Jing Shen is the title of the seventh chapter of the Huainanzi, a major Daoist text of the early Chinese Han dynasty. Until recently it has remained relatively unrecognized and only partially translated. Long dismissed as merely a reiteration of earlier writings, its importance as a work in its own right and its role in Chinese intellectual history is only now beginning to be appreciated. Chapter 7, Jing Shen – vital or embodied spirit – examines the origins of life and the integral place of human beings within the cosmos. As a contemporary text to the Huangdi Neijing, The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic, it is of interest to practitioners of Chinese medicine as well as to the more general reader. This is a group translation, made under the aegis of Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée.