This article studies the Taiqing jinye shendan jing 太清金液神丹經 (Grand Clarity Scripture of Divine Elixir Made from Liquid Gold, hereafter Scripture of Liquid Gold), attributed to Ge Hong 葛洪 (283–343 CE), to examine the intersection of religion, science and medicine in China. Passages from the Scripture of Liquid Gold describe the healing powers of drugs and highlight ways medieval writers imagined the transmission of medical knowledge, as well as the specific places producing potent substances. The text provides a view that contravenes standard narratives of foreign medical migration that vector into China via Buddhist channels. As such, we argue that it provides a novel view of medical migration in its time period. As one of the early sources on physical geography and trade goods from Southeast Asia, it is an important resource for early knowledge of the region and is one of the earliest examples of possible Daoist religio-technical continuities between the regions.

The “family resemblance” between the Chinese therapeutic exercises known as daoyin (lit. “guiding and pulling”), and the Indian breathing and physical movement practices later known as haṭhayoga is marked, and would appear to be the result of the transfer of knowledge and culture, in parallel with merchandise, along the Silk Roads and sea routes. China possessed a rich tradition of yangsheng self-cultivation teachings on breathing, sexual techniques and therapeutic exercises from the 3rd century BCE onwards. The complexities of haṭhayoga were not, however, laid bare until the 11th century CE when it was described in the Amṛtasiddhi, the earliest extant haṭhayoga text. Daoyin reached its zenith during the Sui dynasty (581–618 CE), while later on various esoteric doctrines known as neidan (“inner alchemy”) became prominent. These became the major source for those hoping to achieve longevity and immortality and they preceded haṭhayoga by about two centuries. Neidan may well have formed the link between the Chinese and Indian approaches, since they have much in common including advocating bodily inversion, specific non-sexual practices and breath control, as well as the use of the alchemical language.

The manuscript Yin Shu (The Book of Pulling), excavated from Zhangjiashan Han Tomb No. 247, is the earliest surviving text on therapeutic exercise known as Dao Yin (lit. guiding and pulling). Discovered in 1983, this Dao Yin text, together with the drawings of 44 figures performing “guiding and pulling” exercises found in the Mawangdui Han Tomb in 1974, are of great significance to the study of the early history of Dao Yin. Prior to these discoveries, researchers into Dao Yin relied mainly on material found in the Dao Zang (the Daoist Canon), compiled in 1145. This led to their conclusion that Dao Yin was essentially Daoist. The development of Dao Yin reached its zenith during the Sui Dynasty (581–618 CE), when it became one of the three medical departments at the imperial medical education institution. As part of the medical reform of the second Sui Emperor, Yang Di, Dao Yin became the treatment of choice, and the employment of a large number of Dao Yin specialists to the Sui court transformed the state medical service. The compilation of Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun (Treatise on the Origins and Manifestations of Various Diseases) under Yang Di’s decree, incorporated an abundance of resources on Dao Yin, enabling physicians to potentially “prescribe” Dao Yin to their patients. Situating both Yin Shu and Zhu Bing Yuan Hou Lun in their social and historical contexts, this article analyses their editorial treatments, examines their different objectives, styles, and readerships, and compares the various exercises described in the two texts. It emphasizes the fact that over a period of nearly a thousand years, from the late Warring States (475–221 BCE) to the Sui and Tang periods, Dao Yin was an important medical practice, culminating in its institutionalization by the Sui government.