ABSTRACT
This chapter examines “Daoist body-maps,” that is, illustrated diagrams of the Daoist subtle body and somatic landscape. Drawing on my sustained research on what I refer to as the “Daoist alchemical body” and “Daoist mystical body,” I give particular attention to the relationship of these diagrams to contemplative practice and contemplative experience. I detail the technical specifics of the corresponding practices (e.g., visualization, internal alchemy) and the transformative effects. The latter include the activation or creation of a subtle body, which corresponds to “immortality” in Daoist terms. The corporeal maps reveal a body within the body, a body capable of the transcendence of physical death. In the process, I reflect on Chinese Daoist conceptions of “the body” and the consequences for the comparative and cross-cultural study of embodiment, including as the medium for lived, experiential, and transformative being.
