzi, much less all of Early China, but if approached without expecting either monism or dualism a clearer sense should emerge.
Heshanggong does not explicitly state that individualized gods, like those seen in the Taipingjing and Laozi zhongjing live in the body, but if we look closely at his
language we find he uses a more abstract sense of plural shen found in the Neijing and Huainanzi residing in the organs. On the other hand, Heshanggong identifies the wushen
(five spirits) in the body somewhat similarly to those found in the Taipingjing.205
204 Valuing yang substance as abstract qi does not equate to valorizing perfect unity. In the body at least, Heshanggong promotes a range of different yang “substances,” some of which may be individualized spirits mostly composed of yang substance. The identification of something’s substance does not eliminate its potential as an individual: after all, people are composed of substances as well.
205 Taipingjing 1.1/4/25, 7.19/202/25.
Therefore, the issue remains how to understand this admixture.206 This may relate to my argument that Heshanggong holds a tension between the one and the many that avoids monism or dualism. He emphasizes the need for unity, to return to the cosmic One, but he also grants a legitimate place for multiplicity. In this case, unity is attained by inclusivity, not homogeneity. This is also the case with the parts of the spirit.
In chapter 6, preceding the discussion of the yin and yang aspects of the personal body we, find the clearest explication of the multiplicity of the internal spirit. To
elucidate the confusing line, “The valley spirit never dies,” Heshanggong writes:
“Valley” means ‘nourish.’207 If people can nourish the spirits, then they will not die. “Spirit” refers to the five spirits of the internal organs. The liver stores the cloud soul; the lungs store the white soul; the heart stores the spirit; the kidneys store the essence; the spleen stores the intent. When the five internal organs are beyond repair, then the spirits depart.
Here the term shen must unquestionably be translated in the plural. Still, does this simply mean a division of abstract force or substance into a set of refined personal facets? Or are these multiple spirits more individuated? This is the key question to resolve. Since Heshanggong does not provide enough detail within the commentary to do so, comparison with external sources is the only recourse.
206 Wang Ka takes this depiction at face value and assumes these are shenling (individual deities), though he does not give a rigorous defense of this choice. Alan Chan notes these spirits of the organs but does not really consider whether they are individualized or abstract substance;
though his language implies the former. See Wang, Heshanggong zhangju, 13; Chan, Two Visions of the Way, 141, 163.
207 This seeming forced gloss plays on the dual meaning of : “valley” and “grain.” When the later meaning is read in its verbal form one gets “nourish.” This explanation follows Alan Chan.
See Chan, Two Visions of the Way, 132.
The term wushen does not exist in the writings of the Neijing (excluding the two apocryphal chapters), though it seems to portray phenomena similar to
Heshanggong’s five. Instead, one finds a similar discussion of correlation between organs and the more mental or refined aspects of the body, not identified as shen . Only the mental aspect that resides in the heart is shen , with the other four aspects representing different substances. This medical body mostly reflects a vision designed for balance, and cycles of qi, and one that sees the five organs and their parts integrated into movement of the five phases. This contrasts with Heshanggong’s more binary model that ignores the balance of the five phases and instead emphasizes how these five inhabitants of the organs are all types of the refined and Heavenly shen .
Though the Neijing does not mention the wushen by name, it does describe strikingly similar terms correlated with the inner organs (zang). A close comparison with Heshanggong helps to clarify whether his wushen are truly individualized spirits or just subdivisions of an abstracted shen. In the chapter 23 of the Suwen, “Xuanming wuqi”
, a very similar list appears, including shen , hun , po , with the key difference being the word used for “thought” in the spleen and the contents of the kidneys.208
208 The Suwen identifies the spleen storing yi (thought) instead of Heshanggong’s zhi (intent) and the kidneys storing zhi (intent) instead of Heshanggong’s jing essence. The variation of zhi to jing may hint at Heshanggong’s focus on jing as a foundation of body cultivation. This places the kidneys in a similar position to that seen in later body cultivation systems which contrast and combine the shen of the heart with the jing of the kidneys. There also exists a slight variant in the “Jiuzhenlun” in the Lingshu section of the Neijing, where the kidneys store both intent and essence. This appearance explains the anomaly of the Daozang version of
Strengthening the assertion that this collection of five is abstracted, one finds a related set of correlations, though different from both Heshanggong and the previous Neijing case, in the “Tiaojinglun” of the Suwen. This set includes the
ever-common grouping of heart with spirit. It accords with Heshanggong’s kidney and essence correlations, but the rest (lungs/qi, liver/blood, spleen/flesh) do not. While these types of associations are important within the world of the Neijing’s physiology, listing them as a set solidifies the “Tiaojinglun” vision as the extreme side of the substance and patterned-based cosmology in contrast to those that include spirits. These five are simply different key substances of the body, of which spirit just happens to be one.
From this view, Heshanggong appears to swim within a similar world as the Neijing, but represents a single exemplar of correlation, one of many in the Han. He is clearly not on the more material-only side of the “Tiaojinglun,” but at least has the extra souls and emphasis on the mental aspects seen in the “Xuanming wuqi” chapter. Yet, Heshanggong goes beyond both of these Neijing bodies, presenting a body closer to the god-populated microcosm of the Taipingjing. This conceptual proximity partially arises from the use of the term wushen . 209
Heshanggong that likewise uses this double association of intent and essence. See Suwen
23.10:75; See Lingshu 78.5.3:471; Yamashiro, Kaj!k! sh!ku “R!shi D!tokuky!” no kenky", 709.
209 Heshanggong does not focus on the function of these five organs, how they relate to disease, or a variety of other correlations found in Han writings. Instead, he only mentions them in the context of the five spirits. Part of this results from how the commentary reflects the original Daodejing text, but also how Heshanggong prioritizes the spirits’ roles in cultivation of the body.
209 Heshanggong does not focus on the function of these five organs, how they relate to disease, or a variety of other correlations found in Han writings. Instead, he only mentions them in the context of the five spirits. Part of this results from how the commentary reflects the original Daodejing text, but also how Heshanggong prioritizes the spirits’ roles in cultivation of the body.