Chen Tuan, born in 87 1 year, was born in Zhenyuan, Bozhou (Luyi County, Henan Province). He was a famous Taoist scholar in the Northern Song Dynasty. He devoted his whole life to health preservation and respected the learning of Huang Lao. When he was four or five years old, Chen Tuan once swam on the bank of the whirlpool, but he met an old woman in Tsing Yi. Somehow, the old woman didn't know him, but fed him milk. Since then, Chen Tuan's head has become more and more brilliant. When he grew up, he was able to read hundreds of classics, especially the book Hutuluo. In 93 1 year, Chen Tuan failed the exam in Beijing. From then on, he was no longer bound by fame and began to travel around.
In the process of traveling around the world, Chen Tuan happened to meet Sun and Yan Pi. They are world celebrities and all scholars know them. At their suggestion, Chen Tuan came to Jiushiyan in Wudang Mountain to live in seclusion. In the days of seclusion, Chen Tuan gradually realized the Tao. He stopped eating and drinking, but lived by persuading himself not to eat. Although he sometimes drinks to satisfy his desire, he hasn't eaten a meal for 20 years.
Later, Chen Tuan moved from Wudang Mountain to a cave in Shaohua Mountain, where he has been practicing. However, it seems that Chen Tuan only practiced "sleeping skills". According to "The Continuation of Jian Xuan", Zhou Shizong once locked Chen Tuan in his room and inspected him. Who knows a month later, Chen Tuan is still asleep. In addition, Chen Tuan himself wrote in "Song to the Forbidden City": I love sleeping, I love sleeping, I don't lie on the carpet, I don't cover myself; A flaky pillow, hemp fiber, lightning shocked ghosts and gods, and I was snoring and sleeping. Idle thinking about Sean, boring thinking about Fan Li, chatting about Meng De, not talking about Liu Bei; Three or four gentlemen, just fighting for leisure, how to be a minister, go to the top of the castle peak, in the white clouds, spread their eyebrows, liberate their stomachs and sleep! The jade rabbit rises in the east and the red wheel sets in the west.
Chen Tuan claimed that he was not an ordinary lethargy, but a profound practice method, which was called "dragon slaying method" and "fetal breathing method" in Taoism. In his later years, he revealed the secret of sleeping to disciple Li Jing. He said: A secular man is lost in officialdom love, fame and fortune permeate his mind, and his mind is blinded by wine and cream. Even in his dream of sleeping in his hometown, he is restless for a moment. On the contrary, people with moral integrity practice even in their sleep.
Chen Tuan believes that sleeping is exquisite, especially sleeping posture, which is the most important thing. He advocates sleeping on the left side and sleeping on the right side, and resolutely opposes sleeping on the back and leaning down. The cautions and taboo notes in Tianxiandao once recorded specific details: If you sleep with Yi Xi, bend your left arm, pad your face with your palm, and open your thumb and forefinger ... When I sleep inside, the method here is left. If the edge is right, it is also like the method of left edge. In addition, Chen Tuan's "dragon-stinging sleep method" is also of great benefit to the treatment of insomnia.
In the early years of Duangong (988), one day Chen Tuan suddenly asked his disciple Jia Desheng to dig a stone room in Zhangchaogu, saying that he would rest there. Unexpectedly, in the second year, Chen Tuan died as expected. Seven days later, his body was still warm, and another colorful auspicious cloud gathered at the mouth of the cave, and it didn't disperse until a month later.