Zhuangzi, whose original name was Zhuang Zhou, was an outstanding philosopher in China's Warring States Period. He lived to be 84 years old, and could be considered a long-lived elder in ancient times. He never held office all his life and lived in poverty, sometimes even making a living by weaving straw shoes. His philosophical work "Zhuangzi" is an important document of ancient Chinese philosophy. Zhuangzi advocated "non-action" (Wu Wei), going with the natural flow, while emphasizing that everything is relative. His longevity and experience were closely linked to his philosophical concepts. Zhuangzi believed in letting everything take its natural course. His attitude towards life can be summarized in eight words: few private desires, calm, few material desires, and optimistic. He led a hard life, "wearing large hemp clothes and mending them," sometimes borrowing rice to survive. He took an indifferent attitude towards these hardships. When his wife died, Hui Zi came to offer condolences. Not only did he not cry, but he also sat next to the corpse and sang while tapping on a pottery basin. Hui Zi criticized him for singing instead of crying, and Zhuangzi calmly replied, "At first I was very sad too, but then I thought carefully about how people come into this world and leave it. People are originally transformed from qi, which is the non-living matter of nature. Qi gathers to form shape, and when qi scatters, death occurs. Now my wife's form has died and will transform back into non-living matter, so I sing and celebrate her return to nature." These words may not be entirely correct, but Zhuangzi's transcendent and open-minded attitude towards life is worth promoting. In real life, if we encounter unpleasant things, we can learn from Zhuangzi's transcendent and open-minded attitude towards life.
Few Private Desires: Zhuangzi believed that private desires are the root of all diseases. Only when one has no private desires in their heart can they have great ambitions, not caring about personal fame and fortune, being content and optimistic; what Mr. Tao Zhu said, "A clear conscience makes the world wide," is also this principle.
Zhuangzi said, "Being peaceful and tranquil prevents worries from entering and evil influences from invading, thus maintaining one's virtue and spirit intact." He believed that it is difficult for people to escape the confines of worldly conventions. The "private desires" of people for material gains are the source of all evils and the root of all diseases. Once a person is controlled by "private desires," they will lose their normal state of mind, becoming greedy and inevitably harming their body and life. If a person can maintain a peaceful and tranquil state of mind, "govern without governing," without private desires, then evil influences cannot invade, and there will be no physical exhaustion leading to accumulated fatigue and illness. He believed that only by being open-hearted, calm, and treating life with a normal mindset, being content and happy, can one live longer.
Tranquility: Zhuangzi believed that "forgetting oneself and having no desires" is the foundation for maintaining a calm state of mind and the prerequisite for physical and mental health. Only by being calm and free from desires, nurturing one's spirit well, can one maintain good health without disease. Modern medical research believes that if a person is always anxious inside, it will cause endocrine disorders, leading to a decrease in immunity, and inevitably lead to various diseases.
Zhuangzi particularly emphasized cultivating one's heart and nature, believing that a person's state of mind affects their spiritual appearance and physical condition. To achieve a peaceful and transcendent state of mind, it is very important to maintain psychological balance.
In Zhuangzi's chapter "Zai You," the story of "seeking the Dao" tells of the Yellow Emperor hearing that Guangchengzi was practicing on Mount Kongtong and had comprehended the great Dao of the universe, so he went to seek advice. Around the subject of psychological cultivation, Guangchengzi explained his views to the Yellow Emperor, which actually represent Zhuangzi's guiding thoughts. He believed that psychological cultivation focuses on two words: stillness and clarity. Stillness contrasts with movement, and clarity contrasts with murkiness. Movement causes fatigue, and fatigue leads to the loss of vital energy; murkiness causes confusion, and confusion leads to restlessness of the spirit. To prevent the loss of spirit and wandering of the mind, one must make the inner self clear and calm, without irritability, so that external things cannot interfere. It is believed that the spirit is the master of human life. If the spirit is restless, it will affect the normal life activities of the human body. The spirit likes stillness, and only through stillness can the spirit be nurtured. If a person is always busy and cannot concentrate, it is difficult to reach a state of stillness, and health will be threatened. At this time, one should use artificial methods, like Zhuangzi's method of tranquility to nurture the spirit, to achieve the purpose of calming the spirit.
Few Desires: In "Zhuangzi? Tian Di," Zhuangzi pointed out the "loss of nature" consequences of five kinds of desires: "First, the five colors confuse the eyes, making them unclear; second, the five sounds confuse the ears, making them dull; third, the five smells irritate the nose, troubling the middle forehead; fourth, the five tastes muddy the mouth, making it harsh; fifth, the pursuit and abandonment disturb the mind, making the nature restless. These five are all harmful to life." He believed that human vision, hearing, smell, taste, and thought all have requirements for desires, and these desires should be allowed to develop naturally, satisfying their needs. At the same time, one should grasp the measure well and not indulge. Because everything is relative, losing control of the measure easily leads to another extreme. If one indulges in their desires, "loss of nature" behavior will occur, inviting disasters or causing diseases. Therefore, only by restraining desires can one strengthen the body. Zhuangzi's concept of restraining desires to strengthen the body is one of the important ideas of ancient Chinese health preservation experts, and still has significant guiding significance for today's health preservation.
Zhuangzi also particularly emphasized that "human desires cannot be fully satisfied, nor should they be indulged," indulgence in desires will surely invite disaster and disease. Few sexual desires will not damage essence and spirit, restrained eating desires will not exhaust energy and harm the body, and few material desires will not accumulate worries and hurt the heart.
Optimism: Zhuangzi believed that life should be optimistic and broad-minded. He once vividly compared it by saying that wild cranes in the water marsh peck every ten steps and drink every hundred steps, carefree and content, with optimistic emotions, thus preserving life; while birds in cages are gloomy, depressed, dispirited, feathers tattered, heads down and silent, thus finding it difficult to preserve life.
The eight-word summary of Zhuangzi's attitude towards life highly encapsulates his health preservation thoughts. In the doctrines of many schools such as Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, etc., in China, it is mentioned that the primary idea of regulating the spirit and preserving life is quiet cultivation, and the key to quiet cultivation is nurturing the heart. A calm heart makes the spirit clear, a stable heart makes the spirit focused, and a clear spirit makes the body full of energy and healthy.
China's earliest traditional Chinese medicine classic, "Huangdi Neijing," proposed from a medical perspective the role of a detached heart in human health preservation and disease prevention. People should avoid being invaded by the abnormal climate of the four seasons in nature, and mentally maintain a detached, calm, and few-desire state, so that the true qi of the human body can function normally, and the spirit qi can remain within the body. Maintaining a clear, tranquil, and empty mind, excluding private thoughts, focusing on work and study or hobbies, can enable "the spirit qi to stay within," keeping the body and mind healthy. Zhuangzi's optimistic thought is a major factor in longevity. Medical studies have shown that a person's character is closely related to whether they are healthy and the diseases they suffer from. People with positive and optimistic characters are less likely to suffer from mental illness, chronic diseases, or serious illnesses, and even if they do get sick, they can recover faster due to mental factors. However, bad character has a great impact on human health, making it easy for people to suffer from brain, internal organ, and mental diseases. Zhuangzi's advocacy of few desires aligns with modern concepts. His eight-word attitude towards life remains deeply instructive to us today.
Relevant thematic articles: Health preservation based on individual differences in Chinese Medicine Network Foundation. Winter relocation preventing decoration-induced asthma environmental health preservation.