Early Daoist Dietary Practices

Focusing on the early medieval herbal recipes found in the Lingbao Wufuxu (The Preface to the Five Lingbao Talismans of Numinous Treasure), this study analyses Daoist asceticism and ideas regarding the body, health, grain avoidance diets, the Three Worms, and immortality. Arthur examines the synthesis of religion, medicine, and correlative cosmology, while also employing scientific and medical research to analyze the healing properties and underlying worldview of Daoist self-cultivation diets.