Bigu (grain avoidance)

Shennong tasting plants to discover their qualities

Bigu (simplified Chinese: 辟谷; traditional Chinese: 辟穀; pinyin: bìgǔ; Wade–Giles: pi-ku; lit. 'avoiding grains') is a Daoist fasting technique associated with achieving xian "transcendence; immortality". Grain avoidance is related to multifaceted Chinese cultural beliefs. For instance, bigu fasting was the common medical cure for expelling the sanshi 三尸 "Three Corpses", the malevolent, grain-eating spirits that live in the human body (along with the hun and po souls), report their host's sins to heaven every 60 days, and carry out punishments of sickness and early death. Avoiding "grains" has been diversely interpreted to mean not eating particular foodstuffs (food grain, cereal, the Five Grains, wugu, or staple food), or not eating any food (inedia). In the historical context of traditional Chinese culture within which the concept of bigu developed, there was great symbolic importance connected with the five grains and their importance in sustaining human life, exemplified in various myths and legends from ancient China and throughout subsequent history. The concept of bigu developed in reaction to this tradition, and within the context of Daoist philosophy.

Terminology

The Chinese word bigu compounds bi 辟 "ruler; monarch; avoid; ward off; keep away" and gu 穀 or 谷 "cereal; grain; (穀子) millet". The bi 辟 meaning in bigu is a variant Chinese character for bi 避 "avoid; shun; evade; keep away" (e.g., bixie 辟邪 or 避邪 "ward off evil spirits; talisman; amulet"). The alternate pronunciation of pi 辟 "open up; develop; refute; eliminate" is a variant character for 闢. The complex 14-stroke traditional Chinese character gu 穀 "grain" has a 7-stroke simplified Chinese character gu 谷 "valley; gorge." Although a few Chinese dictionaries gloss the pronunciation of bigu 辟穀 as pigu, the definitive Hanyu Da Cidian (1997) gives bigu.

English lexicographic translations of bigu are compared in this table.

Catherine Despeux lists synonyms for bigu "abstention from cereals": duangu Chinese: 斷穀; pinyin: Duàn gǔ "stopping cereals" (with duan 斷 "cut off; sever; break; give up"), juegu 絕穀 "discontinuing cereals" (jue 絕 "cut off; sever; refuse; reject"), quegu 卻穀 "refraining from cereals" (que 卻 "retreat; decline; reject; refuse"), and xiuliang Chinese: 修糧; pinyin: Xiū liáng "stopping grains" (with xiu 修 "repair; trim; prune' cultivate" and liang 糧 "grain; food").

Juegu, unlike these other alternative expressions, had meanings besides Daoist dietary practices. For instance, the (c. 139 BCE) Huainanzi uses juegu in a traditional saying: "Now, rejecting study because those who study have faults is like taking one instance of choking to refuse grain and not eat or taking one problem with stumbling to stop walking and not go [anywhere]." About one century later, Liu Xiang's Shuoyuan Chinese: 說苑; pinyin: Shuō yuàn "Garden of Stories" rephrases this simile about choking once and discontinuing grains.

Agricultural mythology

Shennong ploughing fields, Han dynasty mural

Chinese folklore and mythology associated several divinities with agriculture and grains.

Suiren "Firelighting Person" was a three-eyed sage who discovered how to make fire and invented cooking. This sui 燧 means "flint; bow drill; burning mirror".
Shennong "Farmer God", also known as Wuguxiandi 五穀先帝 "Emperor of the Five Grains", taught humans agricultural techniques and herbal medicine. Shennong is specifically credited with teaching humans to cultivate and eat the five grains. The list of which grains were counted varied, but the various lists generally include the leguminous soybean, according to Lihui Yang. The (139 BCE) Huainanzi describes Shennong transforming human society from hunter-gatherer to agriculture.

Houji "Lord Millet" is the god or goddess of agriculture and ancestor of the Zhou people. The Shijing poem Shengmin "Birth of the [Zhou] People" praises Houji for inventing both agriculture and sacrifices.
Hou Tu "Lord Earth" was the god or goddess deity of the soil, and supposedly the progenitor of the giant Kua Fu. Worshipped at sheji altars.

