What is the basic principle of keeping in good health?

Man is one of the creatures in nature, and he can't leave the natural environment at any time. Through long-term life and medical practice, ancient doctors gradually realized that human beings lived in nature and had a close relationship with the natural environment. There are all kinds of necessary conditions for human survival in nature. Once the abnormal changes of these conditions exceed the adaptability of the human body, it will make people sick. Neijing calls the relationship between man and nature "man corresponds to heaven and earth". "Su Wen" says: "Everything in heaven is ready, so it is not expensive for people; Man is born with the spirit of heaven and earth, and it is made by the method of four seasons. " This "heaven" and "earth" represent nature, and all living things in nature depend on the qi of heaven and earth, and are all restricted by the climate change of the four seasons. People are the same. For example, in spring and summer, the climate is warm and the human yang is on the body surface; In autumn and winter, the climate is cold, and the human body is restrained and hidden. Because the human body can adapt to the climate change in nature, it can carry out normal metabolic activities in physiology, thus promoting the growth and development of the body. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the physiological functions of the five internal organs are also closely related to the natural laws of nature, such as birth, growth, transformation, harvest and storage. Zhang Jingyue said: "In spring, the liver should be preserved; In summer, the heart should be healthy; In summer, the spleen should be preserved; In autumn, the lungs should be kept healthy; Keep your kidneys in winter. " . It can be seen that human life activities are always influenced by nature. Therefore, to study the prescription of health and longevity, we must first study the relationship between man and nature.

The so-called impact of climate change on the human body refers to the four seasons and six qi. The four seasons are spring, summer, autumn and winter. The climate characteristics of these four seasons are: warm in spring, hot in summer, cool in autumn and cold in winter. According to their nature, these four different climates can be divided into two categories: temperature and heat are the same category, and cool and cold are the same category. In terms of yin and yang, the former belongs to yang and the latter belongs to yin; That is, sunny in spring and summer and cloudy in autumn and winter. The change of seasons is a necessary process for all living things to live normally, so the ancients summed up a rule: birth → growth → transformation → harvest → hiding. "Su Wen" says: "Therefore, there are four seasons of yin and yang, and everything starts from the end, and life and death are fundamental. If it is reversed, it will be disastrous, and from it, it will be difficult. " I'm talking about the importance of this law.

Cold, hot and cool are just simple changes in the four seasons. In fact, there are various other complex climate changes in nature. Through long-term observation, the ancients summed up six factors of climate change, namely wind, cold, heat, humidity, dryness and fire, or "six qi". When these six climate change factors are in a normal state, they will create favorable conditions for the growth and development of living things, such as warm and windy in spring and March and warm and hot in Xia San, all of which are climate changes in a certain period. However, this kind of change should have a certain limit, not too much, not too much. It is a normal law that all living things can adapt to the change of seasons and six qi.

Everything changes constantly, and there are ups and downs. Climate change is no exception. Generally speaking, abnormal climate change will bring adverse effects to living things. The so-called abnormal change means that the climate is too much and too late. For example, when spring comes, the climate should be warm and cold, and when autumn comes, the climate should be cold and hot, but it is not so good; It is too much to be hot in summer and cold in winter. Too much and too little are abnormal weather. The above six qi-wind, cold, summer heat, dampness, dryness and fire-will be unfavorable to the growth and development of all living things in abnormal climate, so Chinese medicine calls the "six qi" in abnormal climate "six yin".

In addition to weather changes, the earth and the earth should also have an impact on the human body. China has a large population, vast land, different water and soil environments in different regions, and people's living habits are also different. For example, in the northwest, the climate is cold and the ground is high and dry; The southeast has a mild climate and the land is low and humid. Due to the difference of natural environment, the physiological changes of human body are also significantly different. It is not difficult to understand that in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, the theory of "correspondence between man and nature" has become an important part of the whole theoretical system of traditional Chinese medicine. One of the characteristics of China's preventive measures is to realize that human survival is closely related to climate change and survival. Therefore, people's daily life and ideological activities should always adapt to the laws of birth, growth, nourishment, harvest and storage, so as to maintain internal and external coordination and achieve health, growth, harvest and storage. This idea of preventing diseases is based on the idea that man and nature are a unified whole.

(2) coordinating yin and yang

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that everything in the world has two attributes, yin and yang, which are both opposite and unified. For example, the sky is yang and the earth is yin; Sunny during the day and cloudy at night; Male is yang, female is yin; Qi is yang, taste is yin, and so on. Yin and yang coexist. There is yin without yang, or there is yang without yin, which will inevitably lead to "the solitary yin will not be born, and the solitary yang will not last long", then everything is static and silent.

