Series |
Sinica venetiana
Edited book | What Other Words Do You Expect Me to Add?
Chapter | Alchimia femminile. Brani dall’opera di Liu Yiming 刘一明 (1734-1821)
Alchimia femminile. Brani dall’opera di Liu Yiming 刘一明 (1734-1821)
Abstract
This essay features translations from the works of Daoist patriarch Liu Yiming 劉一明 (1734-1821) on the specific topic of female alchemy, or nüdan, the process of Daoist self-cultivation for women. This process differs from male self-cultivation in many important ways. It starts by focusing on the breasts, not the abdomen, where male cultivation begins. It continues by transforming Blood (xue 血), understood to be the most important element of female physiology. Refining blood into an essential source of energy is at the root of female self-cultivation which, aided by internal visualisations, breast massage, and guided breathing, aims at creating a pure Yang body, able to transcend this world.
Submitted: March 29, 2022 | Accepted: July 28, 2022 | Published Dec. 22, 2022 | Language: it
Keywords Female alchemy • Nüdan • Liu Yiming • Self-cultivation • Daoism
Copyright © 2022 Elena Valussi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-640-4/012