While traditional Chinese mythology depicted cooking and agriculture as key elements of civilization, the Daoists created a "counter-narrative" to justify the idea of grain avoidance. For example, the Confucianist Xunzi and Legalist Hanfeizi describe Suiren as cultural folk hero.

In contrast, the Zhuangzi "Mending Nature" chapter mentions Suiren first in a list of mythic sage-rulers – Fu Xi, Shennong, Yellow Emperor, Tang of Shang, and Yu the Great, traditionally credited with advancing civilization – but depicts them as villains who began the destruction of the primal harmony of the Dao. Campany calls this "the decline of Power and the ever-farther departure from the natural Dao into systems of social constraint and what passes for culture."

Grains in Chinese agriculture and culture

The traditional Chinese symbol for civilization and state was gu "grains; cereals" (a synecdoche for "agricultural products").

The Wangzhi "Royal Regulations" chapter of the Liji uses cooking food and eating grains to culturally classify the Chinese "Middle Kingdom" bordered by the "Four Barbarians" (eastern Yi, southern Man, western Rong, and northern Di).

Kwang-chih Chang interprets this Liji context to mean, "One could eat grain but also eat raw meat or one could eat his meat cooked but eat no grain. Neither was fully Chinese. A Chinese by definition ate grain and cooked his meat."

During the first dynasties of the Qin and Han, when Daoism simultaneously became a mass movement, Chinese agricultural techniques were revolutionized. Applying methods from the (256 BCE) Dujiangyan Irrigation System, arable land was converted into rice fields, with two or more harvests annually, resulting in widespread deforestation.

The nong 農 "peasant; farmer" was second-highest of the Four Occupations under the traditional Chinese feudal system. Kristofer Schipper says,

When natural or human catastrophes occurred, the peasants could take refuge in non-arable regions of mountains and survive on wild foods other than grains.

The sheji (Chinese: 社稷; pinyin: Shèjì") altars to soil and grain gods" were the ritual center of a Chinese state. Originally, she 社 was the "god of the land" and ji 稷 the "god of the harvest" (cf. Houji above), and the compound sheji "gods of soil and grain" metaphorically means "the state; the nation". The Shiji says establishing a new dynasty required eliminating the sheji altars of the preceding dynasty and erecting one's own.

Offerings of grain, liquor (a grain product), and meat were necessary not only for sheji sacrifices but for ancestral sacrifices. The obligation to feed the ancestral dead was fundamental to Chinese society. Campany summarizes the cultural importance of sacrificing "grains" to feed both natural and ancestral spirits.

The Chinese character for jing (Chinese: 精; pinyin: Jīng) "spirit; essence of life; energy" is written with the rice radical (Chinese: 米; pinyin: Mǐ).

Early textual references

The first textual references to "avoiding grains/cereals" are found in Chinese classics from the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE), and Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE).

A (c. 3rd century BCE) Zhuangzi chapter describes a shenren 神人 "divine person" who does not eat grains but mysteriously helps them grow.

In this passage, Maspero recognizes the principal Daoist practices that were current during the Six Dynasties period: "(1) abstention from Cereals, (2) respiratory exercises, and (3) concentration and meditation. The "journey beyond the Four Seas" (4) corresponds to a manner of directing ecstasy," resembling astral projection.

The (168 BCE) Quegu shiqi(Chinese: 卻穀食氣; pinyin: Què gǔ shí qì) "Eliminating Grain and Eating Qi" manuscript, which was discovered in 1973 among the Mawangdui Silk Texts, is the oldest documented grain-avoidance diet. This Chinese medical manual outlines a method for replacing grains with qi circulations, and consuming medicinal herbs, notably the fern shiwei (Chinese: 石韋; pinyin: Shí wéi) "Pyrrosia lingua" as a diuretic to treat urine retention resulting from eliminating grains. This text dichotomizes diets with the square-earth round-heaven model from Chinese cosmography and fengshui, "Those who eat grain eat what is square; those who eat qi eat what is round. Round is heaven; square is earth."

The (139 BCE) Huainanzi chapter on topography (4) correlates diet and lifespan. "Those that feed on flesh are brave and daring but are cruel. Those that feed on qi [attain] spirit illumination and are long-lived. Those that feed on grain are knowledgeable and clever but short-lived. Those that do not feed on anything do not die and are spirits."