The relationship between yin and yang is not static, but opposite and interactive, and there is a process of constant movement and change. Under normal circumstances, due to the mutual restriction of Yin and Yang, neither side will be partial to prosperity and decline. Because yang gets yin, it will not be too excited; Yin and Yang are harmonious and not too heavy. Therefore, although Yin and Yang have ups and downs, they will not exceed a certain constant and always remain in a relatively balanced state. For example, the gradual change of spring temperature, hot summer, cool autumn and cold winter is a form of the growth and decline of yin and yang. Similarly, when the human body carries out various functional activities, it will inevitably consume a certain amount of body fluids or nutrients, which is the process of yang generating and yin eliminating; In the process of metaplasia of various nutrients, a certain amount of energy must be consumed, which is the process of yin generating and yang destroying. Obviously, this change is a necessary condition to promote the continuous development and change of the human body and an inevitable process to maintain the physiological balance of the human body.

There is a close relationship between man and nature, and the yin and yang in the human body often change under the influence of nature. Therefore, to maintain the balance of yin and yang in the body, we must adapt to the changes of yin and yang in nature. "Su Wen" said: "Yin and Yang are in harmony and adjusted to four o'clock." He also said: "The man of Yin and Yang in four seasons is the foundation of all things. Therefore, saints nourish yang in spring and summer and yin in autumn and winter to follow their roots, so they rise and fall with everything at the gate of growth; If you go against its roots, you will chop its roots and destroy its truth. " All these show that adapting to the changes of yin and yang in nature, keeping the internal and external environment unified and not making yin and yang rise and fall are the key issues for health preservation and disease prevention. If you don't keep in good health and can't adapt to the changes of Yin and Yang in the four seasons, it will destroy the balance of Yin and Yang, be vulnerable to external evils, eventually get sick and even endanger your life. Therefore, Neijing clearly pointed out: "Yin Pingyang is the secret, and God is the rule; Yin and Yang are separated and refined. "

In addition, in addition to the external factors that can affect the changes of Yin and Yang in the four seasons, internal factors of the human body can also lead to imbalance of Yin and Yang and cause pathological changes. Neijing says: "Anger hurts yin, sudden joy hurts yang" is an example. In other words, in order to maintain the balance between Yin and Yang, we must also pay attention to regulating emotional activities.

(3) Unity of form and spirit

The theory of "unity of form and spirit" is the theoretical basis of psychological intake of traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine calls all kinds of psychological activities "gods". It is believed that the activity of god is the expression of the activity of human viscera, that is to say, the five zang-organs are regarded as the organs on which the spirit depends. Neijing says that "form is the essence of God" and "invisible is the life of God"; He also said: "The five internal organs: the heart stores the spirit, the lung stores the spirit, the liver stores the soul, the spleen stores the meaning, and the kidney stores the will"; "The heart is the master of the five internal organs, and God is also the house of the spirit. Evil spirits can endure, and they are painful and heartbroken. If they go, they will die. The five zang-organs are the core of human life, and human spirit is produced by essence and body fluid, so the five zang-organs are closely related to mental activities. When the five internal organs are full of qi and blood, the spirit is normal, the form and spirit are unified, and the spirit is wise. Neijing says: "Qi and blood are in harmony, camp and health are in harmony, the five internal organs are formed, and the spirit of qi and blood is perfect, which makes people become people", and "the spirit of qi and blood of people is dedicated to those who are born for life". On the contrary, deficiency of qi and blood in the five internal organs can lead to mental fatigue, delirium and even death. " "Lingshu" said: "When you are a hundred years old, your five internal organs are empty, your soul is gone, and you will be lonely after all. The "all souls have disappeared" mentioned here does not necessarily mean centenarians. If people of any age do not pay attention to nursed back to health, it will harm the function of storing essence in the five internal organs, and over time, it will also lead to the same consequences.

The concept of form and spirit in traditional Chinese medicine not only recognizes God's dependence on form, but also recognizes God's reaction to matter. It is considered that the spirit controls and dominates the qi and blood of zang-fu organs, and human psychological activities restrict human physiological activities, which is one of the characteristics of the concept of form and spirit in traditional Chinese medicine. The role of God in physical activities is mainly manifested in two aspects: first, God can coordinate the viscera, qi, blood, yin and yang, and maintain the balance of human internal environment; Second, God can adjust the Yin and Yang of the zang-fu organs, make them actively adapt to the changes of nature, and buffer the emotional stimulation caused by external factors, thus maintaining the balance between the human body and the external environment. Therefore, Neijing pays special attention to the importance of nourishing the spirit, and holds that "those who are absent die and those who get the spirit live".

