The Relationship between Theory and Practice in Taoism: Taking Zhong-Lü Internal Alchemy as an Example

Hongli  Zhu

doi:10.54691/a9r2jn50

Authors

Hongli Zhu

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54691/a9r2jn50

Keywords:

Zhong-Lü internal alchemy; Taoist practice; Taoist theory; interaction relationship；cultivating both nature and life (xingming shuangxiu 性命双修).

Abstract

This study takes Zhong-Lü Internal Alchemy (钟吕丹道 Zhong-Lü Dan Dao) as a case to systematically examine the interactive relationship between Taoist theory and practice. As an important system marking the shift of Taoist cultivation from external to internal alchemy, Zhong-Lü Internal Alchemy formed a complete cosmology, theoretical principles, a structured path of cultivation, and developed a set of embodied and operable cultivation practices. This article suggests that the core mechanism of this system is the dynamic interplay between theory and practice: on the one hand, theory provides guidance for cultivation through a series of concepts, transforming abstract concepts into concrete bodily sensations; On the other hand, the practice of internal alchemical cultivation constantly tests theories, manifested by using the physiological and psychological states that arise during cultivation as the testing criteria, and using the problems that arise in practice as theoretical supplements. The study further argues that the mutual construction of theory and practice model established by Zhong-Lü Internal Alchemy expanded the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and enabled the absorption of internal alchemy into folk beliefs. The study concludes that the relationship between theory and practice in Taoism is not a one-way guidance or generation, but a dialectical unity process of continuous mutual construction and achievement in the context of history and practice.

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