Dưỡng sinh

The exercise dưỡng sinh or Dưỡng Sinh (compare Chinese Yang-Sheng 養生^[1]) is a form of partly indigenous breathing and yoga exercise similar to Tai Chi popularized in Vietnam by the historian and political activist Nguyễn Khắc Viện.^[2]

Viện had been trained as a medical doctor in the field of women's and children's psychotherapy. When he himself was given three years to live he turned to practice of traditional breathing exercises.^[3] However although the name "dưỡng sinh" was popularised by Viện in Từ sinh lý đến dưỡng sinh and other books, the idea of "dưỡng sinh" is well known to village people anyway as a compliment to thuốc Nam herbal medicine.^[4]

References

1. Bryan S. Turner, Yangwen Zheng The Body in Asia 2009 - Page 35 "A summary of this history illustrates the kind of body-cultural analysis advocated here. Like many languages ... Yang sheng, 'to cultivate life,' referred to the Taoist physical exercises that were aimed at achieving bodily immortality."
2. Vietbao Khỏe với “dưỡng sinh Nguyễn Khắc Viện” 2006
3. Vietnam News Men battle mortal maladies with sheer willpower (05-11-2006) I first met him in 1963 after he was expelled from France because of his patriotic activities. Before that, back in the 1950s, his Parisian doctors had given him no more than three years to live as he was suffering from pulmonary consumption and was left with just half a lung after seven operations. Turning to Oriental wisdom while retaining the scientific spirit acquired during his many years in the Western world, Vien created and assiduously applied what he called duong sinh (psychosomatic exercises to preserve the vital breath) that kept him alive and kicking until his death in 1997, at the ripe age of 84.
4. Philip Taylor Modernity and Re-Enchantment: Religion in Post-Revolutionary Vietnam 2007 - Page 99 "There are two kinds of folk medicine known to villagers; one is related to herbal medicine, and the other to a ...dưỡng sinh... Most people in Đại Yên, regardless of age, gender or background, had some knowledge about how to grow and use thuốc nam."