Abstract
Objectives : Medical qigong, originated from Mawangdui Daoyintu (馬王堆 導引圖), mainly consists of meditation, physical movements, and breathing exercises. It has been widely used to cure a variety of diseases as a regimen in Oriental medicine. This study was aimed to analyze the characteristics of medical qigong movements in the Mawangdui Daoyintu and to observe a link between each medical qigong movement and meridian system. Methods : We extracted fourteen medical qigong movements from forty-four figures in Mawangdui Daoyintu. We compared the 14 medical qigong movements of the Mawangdui Daoyintu with other types' movements of medical qigong methods. We also analyzed each movement of medical qigong in Mawangdui Daoyintu with a perspective of meridian system. Results : We found that there were common features between the medical qigong movements of the Mawangdui Daoyintu and other types' movements of medical qigong methods, including Yukjagyeol (六字訣), Paldangum (八段錦), Yukgengyeng (易筋經) and so on. From the comparison of each movement and meridian qi flow, we also found several movements related with Liver meridian and one movement related with several meridians. Conclusions : Our findings would be beneficial to understand the movements of medical qigong in the Mawangdui Daoyintu from the perspective of meridian system. This would be useful to develop a new medical qigong movements applying the meridian qi system for health and healing.
