Three Treasures (traditional Chinese medicine)

The French sinologist Despeux summarizes: Jing, qi, and shen are three of the main notions shared by Taoism and Chinese culture alike.

In long-established Chinese traditions, the "Three Treasures" are the essential energies sustaining human life: This jing-qi-shen ordering is more commonly used than the variants qi-jing-shen and shen-qi-jing.

[2][3] Probably dating from the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), this anonymous text presents a simple and concise discussion of internal alchemy (neidan 內丹).

In particular, it emphasizes the so-called Three Treasures (sanbao 三寶), namely, vital essence (jing 精), subtle breath (qi 氣), and spirit (shen 神).Frederic H. Balfour's brief 1884 essay about the "Imprint of the Heart" (Xinyin jing) contains the earliest known Western reference to the Three Treasures:[4] "There are three degrees of Supreme Elixir – the Spirit, the Breath, and the Essential Vigour.

If either of them loses their proper position, they will all come to harm.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: Know well this secret formula wondrous and true: Spare and nurse the vital forces, this and nothing else.

Woodcut illustration of the 'Great and Small Cauldron and Furnace' from Pointers on Spiritual Nature and Bodily Life Xingming guizhi , a Daoist text on internal alchemy published 1615. In the figurative language of neidan , the 'cauldron' ( ding ) refers to the head and the 'furnace' ( lu ) to the abdomen; the 'great cauldron' is the place of the refinement of jin, qi, and shen
Woodcut illustration of the practice known as 'Refining form in the True Void' ( zhenkong lianxing ) from 1615 Xingming guizhi
The Three Vitalities Meeting 三家相見圖, 1615 Xingming guizhi