Living on Qi

Daoists have a gradated system of foodstuffs, grains being at the bottom, followed by vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, minerals, and qi. In order to eschew feeding on denser materials, they propose two major ways: gradually replacing food with herbal concoctions and replacing it with qi. To succeed in the latter, they work with a gradated reduction and reorientation of foodstuffs as well as with systematic practices of enhancing the breath and guiding qi. Practical instructions as found in medieval sources include food scheduling, herbal recipes, methods of qi manipulation, as well as details on social interaction.