Sima Qian's (c. 91 BCE) Records of the Grand Historian (26) mentions bigu in connection with Zhang Liang (262–189 BCE), or the Marquis of Liu, who served as teacher and strategist for Emperor Gaozu of Han (r. 202–195 BCE). Zhang officially requested "to lay aside the affairs of this world, and join the Master of the Red Pine in immortal sport" (referring to Chisongzi (Chinese: 赤松子; pinyin: Chìsōng zǐ)"Master Red Pine", a legendary xian who, like Guiguzi, abstained from grains), and the emperor permitted it. Zhang Liang "set about practising dietary restrictions and breathing and stretching exercises to achieve levitation" (namely, bigu, daoyin, and qingshen (Chinese: 輕身; pinyin: Qīng shēn) "lightening the body"). After Gaozu died, Empress Lü Zhi urged Zhang to eat, saying, "Man's life in this world is as brief as the passing of a white colt glimpsed through a crack in the wall. Why should you punish yourself like this?" Zhang "had no other recourse but to listen to her advice and begin eating again. Eight years later he died." Based upon this account (which is also found in the Lunheng), Campany concludes that by the late 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, "the idea that some practitioners were abstaining from grains while practicing methods for consuming, directing, and cultivating qi as alternate nourishment was ubiquitous and commonplace."

The (c. 111 CE) Book of Han mentions bigu in context with the fangshi "alchemist; magician" Li Shaojun teaching Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) a "method of worshipping the furnace and abstaining from cereals to prevent old age". Since grains were cooked on the stove, in raw/cooked logic, grain avoidance was traditionally linked with worship of Zaoshen 灶神 The Stove God. In a reversal of not eating the Five Grains to obtain immortality, the Book of Han also records that in 10 CE, the usurper Wang Mang paid the fangshi Su Lo 蘇樂, who claimed to know the xian secrets of longevity, to plant some "immortality grain".

The Confucian scholar Liu Xiang (79–8 BCE) edited several classical texts, including the (c. 26 BCE) Guanzi that repeatedly praises grain eating. The first chapter "Neiye" "Inner Training" begins by comparing the jing 精 "essence" in grains and stars.

Campany knows of "no text that exalts grains more highly or insists on their importance more strongly than the Guanzi." Compare: "The five grains and the eating of rice are the people's Director of Allotted Lifespans" (i.e., Siming) and "In all cases the five grains are the controllers of all things" (meaning the market price of grains affects all economic values).

Liu Xiang's hagiography of Daoist xian, the Liexian Zhuan "Collected Biographies of Immortals", tells the famous "Hairy Woman" legend in terms of grain avoidance.

Campany states, "Few narratives more succinctly summarize the argument that ordinary foods or "grains" block the path to transcendence." Ge Hong's (3rd century) Shenxian zhuan gives a different version – including the Hairy Woman's name of Yu Qiang and not mentioning her being captured or fed grains. According to Daoist tradition, the Qin dynasty transcendent Han Zhong (fl. 215–210 BCE) ate Acorus calamus (sweet flag) for thirteen years and developed thick body hair that protected him from cold in winter.

Two chapters of Wang Chong's (c. 80 CE) Lunheng criticize the practice of avoiding grains as mistaken. The "Daoist Untruths" chapter uses Li Shao Jun, who "knew some clever maneuvers and some fine tricks, which did not fail to produce a wonderful effect", to exemplify confusing Daoist xian immortality techniques with natural longevity.

This context also mentions Wang Ziquiao 王子僑, a son of King Ling of Zhou (r. 571–545 BCE).

The Lunheng "Meaning of Sacrifice" chapter mentions juegu in criticizing the tradition of presenting food and wine sacrifices to ancestral spirits.

Lu Jia's (Chinese: 陸賈; pinyin: Lù jiǎ) (c. 191 BCE) Xinyu(Chinese: 新語; pinyin: Xīnyǔ) "New Sayings" criticizes bigu among other early Daoist xian transcendental practices.

The (c. 190–220 CE) Xiang'er commentary to the Daodejing contrasts qi-eaters and grain-eaters.

