Three Treasures (traditional Chinese medicine)

This Chinese name originally referred to the Daoist "Three Treasures" from the Daodejing, chapter 67: "pity", "frugality", and "refusal to be 'foremost of all things under heaven'". It has subsequently also been used to refer to the and and to the Buddhist Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha), which is a completely different philosophy. The Buddha is the teacher, the Dharma is the teaching, and the Sangha is the community. The Three Jewels of Buddhism are the external supports for achieving realization, while the Three Treasures of Daoism are interior qualities or attitudes to be cultivated. In long-established Chinese traditions, the "Three Treasures" are the essential energies sustaining human life: • () "nutritive essence, essence; spirit, sperm, seed; extract; refined, perfected yin in nature, lower abdominal cavity" • () "vital energy, life force; breath, air, vapor; vitality, vigor; attitude, abdominal cavity" • () "spirit; soul, mind; god, deity; supernatural being and yang in action, upper thoracic cavity" This ordering is more commonly used than the variants and . == Neidan ==

'', a Daoist text on internal alchemy published 1615. In the figurative language of , the 'cauldron' () refers to the head and the 'furnace' () to the abdomen; the 'great cauldron' is the place of the refinement of and '' '' The Daoist "Mind-Seal Scripture of the Exalted Jade Sovereign" ( (), or the "Imprint of the Heart" (), is a valuable early source about the Three Treasures. Frederic H. Balfour's brief 1884 essay about the "Imprint of the Heart" () contains the earliest known Western reference to the Three Treasures: Four stages In ("internal alchemy") practice, transmuting the Three Treasures is expressed through the sequence: • () • : "laying the foundations" • () • : "refining essence into breath" • () • : "refining breath into spirit" • () • : "refining spirit and reverting to emptiness" Sanyuan Both , Neo-Confucianism and Traditional Chinese Medicine distinguish the between "pre heaven" ( ), referring to what is innate or natural, and "post heaven" ( ), referring to what is acquired in the course of life. The former are the "three origins" ( ): • "Original essence" ( ) • "Original breath" ( ) • "Original spirit" ( ) Xing The Huainanzi () relates and to ("form; shape; body"): == Chinese culture ==

The Journey to the West (late 16th century CE) novel refers to the Three Treasures when an enlightened Daoist patriarch instructs Sun Wukong ("Monkey") with a poem that begins: {{poem quote| Know well this secret formula wondrous and true: Spare and nurse the vital forces, this and nothing else. All power resides in the semen [], the breath [], and the spirit []; Guard these with care, securely, lest there be a leak. Lest there be a leak! Keep within the body! == References ==