What is health preservation? Health is to maintain the body through food, exercise, etc. Achieve the purpose of prolonging life; Did China people's health care start in modern times? You don't say! TCM health preservation is as old as China.
In ancient times when medical and health technology was not so developed, there were very few people who lived to be 100 years old. Out of the instinctive need for survival and self-protection, people will pay more attention to exploring good ways to prolong life, eliminate disasters and reduce pain in practice, some of which are simple or even scientific.
For example, the application of fire: changing from raw food to cooked food reduces the probability of digestive tract diseases and parasitic diseases that may be caused by eating raw food; For another example, the dance used to please ghosts and gods during hunting or sacrifice in primitive times has become a health-keeping method for people to keep fit. Even in such a difficult situation, even the most basic living conditions are difficult to guarantee, people have simply supported the so-called health preservation, and Chinese medicine health preservation has begun to take off.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the gradual development of productive forces and the improvement of economic production level, a hundred schools of thought began an era of academic contention. In this context, the ideas and methods of health care that a hundred schools of thought contend have gradually emerged and even evolved into a discipline; It laid the ideological foundation for China's health preservation.
For example, the idea of harmony between man and nature in Zhouyi; It is the overall embodiment of the philosophical basis of "correspondence between man and nature" in TCM health care; Taoism, represented by Laozi and Zhuangzi, holds that the fundamental view of health preservation is Taoist nature; Advocates should be quiet, calm down and rest; As a result, it developed into a very famous health preserving method, such as regulating breath, taking pills internally and swallowing pills. Confucianism, represented by Confucius and Mencius, also embodies the concept of "eating without words, sleeping without words"
In 22 1 year BC, Qin Shihuang unified the six countries, and China officially entered the feudal society; During the Qin and Han dynasties, there was a strong atmosphere of health preservation in society, and most emperors were keen on the way of longevity: for example, Qin Shihuang ordered alchemists to refine elixirs for him; Even Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very keen on alchemy in his later years.
During these periods, many outstanding health care physicians appeared, such as Zhang Zhongjing and Hua Tuo. Looking at the words "health care doctor", we can know that health care has begun to gradually combine with medicine; At this time, Chinese medicine began to gradually establish its own unique TCM health care system.
The appearance of Huangdi Neijing marks that Chinese and Western medicine has entered the stage of systematic theoretical summary and the formal formation stage of TCM health preservation. Huangdi Neijing combines the health care and medical thoughts of pre-Qin philosophers. It emphasizes the basic viewpoint that people should conform to nature and coordinate yin and yang, and also puts forward that clothes should be increased or decreased according to the changes of the four seasons and the morning and evening of the day. The principle of "the sage cures the disease first" embodies that health preservation can play a role in preventing diseases.
During Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, due to the continuous development of Buddhism and Taoism, the health care system was further improved. The prosperity of metaphysics in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and the worship of Taoism as a state religion in Tang Dynasty made Taoism's health knowledge such as serving stones and breathing quite popular among the royal family and the people.
Buddhism, which originated in ancient India, merged with Taoism and Confucianism in China and gradually evolved into China Buddhism suitable for the national conditions; It emphasizes that people should be self-disciplined, not greedy, take more baths at ordinary times, fast sincerely, do not kill, and pay attention to harmonious coexistence with nature; This coincides with China's traditional concept of keeping in good health.
During the Song, Jin and Yuan Dynasties, people began to realize that the side effects of stones in alchemy were great. There are rumors that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ate too much refined Dan medicine and died of mercury poisoning. Therefore, people began to strongly advocate turning the stones in an alchemist into vegetation. In this context, many medical scientists began to sort out previous herbal works.
From then on, health care with drugs began to move towards a bright road of attaching importance to vegetation; With the emergence of the policy of "emphasizing literature and restraining martial arts" in the Song Dynasty, high-profile intellectuals began to set foot in all aspects, including of course the medical field; For example, we are familiar with poets and writers such as Wang Anshi, Lu You and Su Dongpo. They are all familiar with medical knowledge and the way of keeping in good health. There are also famous doctors like Xu and Xu, all of whom are Confucian scholars; This mutual benefit has improved the cultural level of the medical team to a certain extent, and also greatly promoted the development of medicine and health care.
In the Ming dynasty, medicine was in its heyday; Not only doctors' families, but also scholars, painters and dramatists study medicine and health preservation. Doctors in Ming Dynasty paid attention to the relationship between spleen and stomach, recuperated spleen and stomach, and emphasized the cultivation of spleen and stomach at the same time. So, how did the ancients keep in good health? What are the characteristics of tea culture that promotes health?