Ge Hong's (c. 320 CE) Baopuzi contains classical discussions of bigu techniques. For instance, chapter 6, "The Meaning of 'Subtle'" (微旨), equates grain avoidance with the supernatural abilities of a xian transcendent.

Chapter 15, "Miscellanea" (Chinese: 雜應; pinyin: Zá yīng), describes "avoiding grains" in terms that Campany says are "tantamount to not eating food at all" and "merely swallowing saliva and qi and ingesting medicinal preparations to suppress appetite and strengthen the body." The chapter begins with the interlocutor asking about duangu "cutting off grains" and changsheng (Chinese: 長生; pinyin: Chángshēng)"longevity" (meaning "eternal life" in Daoist terminology). "I should like to inquire whether a man can attain Fullness of Life by merely dispensing with starches. How many methods for this are there altogether, and which is the best?" Ge Hong gives a lengthy answer, citing both personal observations and textual records. Practitioners medicinally used huangqing (Chinese: 黃精; pinyin: Huáng jīng) "yellow essence" ("polygonatum; Solomon's Seal") and yuyu 禹餘糧 "Yu's leftover grain" ("limonite").

Warning that abandoning grains is difficult – "If you consider it inconvenient to break with the world, abandon your household, and live high on a peak, you will certainly not succeed" – Ge Hong notes the popularity of alternative dietary techniques.

Ge Hong chronicles the effects of grain avoidance.

This "holy water" refers to a Daoist fu (Chinese: 符; pinyin: Fú) "talisman" dissolved in water. Ge Hong further cites an Eastern Wu historical example to show that drinking holy water cannot prevent death. When Emperor Jing of Wu (r. 258–264) heard about Shi Chun (Chinese: 石春; pinyin: Shí chūn), a Daoist healer "who would not eat in order to hasten the cure when he was treating a sick person," he exclaimed,

In the Baopuzi, Ge Hong criticizes contemporary charlatans who claimed to have duangu "cut off grains".

The (c. 4th–5th century) Taishang Lingbao Wufuxu (Chinese: 太上靈寶五符序; pinyin: Tài shàng líng bǎo wǔ fú xù) "Explanations of the Five Numinous Treasure Talismans", attributed to the Han Daoist Lezichang (Chinese: 樂子長; pinyin: Lèzi zhǎng), gives instructions for practicing bigu, swallowing saliva, and ingesting the "five wonder plants" (pine resin, sesame, pepper, ginger, and calamus). This "Explanations" text includes the (c. 280) Lingbao wufu jing (Chinese: 靈寶五符經; pinyin: Líng bǎo wǔ fú jīng) "Scripture of the Five Numinous Treasure Talismans", which says:

Campany uses internalism and externalism to analyze how early texts justified the idea that shiqi (Chinese: 食氣; pinyin: Shí qì)"eating qi" is better than shigu "eating grains". For examples, "We eat X because X makes us live long" is an internalist rationale based upon essential properties or benefits; "We eat X and not Y, which is what those other people eat" is an externalist claim based upon cultural stereotypes. After comprehensive analysis of how early texts describe "grain" (i.e., "mainstream food") avoidance, from the (c. 320 BCE) Zhuangzi to the (c. 320 CE) Baopuzi, Campany concludes the (c. 280 CE) Lingbao wufu jing is the earliest passage "in which grains are attacked as a food source based on what we might call negative internalist reasons—that is, on the grounds that they cause actual harm to the body in specific, theorized ways." Before the 3rd century, Chinese classical texts did not claim that "grains" actually harm the body, they argued that " qi and other more refined substances, when ingested and circulated in esoterically prescribed ways, give superior and (for some texts at least) longevity-inducing nourishment."

Echoing Claude Lévi-Strauss, Campany suggests that grains, inexorably linked with all their cultural and institutional symbolisms, were "good to oppose" rather than being seen as intrinsically "bad to eat." One of the major reasons for consuming wild plants and exotic foods was the inherent contrast with eating everyday "grains".

Daoist rejection of grain

The avoidance of "grain" signifies the Daoist rejection of common social practices. According to Kohn, "It is a return to a time in the dawn of humanity when there were as yet no grains; it is also a return to a more primitive and simple way of eating."

