Austere and prolonged fasting among Shangqing Daoist priestesses (Daogu) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) occurred as part of a lifestyle practice to achieve a mystical state of afterlife existence, body immortality and residence in the Shangqing heavenly kingdom. These fasting practices were conducted exclusively for religious reasons and cannot be reconceptualized as a form of an eating disorder without radically altering their original purpose and meaning.
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