Sanshi 三屍 "Three Corpses" are a Daoist concept originating from the Han dynasty, or even before, of parasitic entities that exist in the three Dantian centres from conception attempting to weaken the body and initiate sickness. They often cross over with other concepts and may be referred to as:
There is some fluidity in the early descriptions of the Three Worms and the Three Corpses, and with the concept of Gu (蠱, Poison, which contains three 蟲 Chong in a vessel). It seems that the Three Worms indicated a variety of intestinal parasites that caused wasting diseases, and Gu was an early form of sorcery that involved poisoning.
The character for "corpse" 屍 had an earlier form of 尸 which referred to a living person acting as an empty vessel for a spirit possession. In the pre-Qin Classic of Mountains and Seas (Shanhai Jing), it refers to several macabre beings whose power is such that, after the death of their physical body, they continue to function in a monstrous or mutilated form. This may indicate that they were immortalised ancestor spirits that could be summoned by the Wu.
The Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing uses the terms Three Worms, Hidden Corpses and Gu, as well as Ghost Possession, further entwining all these concepts, while suggesting there were subtle differences between them.
By the Han dynasty, texts such as the Scripture of Great Peace (Taiping Jing) and Talisman of the River Chart Recording Destinies (Hetu Jiming Fu) offered the first written descriptions, but were fairly vague, only suggesting that they attempt to shorten lifespan by reporting our misdeeds to the Director of Destinies in heaven on gengshen days, when practitioners would keep vigil all night to prevent them from leaving the body. By the Wei-Jin period, they had taken on specific names and forms (Peng, 2026). The Scripture of the Central Yellow (中黃經, Zhonghuang Jing) assigned them names and forms.
It seems evident from their residences and actions that they diminish life by attacking each of the Three Treasures (Shen, Qi and Jing) in turn. Their colours are also notable, always containing white, the colour of Metal, the west where Yang departs at sunset and in autumn, and associated with the Lungs which house the corporeal Po-souls, while their other colours indicate the Liver (green), the Spleen (yellow) and the Kidneys (black). The names also seem to have some significance. They all have the family name Peng 彭, which is derived from the sound of a drumbeat, perhaps further indicating a connection to Wu-shamanic practices.
As the concept evolved, they became more integrated into human nature, sometimes being seen as an integral feature, similar to the Po. The Seven Tablets in a Cloudy Satchel (Yunji Qiqian, 1029, in Peng, 2026) describes them as being integral to life and placed within mankind to punish them to safeguard their souls by punishing them for their wicked deeds. According to this framework:
However, mankind is so resolute in his wickedness that they never get respite from their work, and a person simply needs to cultivate integrity and preserve their primal qi to free from their punishment. This text represents a departure from the usual characterisation of the Sanshi and, for the most part, they were considered unwanted entities from either external or internal sources, depending on the authors opinion of human nature, that had to be purged or slain, if one was to achieve immortality.
Van Straten (1983) considered the Three Corpses in psychoanalytical terms as an expression of the eros - thanatos dichotomy but they can be extended much further than this. They find an equivalence in many modern disorders where our own impulses, essential for the continuation of life (eating food, accumulation of wealth and sexual reproduction), become harmful and lead to the gradual decay of the body and eventual death. This includes various metabolic disorders caused by overeating, sedentary lifestyle and addictions. Their combined psychological and metabolic component can be especially relevant in regard to modern influences like media and marketing which may be deliberately initiating overindulgence through psychological manipulation or exploitation of natural impulses in order to increase demand for products that are ultimately harmful (e.g. ultra-processed foods that use evolutionary hard-wired systems to trigger reward centres, or advertising which appeals to insecurities and sexual desires). In this sense they can be seen as similar to the original concept of an externally imposed force (black magic) that slowly eats at our life force to benefit the sender.
Early schools emphasised ritual methods of expelling or thwarting the Three Corpses plans. One imvolved cutting the finger and toe nails and burning them on specific days when they are thought to reside here, or bathing and fumigating the lower body from morning to evening to eliminate them from the intestines (Van Straten, 1983). Another way of thwarting their plans involved staying awake on specific nights when they were thought to leave the body and ascend to Heaven, reporting our misdeeds to the Director of Destinies, who would then punish us with a shortened lifespan. However, as the concept became more developed, a more standardised method predominated which involved taking a three-pronged approach of:
The aim of avoiding grains was starve them of their main food supply. Being creatures of death, they love putrefaction and were thought to feed on rotting grains in the intestines. Hence, the first step was often to weaken them with fasting, followed by harsh purgative medicines to eliminate them while in their weakened state.
The external component historically often contained toxic compounds. Recipes by Ge Hong advise Zhu Sha and Da Huang (Ware, 1966; Campany, 2002), while Sun Si Miao favoured Sheng Qi (Maspero, 1981). The Great Numinous Treasure tradition used Shang Lu in a formula known as Xian Ren Xia San Chong Fu Shi Fang that would cause violent bloody diarrhoea and hallucinations, which were seen as the Corpse-Worms being expelled and attempting to resist the regimen (Raz, 2012). Fortunately, the Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing included some less toxic alternatives such as Tian Men Dong, Shan Zhu Yu, Bian Xu, Yi Yi Gen, Chuan Lian Zi, Wu Zhu Yu, Hou Po and Di Long. The Great Numinous Treasure tradition also suggested Huai Jiao and even a ritual practice called "Ingesting the Five Sprouts" as being equally as effective as violent purging (Raz, 2012).
