 Finally, the human body also hosts two sets of parasites: the “three corpses” (sanshi), which reside in the head, the chest, and the legs; and the “nine worms” (jiuchong), which live in different parts of the body. All of them cause weakening, diseases, and death. The “three corpses” are also said to report periodically one’s transgressions to Heaven, which results in the shortening of one’s life span. As these parasites feed on cereals, “abstaining from grains” (bigu) was one of the ways to expel them.