Chinese jade artifact known as the Xingqi yupei ming (行气玉佩铭, Breath Circulation Jade Pendant Inscription) or Xingqi ming (行气铭, Breath Circulation Inscription). This 45-character rhymed explanation entitled Xíngqì 行氣 "circulating the (vital) breath" was inscribed on a dodecagonal block of jade, tentatively identified as either a knob for a staff or a pendant for hanging from a belt. While the dating is uncertain, estimates range from approximately middle 6th century BCE (Needham 1956: 143) to early 3rd century BCE (Harper 1998: 125). This lapidary text combines nine trisyllabic phrases describing the stages of breath circulation with four explanatory phrases. The Xingqi jade inscription says: To circulate the Vital Breath [行氣]: Breathe deeply, then it will collect [深則蓄]. When it is collected, it will expand [蓄則伸]. When it expands, it will descend [伸則下]. When it descends, it will become stable [則定]. When it is stable, it will be regular [定則固]. When it is regular, it will sprout [固則萌]. When it sprouts, it will grow [萌則長]. When it grows, it will recede [長則退]. When it recedes, it will become heavenly [退則天]. The dynamism of Heaven is revealed in the ascending [天幾舂在上]; The dynamism of Earth is revealed in the descending [地幾舂在下]. Follow this and you will live; oppose it and you will die [順則生 逆則死] (tr. Roth 1997: 298) Han dynasty Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE) historical, medical, and philosophical texts mention circulating breath. The Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), compiled by Sima Tan and his son Sima Qian from the late 2nd century BCE to early 1st century CE, says turtles and tortoises are able to practice xingqi and daoyin. Shiji Chapter 128 Guice liezhuan (龜策列傳, Arrayed Traditions of Tortoise and Yarrow-stalk [Diviners]), which Chu Shaosun (褚少孫, c. 104-30 BCE) appended with a text on sacred tortoises used in plastromancy, claims that the longevity of tortoises results from xingqi breath circulation and daoyin calisthenics: "An old man in south used a tortoise as a leg for his bed, and died after more than ten years. When his bed was removed, the tortoise was still alive. Tortoises are able to practice breath circulation and calisthenics [南方老人用龜支床足 行十餘歲 老人死 移床 龜尚生不死 龜能行氣導引]. Ge Hong's 4th-century Baopuzi (below) quotes Shiji 128 with a different version of this tortoise-bed legend [江淮閒居人為兒時 以龜枝床 至後老死 家人移床 而龜故生], with young rather than old men. When the men living between the Yangtze and the Huai are young, they