The internal component focused on two aspects: elimination and cultivating inner-nature (Peng, 2026). The main techniques to eliminate the Three Corpses involved various fire based visualisations to incinerate them in the True Fire. Among the cultivation school, one 13th century work suggests:
"If one can focus the mind on guarding it without distraction, true essence will naturally assemble, primal Qi will naturally converge, the Valley Spirit will naturally connect, the Sanshi will naturally depart, and the Jiuchong will naturally perish—this is the path to longevity and eternal vision... If one can achieve a mind without thoughts, a thought without clinging, pure and unblemished—this is called pure yang. At this moment, the Sanshi are eliminated, and the Six Thieves beg for surrender (Bai Yuchan, in Peng, 2026)."
The approach taken depends mostly on the philosophical inclination of the practitioner. Those who see human nature as essentially good, following the school of Mencius, will lean towards purgative therapies to eliminate the malevolent externally contracted parasites that threaten one's good nature. The more pessimistic followers of Xunzi, who see human nature as essentially selfish and greedy, are likely to incline towards a cultivation based approach that tries to refine these brutish innate tendencies.
Notably, acupuncture does not appear often in treatment manuals dedicated to the Three Corpses, with the only bodywork specifically mentioned being the aforementioned nail cutting on ritual days. Pomen Bl-42 is the only acupuncture point specifically associated with this disorder in Deadman (2001) with little explanation given. Presumably it is due to their association with the Po (Peng, 2026; Huang, 2011). Their connection with the supernatural, Gu and ghost possession makes the 13 Ghost Points a reasonable proposition too.
Several modern therapies can be seen as adaptations on this idea. Addiction treatments that use a combination of therapies to eliminate triggers and starve opportunities for relapse, condition an aversion with emetic medication and cultivate mindfulness to manage current stresses seem to be following the same principle of starve, purge and meditate. The treatment of metabolic syndromes are also often centred around reducing sugar and carbohydrate intake, mainly obtained from grains, and accompanying it with exercise and dietary choices, many of which are polyphenol rich herbs to stimulate mitochondrial adaptation. Theories that the gut microbiome drives our cravings are more literally similar seeing our addictions as due to parasitic influence and teach that we should avoid sugars and simple carbohydrates on which microorganisms feed whilst administering medication to eliminate infections and cultivate a new ecosystem.
There is a striking similarity between the description of the Three Corpses and the demons mentioned in the Corpus Hermeticum XVII, which are demons in the Greek sense of spirits that can be a "mixtures of good and evil" but:
"... have been granted authority over the things of the earth and over the troubles of the earth, and they produce change and tumult collectively for cities and nations, individually for each person. They reshape our souls to their own ends, and they rouse them, lying in ambush in our muscle and marrow, in veins and arteries, in the brain itself, reaching to the very guts.
The demons on duty at the exact moment of birth, arrayed under each of the stars, take possession of us as we come into being and receive a soul. From moment to moment they change places, not staying in position but moving by rotation. Those that enter through the body into the two parts of the soul twist the soul about, each towards its own energy. But the rational part of the soul stands unmastered by the demons, suitable as a receptacle for god.
... All others the demons carry off as spoils, both souls and bodies, since they are fond of the demons' energies and acquiesce in them, misleading and misled. So, with our bodies as their instruments, the demons govern this earthly government. Hermes has called this government 'fate.' (trans. Copenhaver, 1992)"
This description of base forces that take root in the body at birth and move around in cycles, corrupting us to abandon the highest good of reverence in favour of worldly pleasures until we become empty vessels and the eventual victim of fate bears many striking similarities to the the Three Corpses, but coming from the other side of the world. The remedy in the hermetic texts is reverence for creation using the rational mind as a receptacle for the creator's light. This too bears some similarity to the notion of "ingesting the five sprouts," which involves a ritual of imbibing the live-giving aspects of each of the Five Phases, or the "pure yang" consciousness attained through cultivation of a pure and unblemished mind.
Campany, R.F. (2002), To Live As Long As Heaven and Earth: Ge Hong's Traditions of Divine Transcendents. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Copenhaver, B.P. (1992). Hermitica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huang (2011), Daoist Imagery of Body and Cosmos Part 2: Body Worms and Internal Alchemy, Journal of Daoist Studies Vol. 4.
Maspero, H. (1981). Taoism and Chinese Religion (trans. F.A.Kierman). Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Peng, B. (2026). Spiritual Alchemy: Centered on the Concept and Iconography of the “Three Corpses 三屍.” Religions: 17, 16. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17010016
Raz, G. (2012). Imbibing the Universe: Methods of Ingesting the Five Sprouts. Asian Medicine, 7(1), 65-100. https://doi.org/10.1163/15734218-12341244
Van Straten (1983), Concepts of Health, Disease and Vitality in Traditional Chinese Society: A Psychological Interpretation Based on the Material of Georg Koeppen. Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH: Wiesbaden
Ware, J.R. (1966). Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei Pien of Ko Hung. Cambridge,Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Woodley, S. (2024). Mitochondria in Chinese Medicine Part 1: Mitochondria and Adaptation. RCHM Journal, Winter 2025.
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