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the knowledge about health preservation was more just the small thoughts of various schools, not the mainstream; The appearance of Huangdi Neijing in Qin and Han dynasties made health preservation a clear object. The Record of Nourishing Nature and Prolonging Life edited by Tao Hongjing in the Southern Dynasties is one of the earliest existing health books in China.
Sun Simiao, a famous medicine king, has set a benchmark for Chinese people in health care. At the same time, Sun Shi also wrote "Emergency Thousand Gold Recipes" and "Golden Wings Thousand Gold Recipes", which further inherited and carried forward medical health preservation. The best medium for the perfect combination of health preservation and traditional Chinese medicine is tea with dietotherapy function.
China is famous for two things, one is ceramics, and the other is tea. This tea can be regarded as the homology of medicine and food, which is very consistent with the theory of "homology of medicine and food" in TCM health preservation. What is the function of tea, which can make people admire it so much?
The ancients believed that tea could prevent and treat many diseases. Modern pharmacological research shows that tea contains tea polyphenols, alkaloids, tea polysaccharides, amino acids, protein and various vitamins and substances, which have many functions, such as reducing blood fat, lowering blood pressure, regulating immunity, resisting oxidation and aging. According to the literature of ancient Chinese medicine, it is concluded that the knowledge of health care function of tea in ancient China mainly includes the following aspects.
In terms of sexual taste, Sun Simiao's Emergency Prescription for Preparing Thousand Daughters in Tang Dynasty thinks that tea tastes bitter, salty, sour, cold and non-toxic, while the newly revised Materia Medica thinks that tea tastes sweet, bitter, slightly cold and non-toxic. In Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen thought that "tea tastes bitter and cold, and the yin in the yin will sink." Here is a brief understanding of tea in basic ancient books. To be sure, tea is not poisonous. On the other hand, medicine is really poisonous. Will people drink? There is also the coolness of tea. Different teas have different tastes, some are sweeter than bitter, and some are bitter than sweet. Some are sweet before bitter, and some are bitter before sweet.
Awakening: Miao Xiyu's "Shennong Herbal Jing Shu" thinks that tea can keep people awake, calm their spirits and clear their breath.
Refreshing the mind: Hua Tuo's Theory of Food clearly points out that the more you drink bitter tea, the more sober you are; Jiao Ran, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, also clearly reflected this point in "Tea Song Cui Shijun":
"One mouthful drink polyester faint mei, feeling to lang cool all over the sky. Drink my god again, and suddenly it will rain like light dust. After three drinks, you will get the word. Why bother? "
Eliminating fire and improving eyesight: In Compendium of Materia Medica, Li Shizhen thinks that tea is bitter and cold, which is very suitable for reducing fire, and Yijing Materia Medica also agrees that tea has obvious antipyretic and detoxifying effects.
Detoxify and stop dysentery: Herbal Readable in Qing Dynasty holds that tea can clear away heat and detoxify; The Qing Dynasty's Resting Diet Spectrum also recorded that anyone suffering from heatstroke, stomachache, cholera and dysentery would be cured as long as he drank tea. This kind of record, in fact, is somewhat exaggerated, and tea may be regarded too important; Although tea has many benefits, it is by no means as good as described in Living with Interest.
Quench thirst and relieve summer heat: As a drink, tea is definitely the most basic function. Drinking too much water can naturally cool off the heat.
In terms of degreasing: many ancient books record that tea leaves have the best degreasing effect; Therefore, many young people will drink more tea to relieve boredom or scrape oil after eating big fish and meat. For example, lotus leaf winter melon tea, which is very popular on the Internet recently; The function of relieving boredom and reducing fat of tea is very important in the eyes of westerners, because they take meat as their staple food, so silk, porcelain and tea are the three giants in East-West trade.
In the aspect of reducing qi and promoting digestion, Shen Nong's Herbal Classic in Ming Dynasty explained that drinking tea can reduce fire, and food is gradually absorbed and digested by human body with the decrease of internal heat.
Tea culture and health culture are simply perfect combination, twin brothers, perfect combination; In addition to the above functions, tea also has the function of relieving alcoholism and protecting teeth. How can such multifunctional tea make people dislike it? But everything has two sides, tea is cool; Therefore, it is harmful for people with qi deficiency and cold to drink too much tea.
There are many benefits of tea, and proper drinking after knowing your own physique is in line with the truth of health preservation. But real health, not just drinking tea, but also a healthy diet and moderate exercise; Just as Taoism said, the healthiest and open-minded attitude is Taoist nature, and the mentality is the most important and relaxed.