Anethesiologist Flushing Hospital & Medical Center Flushing, New
York.A Brief History of Taoism and Healing Arts
By Stephen Pan, Ph.D.
For many centuries, meditation and special exercises forms have
been used by the Ancient Chinese, Hindus, Arabs, Jews and Chris-
tians as a means of improving the human mind and body. In China,
the Taoists called it “Chi Kung,” or “Cultivation of Energies.” Ac-
cording to Taoist classics, Tu Hse, who lived about 8,000 years
ago, was the successor to many great pre-historical sages. He
was the great Taoist sage who began the use of the eight kua of
the I Ching such as the great power of observation and the power
of simplifying obscure masses of material. This resulted in a most
perfect yogic and meditational form, which incorporated the insights
of Tao philosophy.
Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that the Indian practice
today of Kundalini Yoga is somewhat similar to the Taoist “Chi Kung.”
More than 2,000 years ago, the Indian Master Bodhidharma trav-
eled to China. There he meditated for nine years facing a wall at
Shao Lin Temple. He established a school, which incorporated the
Indian practice in a new manner. From the time of the founding of
this school, many Chinese men of great ability practiced medita-
tion as taught by this Indian Master and gradually applied to it the
perticular qualities of the Chinese culture.
These esoteric practices were an integral part of the develop-
ment of Chinese medicine, where acupuncture, herbology and other
aspects of what would now be called “holistic” medicine reached a
state of high refinement unsurpassed by any other early civiliza-
tion. But by the end of the fourteenth century in China, these arts
were in decline for various political reasons, causing many of the
teachers to be scattered from their schools and forced to go under
ground.
The various approaches have been compiled in a Chinese Tao-
ist encyclopedia that fills hundreds of volumes. The Taoist ap-
proaches have been divided into more than ten branches of study,
some of which have very different methods of practice ranging
from breathing techniques to alchemical secrets.Chapter XI