Takuan and Medical Ideas of Zen Busshism 沢庵和尚と禅宗の医学理論

片渕, 美穂子. (2009). "17世紀養生論における身体観 : 沢庵『医説』及び『骨董録』を中心に." スポーツ史研究(22): 33-39.

 

The author discusses the image and the concept of the body in books of regimen in seventeenth-century Japan, focusing on two medical writings of Takuan (1573-1645), an influential Buddhist monk in Rinzai Zen Sect, Isetsu 医説 and Kottōroku 骨董録.  Three important points are made: the body as a microcosm both in terms of the form and the function; the central state of the fluid of qi and how to manage its flow within the body; the importance of the yin-yang and the five elements as actual means of interaction between the body and the environment.