Daoist bigu practices created excuses to quit the agricultural-based Chinese society in which grains were necessary for basic food, ancestral sacrifices, and tax payments.

Grain abstention was prerequisite for the Daoist practice of yangxing 養性 "nourishing the inner nature". Maspero explains.

Some versions of "grain avoidance" could result in health problems, as discussed by Maspero.

Chinese Buddhism adopted Daoist grain abstention as a preparation for self-immolation. For instance, the monk Huiyi 慧益 (d. 463), who vowed to burn his body in sacrifice to the Buddha, began preparations by queli "abstaining from grains" (eating only sesame and wheat) for two years, then consumed only oil of thyme, and finally ate only pills made of incense. Although Emperor Xiaowu of Liu Song (r. 453–464) tried to dissuade Huiyi, he publicly immolated himself in a cauldron full of oil, wearing an oil-soaked cap to act as a wick, while chanting the Lotus Sutra.

The Three Corpses or Worms

Avoiding grains was the primary medical cure for eliminating the sanshi 三尸 "Three Corpses" or sanchong 三蟲 "Three Worms", which are evil spirits believed to live in the human body and hasten death. Livia Kohn describes the Three Corpses as "demonic supernatural creatures who feed on decay and are eager for the body to die altogether so they can devour it. Not only do they thus shorten the lifespan but they also delight in the decaying matter produced by the grains as they are digested in the intestines. If one is to attain long life, the three worms have to be starved, and the only way to do so is to avoid all grain."

Traditional Chinese medicine links the mythological Three Corpses/Worms with the intestinal jiuchong 九蟲 "Nine Worms", which "correspond to parasites such as roundworms or tapeworms, weaken the host's body and cause a variety of physical symptoms".

The Three Corpses allegedly enter the human body at birth, and reside in the Upper, Middle, and Lower Dantian "Cinnabar Fields" within the brain, heart, and abdomen, respectively. After their host dies, they become ghosts and are free to roam about stealing sacrificial offerings. These pernicious corpse-worms seek to harm both their host's body and fate. First, they weaken the bodily Dantian energy centers. Second, the Three Corpses keep records or their host's misdeeds, ascend to tian "heaven" bimonthly on the Chinese sexagenary cycle day gengshen 庚申 "57th of the 60", and file reports to the Siming 司命 "Director of Destinies" who assigns punishments to shorten the host's lifespan. For genghsen days, the (4th century) Huangtingjing 黃庭經 "Yellow Court Scripture" says, "Do not sleep either day or night, and you shall become immortal."

In addition to the Three Corpses making a bimonthly report to the Director of Fate, the Baopuzi records the Hearth God making one.

Bigu abstinence from grains and cereals, which allegedly makes the Three Corpses waste away, is the basis for many Daoist dietetic regimens, which can also exclude wine, meat, onion, and garlic. The Jinjian yuzi jing 金簡玉字經 "Classic of Jade Characters on Slips of Gold" specifies, "Those who, in their food, cut off cereals must not take wine, nor meat, nor plants of the five strong flavors; they must bathe, wash their garments, and burn incense." Practicing bigu alone cannot eliminate the Three Corpses, but will weaken them to the point where they can be killed with alchemical drugs, particularly cinnabar.

Early Daoist texts and traditions portray the Three Corpses in both "zoomorphic and bureaucratic metaphors". The (4th century CE) Ziyang zhenren neizhuan 紫陽真人內傳 "Inner Biography of the True Person of Purple Yang" described them living in the Three Cinnabar Fields.

Qīnggǔ 青古 "Old Blue" dwells in the Muddy Pellet Palace within the Upper Dantian, "It is he who makes men blind, or deaf, or bald, who makes the teeth fall out, who stops up the nose and gives bad breath."
Bái gū 白姑 "White Maiden" dwells in the Crimson Palace within the Middle Field, "She causes palpitations of the heart, asthma, and melancholy."
Xuè shī 血尸 "Bloody Corpse" dwells in the Lower Dantian, "It is through him that the intestines are painfully twisted, that the bones are dried out, that the skin withers, that the limbs have rheumatisms..."

