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Bigu () is a Daoist fasting technique associated with achieving ''xian'' "transcendence; immortality". Grain avoidance is related to multifaceted Chinese cultural beliefs. For instance, ''bigu'' fasting was the common medical cure for expelling the ''sanshi'' 三尸 "Three Corpses", the malevolent, grain-eating spirits that live in the human body (along with the hun and po souls), report their host's sins to heaven every 60 days, and carry out punishments of sickness and early death. Avoiding "grains" has been diversely interpreted to mean not eating particular foodstuffs (food grain, cereal, the Five Grains, ''wugu'', or staple food), or not eating any food (inedia, breatharianism, or aerophagia). In the historical context of traditional Chinese culture within which the concept of ''bigu'' developed, there was great symbolic importance connected with the five grains and their importance in sustaining human life, exemplified in various myths and legends from ancient China and throughout subsequent history. The concept of ''bigu'' developed in reaction to this tradition, and within the context of Daoist philosophy. ==Terminology== The Chinese word ''bigu'' compounds ''bi'' 辟 "ruler; monarch; avoid; ward off; keep away" and ''gu'' 穀 or 谷 "cereal; grain; (穀子) millet". The ''bi'' 辟 meaning in ''bigu'' is a variant Chinese character for ''bi'' 避 "avoid; shun; evade; keep away" (e.g., ''bixie'' 辟邪 or避邪 "ward off evil spirits; talisman; amulet"). The alternate pronunciation of ''pi'' 辟 "open up; develop; refute; eliminate" is a variant character for 闢. The complex 14-stroke traditional Chinese character ''gu'' 穀 "grain" has a 7-stroke simplified Chinese character ''gu'' 谷 "valley; gorge." Although a few Chinese dictionaries (e.g., Liang & Chang 1971, Lin 1972) gloss the pronunciation of ''bigu'' 辟穀 as ''pigu'', the definitive ''Hanyu Da Cidian'' (1997) gives ''bigu''. English lexicographic translations of ''bigu'' are compared in this table. Catherine Despeux (2008:233) lists synonyms for ''bigu'' "abstention from cereals": ''duangu'' 斷穀 "stopping cereals" (with ''duan'' 斷 "cut off; sever; break; give up"), ''juegu'' 絕穀 "discontinuing cereals" (''jue'' 絕 "cut off; sever; refuse; reject"), ''quegu'' 卻穀 "refraining from cereals" (''que'' 卻 "retreat; decline; reject; refuse"), and ''xiuliang'' 修糧 "stopping grains" (with ''xiu'' 修 "repair; trim; prune' cultivate" and ''liang'' 糧 "grain; food"). ''Juegu'', unlike these other alternative expressions, had meanings besides Daoist dietary practices. For instance, the (c. 139 BCE) ''Huainanzi'' uses ''juegu'' in a traditional saying (tr. Major et al. 2010:775): "Now, rejecting study because those who study have faults is like taking one instance of choking to refuse grain and not eat or taking one problem with stumbling to stop walking and not go ()." About one century later, Liu Xiang's ''Shuoyuan'' 說苑 "Garden of Stories" rephrases this simile about choking once and discontinuing grains. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bigu (avoiding grains)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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