Jing-Qi-Shen
Glossary: jing-qi-shen 精气神 — the 'three treasures' of Daoist cultivation, and what they are not.
Jing-qi-shen (精气神, jīng-qì-shén) — the “three treasures” (三寶, sanbao) of Daoist cultivation: jing (essence, the dense vital substance), qi (vital breath/energy), shen (spirit, the luminous-mind principle). The Taiping Jing defines shouyi — guarding the One — precisely as keeping these three united in the body.
Translation note: jing is often glossed “essence” (reproductive and vital); shen is “spirit” in the sense of awareness-luminosity, not ghost. The triad is a traditional physiology, not a scientific claim — translate faithfully, but never present the model as anatomy. Context fixes each term’s register.
The three registers
- Jing 精 — the dense, condensing register: what the tradition calls essence, stored and spent.
- Qi 气 — the moving register: vital breath, what circulates and can be tuned (see tiaoxi).
- Shen 神 — the luminous register: what condenses when attention steadies (see the shen entry).
The triad’s practice formula — refine jing to qi, qi to shen — is the alchemical reading; the Han reading (Taiping Jing) is simpler: shouyi means keeping the three from scattering.
Sources
- Taiping Jing (shouyi as guarding jing, qi, shen); Daodejing ch. 10