Compare the (9th century) Chu sanshi jiuchong baosheng jing "Scripture on Expelling the Three Corpses and Nine Worms to Protect Life" description.

The upper corpse, Péng jū 彭琚, lives in the head. Symptoms of its attack include a feeling of heaviness in the head, blurred vision, deafness, and excessive flow of tears and mucus.
The middle corpse, Péng zàn 彭瓚, dwells in the heart and stomach. It attacks the heart, and makes its host crave sensual pleasures.
The lower corpse, Péng jiǎo 彭矯, resides in the stomach and legs. It causes the Ocean of Pneuma ... to leak, and makes its host lust after women.

This text's woodblock illustrations depict the upper corpse as a scholarly man, the middle as a short quadruped, and the lower corpse as "a monster that looks like a horse's leg with a horned human head".

The Japanese folk tradition of Kōshin (namely, the Japanese pronunciation of gengshen 庚申 "57th") combines the Daoist Three Corpses with Shintō and Buddhist beliefs, including the Three Wise Monkeys. People attend Kōshin-Machi 庚申待 "57th Day Waiting" events to stay awake all night and prevent the Sanshi 三尸 "Three Corpses" from leaving the body and reporting misdeeds to heaven.

Famine foods

Famine food plants, which are not normally considered as crops, are consumed during times of extreme poverty, starvation, or famine. Bigu diets were linked with mountain wilderness areas in which one relied upon non-grain foods, including famine foodstuffs and underutilized crops. Despeux said, "Abstention from cereals should also be situated in the historical context of social unrest and famine."

The Mouzi Lihuolun introduction describes people who fled China after the death of Emperor Ling of Han and moved south to Cangwu in Jiaozhou (present day Tonkin).

These refutations of grain avoidance are found in Mouzi Lihuolun Article 30.

The Baopuzi discussion of grain abstention notes,

The Chinese published the oldest book on famine foods: the Jiuhuang Bencao 救荒本草 "Materia Medica for the Relief of Famine". Zhu Su 朱橚 (1361–1425), the fifth son of the Hongwu Emperor, compiled this treatise describing 414 famine food plants. Bernard Read (1946) translated the Jiuhuang bencao into English.

Modern interpretations

The ancient Daoist practice of bigu grain avoidance resonates in present-day trends such as some low-carbohydrate diets, grain-free diets, and cyclic ketogenic diets.

Schipper uses medical terminology to explain grain avoidance.

Some contemporary researchers are clinically investigating bigu fasting.

References

Campany, Robert Ford (2005). "The Meanings of Cuisines of Transcendence in Late Classical and Early Medieval China". T'oung Pao. 91 (1): 1–57. doi:10.1163/1568532054905124.
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Despeux, Catherine (2008). "Bigu 辟榖 abstention from cereals". In Pregadio, Fabrizio (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Taoism. Two volumes. Routledge. ISBN 9780700712007.
Lun-hêng, Part 1, Philosophical Essays of Wang Ch'ung. Translated by Forke, Alfred. Harrassowitz. 1907.
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The Huainanzi: A Guide to the Theory and Practice of Government in Early Han China. Translated by Major, John S.; Queen, Sarah; Meyer, Andrew; Roth, Harold D. Columbia University Press. 2010. ISBN 9780231142045.
Maspero, Henri (1981). Taoism and Chinese Religion. Translated by Kierman Jr., Frank A. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9780870233081.
Read, Bernard E. (1946). Famine foods listed in the Chiu huang pen ts'ao 救荒本草: giving their identity, nutritional values and notes on their preparation. Henry Lester Institute of Medical Research.
Schipper, Kristofer (1978). "The Taoist Body". History of Religions. 17 (3/4): 355–386. doi:10.1086/462798. S2CID 224808223.
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Footnotes

External links

Yoked to Earth: A Treatise on Corpse-Demons and Bigu Archived 2020-10-14 at the Wayback Machine, Frederick R. Dannaway (2009)
Chinese Bigu (避谷) for Yang Sheng, Martin Eisen (2011)
What Bigu Means to Me, Eve Adesso (2000)
Conference Report, The First National Conference on the Bigu Manifestation, Health Effects and Scientific Research of Yan Xin Qigong, Pennsylvania State University, June 24–25, 2000.