Tai Chi Glossary > Daoyin (引导术)

Daoyin (引导术)

Definition: Daoyin (引导术, also written 导引术) means “guiding and pulling.” It names the oldest Chinese exercise tradition — a system of slow, deliberate movements, stretches and bends used as health care long before any martial art or the word qigong (气功) existed. The limbs are led and the body gently “pulled” through its range, with the breath following.

The Mawangdui Silk Manuscript

Excavated in 1972–73 from Tomb 3 at Mawangdui — the tomb of Lady Xin Zhui, dated to about 168 BCE — a silk scroll shows 44 exercises as a therapeutic system, with animal figures, names and indications. It is usually called the Daoyin Tu (导引图, “Guiding-Pulling Chart”) and is the oldest known Chinese exercise manual, roughly 2,200 years old.

The scroll is not a fighting manual. It reads as health practice: mobility for the spine and limbs, breathing to settle the body, and specific movements for specific complaints.

“Guiding and Pulling”

The two halves of the name describe how the practice works. You guide — the hands, waist and breath lead a slow pathway rather than forcing a stretch. You pull — the body is drawn through its range continuously, without stops, bounces or load. This is the same principle later practitioners would describe as “drawing the bow” or “pulling the silk,” and it is why daoyin movements can be deep while staying gentle.

The 14-Form Set Taught Today

The manuscript illustrates 44 exercises; the set preserved in later lineages and taught as the standard Mawangdui routine has 14 standing forms — for example Start (起势), Draw the Bow (挽弓), Drawing the Back (引背), Duck Bath (凫浴), Dragon Ascending (龙登), Bird Stretching (鸟伸), Drawing the Abdomen (引腹), Owl’s Gaze (鸱视), Drawing the Waist (引腰), Wild Goose Flight (雁飞), Crane Dance (鹤舞), Looking Up and Calling (仰呼), Folding Yin (折阴) and the Closing (收势).

Each form carries a documented common mistake and the correction handed down with it — the part most modern instruction leaves out, and the reason the traditional set is still worth learning.

How Daoyin Differs From Other Sets

• Wu Qin Xi (五禽戏) imitates five animals to loosen the joints; daoyin reaches further back and is organised as a catalogue of named indications.
• Ba Duan Jin (八段锦) is built around eight standing patterns with meridian and self-massage work; daoyin is longer-form stretching drawn from a single manuscript.
• All three belong to the same broader Chinese health tradition described under Qigong — daoyin is the oldest layer of it, and Dao is the philosophy underneath.

Where to Practise It

The 14 forms are taught as a complete four-week course in the Mawangdui Daoyin course, with the standing set broken down form by form alongside the common mistakes and corrections.