Various new methods for body-mind cultivation emerged during late Qing and early Republican China. Among them, meditative sitting became immensely popular, largely due to the work by Jiang Weiqiao (1873-1958). After Jiang published his Yinshizhi’s Methods for Meditative Sitting in 1914, it quickly became a best-seller, sparking a fever for quiet sitting. In early 20th-century China, when “weakness” and “sick men” (病夫) became important metaphors of the body and the nation, why did the apparently static meditative sitting attract such a mass following, particularly among young people and students? Why did they believe it could serve as a means for treating diseases, strengthening the body, and cultivating oneself? Before the overwhelming domination of physical education, how did Jiang appropriate Japanese models and reformulate meditative sitting into a set of self-cultivation techniques, using scientific terminology to meet the needs of the new age? To answer these questions, this article will explore how and why Jiang Weiqiao wrote his Yinshizhi’s Methods for Meditative Sitting. It will also discuss how Jiang helped translate and publish Fujita Reisai and Okada Torajirō’s works in China. The article examines the uniqueness of Yinshizhi’s Methods for Meditative Sitting by comparing it with Reisai and Torajirō’s methods. It sheds light on how Jiang associated meditative sitting with treating diseases, strengthening the body, and reforming the nation in China during the 1910s. In addition to the production, transmission, and experiences of meditative sitting as both knowledge and techniques, the article will further explore the perception of sickness/weakness, sexual anxiety as revealed in the meditative sitting fever, and their relation to self- healing and self-cultivation. The passion among the youth for practicing Yinshizhi’s Methods for Meditative Sitting on the eve of the May Fourth Movement, whether for healing, self- strengthening, or self-cultivation, revealed the significance of body-and-mind governance. Through scientific-philosophical discourses, personal experiences, and direct communications, Jiang Weiqiao successfully persuaded the masses to cultivate the body and mind equally by meditation, which could help with one's concentration on studies, pacification of the mind and desires, and enhancement of the body. They all helped remedy the disadvantages of the new physical education, which emphasized bodily exercises only. By promoting meditiative sitting as a “quiet exercise” to be practiced alongside gymnastics and other exercises, which he referred to as "moving cultivation," Jiang made his meditative sitting methods distinctive not only in the history of Chinese meditation, but also among the various techniques for self-cultivation in early Republican China.