中古道教關於身心關係問題三種觀念：「身心合一」論見於先秦道家經典及中古道教詮釋，並為神仙道教繼承，以身心合一之體道境界為超越目標。「身心不二」論則會通了魏晉道家道教的虛無論與中觀哲學，主張身心現象遷流變化、非一非異，不存在獨立不變的實體，並釋道為非存在者層次之虛無，以破除對肉身執著、返回主客未分之體道境界為超越目標。「心為身主」又本於道教對莊子學派心性論，黃庭學與舊譯唯識學、真常心系佛學的融通，以即心即道為超越目標。

There were three kinds of ideas on body-mind Relationship in Medieval Daoism: 1. The theory of “body and mind are (and should be) unified” which could be found in Pre-qin Daoist Classics with their interpretation by medieval Daoists and inherited by Immortal Daoism, aimed at the transcendent end of intuition to Dao by unifying body and mind. 2. The theory of “body and mind are not different” which absorbed the thoughts of Nihility in Daoism in Wei-Jin dynasties and Mādhyamika, argued that body and mind which varies all the time, are not monistic or dualistic, and there do not exist any entities except dependent co-arising phenomena, so as to destroy the attachment to flesh and achieve the transcendent goal by the intuition to Dao without any distinction of subject and object. 3. The theory of “mind is the master of body” which absorbed the mind-nature ideas of Chuang-tzu school, interpretations of Huang-ting Jing, vijñāna-mātra thoughts introduced by old translation, Buddhist tathāgata-garbha thoughts, aimed at the transcendent goal by the intuition to pure mind.