Nurturing Qi: Embodied Experiences and Modalities of Well-Being in Daoist Self-Cultivation

培養氣：在道教修煉中幸福感的體現經驗與狀態

李山卓(Lazzarelli, Alessandro)

指導教授 ： 陳中民 ； 余舜德

國立清華大學/人文社會學院/人類學研究所/博士(2015年)

摘要

Inner alchemy, also known as qigong in Chinese popular culture, is a form of self-cultivation focused on mind-body practices and energy work. Rooted in Daoist spiritual tradition, it conveys a model of well-being centered on nurturing the vital force or qi, which ranges from longevity to the integration of mind-body-spirit. As such, it constitutes an important topic of study in both psychological and medical anthropology. By drawing from an in-depth ethnographic study of a lay-oriented group of inner alchemy practitioners in Taipei City, the aim of this dissertation is twofold: 1) to investigate what role Daoist self-cultivation plays in the individual learning and internalization of well-being in contemporary Taiwan; 2) to consider this ethnographic case study in relation to the etic discourse on well-being, especially with regard to the theory of flow. Qualitative data show that my informants learn a particular mode of attending to and with their bodies, which also becomes a new modality of knowledge. The benefits attributed to the embodied learning center to a greater or lesser extent on how cultivated mental and bodily attitudes help practitioners to achieve optimal emotional states and on how these states can be integrated in other areas of everyday life. In sum, three key-findings emerge from this ethnographically informed work. First, the concern for well-being in Daoist self-cultivation has a cultural means and goal, that is, to cultivate the self/body in order to achieve optimal mind-body states. Second, optimal states can be consciously learned and evaluated on the basis of both individual experience and the sociocultural context. Third, my ethnographic data partly converge with the theory of flow, but at the same time indicate how an anthropological approach can contribute to positive psychology.

關鍵字

氣 ； 幸福感 ； 體現 ； 修煉 ； 道教

並列摘要

無資料

並列關鍵字

Vital Force ； Well-Being ； Embodiment ； Self-Cultivation ； Daoism

參考文獻

1999 The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. New York: Zone Books.

Lai, Xian Zong and Xiao Jin Ming, eds

2009 Introduction: Bodily Cultivation as a Mode of Learning. Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 7(2):3-12.

Zhan, Jia Yang

Adelson, Naomi