I was reading the intro to Pi Wei Lun, and thought it interesting that he used all sorts of quotes from Nei Jing to support his argument that the spleen and stomach were all-important.

It started me thinking that no text (that I can remember) has mentioned that if you stop breathing you will die . . .

Perhaps because issues dealing with breathing were considered the realm of qi gong practitioners, and not herbal physicians?

[UPDATE] A recent discussion with my taiji Shifu confirmed a hunch - the medicine I'm studying is more about treating disease (治病) than 'nourishing life' (养生). The latter is more a part of the daoist tradition.