220 stephan peter bumbacher
breathing exercises, its goal is no longer to fully empty out the contents
of consciousness until a condition of total unity with the cosmos is
reached but rather to visualise a divinity in order to secure this superior
being’s presence or to enter into communication with it.
By the second half of the second century AD, visualisation as a
speci c meditation technique had become a common feature of vari-
ous popular religious movements as is attested by epigraphical sources.
Wangzi Qiao’s stele Wangzi Qiao bei of 165 AD and attributed
to Cai Yong (132–192) describes how the emperor had sent an
emissary to offer sacri ces in order to honour the spirit of the former
prince Qiao who had turned into an immortal and at whose grave a
temple had been erected. This immortal became known as being very
powerful since sick and emaciated people who used to come, cleanse
their bodies and pray for help were cured immediately, as long as they
were reverent. Then the inscription goes on to say that ardent Daoists
(hao dao zhi chou ) came from afar “some [of whom] would
converse about visualising in order to pass through the cinnabar eld”
(huo tan si yi li dan tian ). The cinnabar eld is a spot
inside the human body, located below the navel. It is described in a
text of perhaps the end of the Later Han, the Laozi zhong jing
(Old Master’s Middle Text), in the following way:
The scripture says: The Cinnabar Field is the root of the human being.
This is the place where the vital power is kept. The ve energies [of
the ve phases] have their origin here. It is the embryo’s home. Here
men keep their semen and women their menstrual blood. Meant for the
procreation of children, it houses the gate of harmonious union of yin
and yang. Three inches under the navel, adjacent to the spine, [the Cin-
nabar Field] lies at the base of the kidneys. It is scarlet inside, green on
the left, yellow on the right, white on top, and black on the bottom. It is
four inches around. Its location three inches below the navel symbolises
the trinity of Heaven, Earth, and Humans.^99Unfortunately, the inscription does not make clear how its phrase “some
would converse about visualising in order to pass through the cinnabar
eld” is to be understood. Two possibilities seem to be plausible. Either it
means that the breath is to be visualised as it passes through the cinnabar
eld and, possibly, beyond. For this we nd a reference in a work that
may date from between 164–255,^100 the Huangting waijing jing
(^99) Schipper 1993, pp. 106f.
(^100) Bumbacher 2001, p. 154.