Cultivating a gentle body: A Chinese perspective

Radically different from the West which was once governed by mind-body dualism, in ancient China there is a more holistic view. With an increasing interest in the body as a discipline, scholars attempt to construct a paradigm shift of body studies. This chapter focuses on the anthropological aspect of the body in ancient Chinese discourse, as e.g. Confucius'. A historical-cultural approach has been applied to trace back the essence of this view of the body. We argue that in ancient China the body could only be understood in terms of family state collective structure. In this case, time (Shi), repetitive exercise (yangsheng, Li) and harmony (yin and yang, Qi) are essential for the nurture and development of an energetic body as modeled e.g. in Chinese medicine.