Taoist achievements
Ge Hong inherited and reformed the immortal theory of early Taoism. In Bao Puzi's Inner Chapter, he not only comprehensively summarized the immortal theory before the Jin Dynasty, but also systematically summarized the immortal magic methods before the Jin Dynasty, including keeping one, promoting qi, guiding and sexual intercourse. At the same time, it combines the skill of immortals with Confucianism, emphasizing that "those who want immortals should be loyal, filial and benevolent." If you don't practice virtue, you can't live forever. "And this orthodox religion is integrated with the precepts of Taoism, which requires believers to strictly abide by them. He said: "Looking at the precepts, we can know that those who want to live forever will want to accumulate virtue, be kind, forgive themselves and others, be good at catching insects, enjoy people's blessings, solve people's sufferings, save people's poverty, abstain from hurting their lives, refuse to persuade disasters, regard people's gains as their own, and regard people's losses as their own. "Advocate immortal health, Confucianism externalized in the world.
Medical and pharmaceutical achievements
Ge Hong is proficient in medicine and advocates that Taoist priests should also learn medical skills. "Since ancient times, Taoists must learn medical skills to save the near future." They believe that if monks don't learn medical skills at the same time, they will be "unable to attack themselves", not only unable to live forever, but even unable to save their own lives.
His medical book "Elbow Emergency Prescription", the title of which means an emergency book that can always be put behind the elbow (taken with you), is a practical book that should always be preserved. The book collected a large number of emergency prescriptions, which he collected and screened during his medical practice and travel. He deliberately selected some easily available drugs, which were very cheap even if he had to spend money to buy them, which changed the shortcomings of the previous emergency prescriptions that were difficult to understand, drugs were hard to find and expensive. He particularly emphasized the application of moxibustion, and clearly recorded the usage of various moxibustion methods in plain language. As long as the proportion of moxibustion is clear, people who don't understand acupuncture can use it.