ABSTRACT
In contrast to the religious texts, the Dunhuang medical manuscripts have attracted little scholarly attention. Bearing in mind the broader religious backdrop of the Tang period, this chapter examines the provenance of some Dunhuang medical texts that I believe to have a particular Daoist character, yet have survived within a Buddhist institutional setting. Several of the manuscripts describe forms of regimen such as breath cultivation, and ingesting pills which increase longevity and confer other magical qualities; others use pharmacological substances in different ways to promote extraordinary sensory perceptions, or to promote unusual skills. Differentiating Daoist from more widespread Chinese religious practice is inevitably a conundrum. A practical definition might be that we can consider a practice Daoist (although not necessarily exclusively so) if it is included in the Daoist canon. After all, the main part of the canon was set down before the Tang period. What follows is a detailed analysis of three texts and a full translation of one, which I hope will contribute in a small way to our understanding of the religious character of the Dunhuang medical cache.
