with the standard qi character) 13 times and (行炁, with the qi variant character typically used in magical Daoist talismans) 11 times. In this text, the term xingqi "loosely designates various practices in which breath is swallowed and then systematically circulated (often guided by visualization) throughout the body. Such practices were often understood as substituting pure cosmic pneumas for ordinary foods (especially grains and meats) as the staples of one's diet." (Campany 2002: 133). In several of Ge Hong's discussions of the sexual arts of self-cultivation, his consistent position is that they, "along with the circulation of pneumas, are necessary supplements [bu 補] to the ingestion of elixirs for the attainment of transcendence." (Campany 2002: 31). Chapter 8 (釋滯 "Resolving Hesitations") provides more detailed information about xingqi than any other Baopuzi chapter. First, breath circulation should be practiced along with controlling ejaculation and taking Daoist drugs. If you wish to seek divinity or geniehood [i.e., xian transcendence], you need only acquire the quintessence, which consists in treasuring your sperm [寶精], circulating your breaths [行炁], and taking one crucial medicine [服一大藥]. That is all! There are not a multitude of things to do. In these three pursuits, however, one must distinguish between the profound and the shallow. You cannot learn all about them promptly unless you meet with a learned teacher and work very, very hard. Many things may be dubbed circulation of the breaths, but there are only a few methods for doing it correctly. Other things may be dubbed good sexual practice, but its true recipe involves almost a hundred or more different activities. Something may be dubbed a medicine to be taken, but there are roughly a thousand such prescriptions. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 138). Second, Ge Hong lists the supernatural powers of xingqi and connects it with taixi embryonic breathing. Through circulation of the breaths [行炁] illnesses can be cured, plague need not be fled, snakes and tigers can be charmed, bleeding from wounds can be halted, one may stay under water or walk on it, be free from hunger and thirst, and protract one's years. The most important part of it is simply to breathe like a fetus [胎息]. He who succeeds in doing this will do his breathing as though in the womb, without using nose or mouth, and for him the divine Process has been achieved. (8, tr. Ware 1966: 138-139), Third, he describes