In a word, God is attached to the form, but if it is invisible, God cannot exist. The spirit, in turn, can dominate and dominate all activities of the body. Without God's body, it's like a walking corpse. Therefore, Chinese medicine pays special attention to mental health in health preservation, that is, through people's conscious psychological cultivation, they pay attention to mental health and achieve mental health, and influence physical activities with positive psychological activities, so as to achieve spiritual, physical and spiritual prosperity, which will last for a hundred years. This is also what modern medicine attaches importance to. For example, researchers from the British Common Cold Research Group conducted psychological tests on healthy volunteers. The psychological stress of the subjects was graded, and then the cold virus was injected into the body. Results The group with great psychological pressure and the group with introverted personality were more seriously ill than the group with less psychological pressure and the group with extroverted personality. This shows that people with psychological imbalance and introverted personality can't stand the blow of cold virus. This also fully shows the importance of mental health to maintain the balance between the internal and external environment of the human body.

Spirit and essence, body fluid and blood are intrinsically linked. Essence, qi and spirit were called three treasures by the ancients. Essence is the substance produced by grain essence in the later stage, and it is the material basis of various activities of human body; Qi is produced by essence, which is the main substance that produces all physiological functions of the body; God is the expression of the interaction between essence and qi and the summary of all physiological and psychological activities of the human body. It can be seen that the relationship between them is very close. Qi is produced by essence, and essence's metaplasia depends on qi, and essence * * * is combined into god. Therefore, those who are full of energy must be very prosperous. On the other hand, people who are not energetic must be deficient in essence. Excessive consumption of essence will weaken the generation of qi; Excessive gas consumption will also reduce the generation and metaplasia of essence, while insufficient essence will be insufficient. On the other hand, if God is excessively destroyed by mental activities, the deficiency of God will also affect the physiological function of essence and make people weak. This is the dialectical relationship between essence and spirit in human body, that is, the concept of unity of form and spirit.

Body fluids and blood also come from Shui Gu's subtlety. Traditional Chinese medicine often mentions the names of essence, qi, body fluid, body fluid, blood and pulse. In fact, they are not only homologous, but also interdependent and interactive. Therefore, body fluid loss, qi and blood loss; Deficiency of qi and blood can also lead to the loss of body fluid. This is the truth in Neijing that "those who take blood have no sweat, and those who take sweat have no blood". Because sweat is produced by body fluid, people with insufficient body fluid naturally sweat less or no sweat; On the other hand, excessive sweating can also damage body fluids. Therefore, maintaining the normal physiological functions of body fluids and blood is conditioning.

(4) Prevention of diseases

"Prevention before illness" is one of the important theories of TCM. Neijing said: "The sage didn't cure the disease, but he didn't cure it ... The husband's illness became a medicine, ... isn't it too late?" ! "This shows that as early as the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago, people had a deep understanding of the strategic thinking that prevention is the key to treating diseases. It is also mentioned in Huainanzi in the Western Han Dynasty: "Good doctors often cure diseases without diseases, so there is no disease." In ancient times, preventive medicine was highly valued. There is a famous saying that "preventing diseases at work" means treating doctors who are good at preventing diseases as first-class doctors. Under the influence of preventive medicine, our people have generally developed many good hygiene habits for thousands of years.

According to legend, the inventor of broom and dustpan was born in Xia Dynasty. Although the legend is not credible, Oracle Bone Inscriptions does have the word "broom". Shang and Zhou bronzes unearthed in Shaanxi all have the inscription "holding a broom to sweep the floor", which shows that a broom was used to sweep the dust at that time. In the Book of Rites, there is such a passage: "The chicken crows first ... to sweep the house, hall and yard", which shows that our ancestors used the wet dust sweeping method that met the sanitary requirements two thousand years ago.

Our ancestors attached great importance to personal hygiene, and there was the word "bathing" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. The word "mu" is like washing your face, and the word "bath" is like a person taking a bath in a basin. Among the ancient cultural relics in China, there is a kind of "Polygonum cuspidatum white plate", which is the oldest existing bathing instrument, and it has been more than 2600 years since. Since the Song Dynasty, China has had urban bathroom facilities and professional hairdressers. The ancients had long recognized that spitting was a bad habit, and Tang Sun Simiao had clearly pointed out that "you can't spit if you are used to it". He also mentioned oral hygiene in his book Qian Jin Fang. He said: "Everyone should gargle after eating; It's hard. "Hair-transplant toothbrush was invented in the Liao Dynasty in the 7th century, more than 600 years earlier than in the West. "Eating Food" in the Yuan Dynasty also said: "It is better to brush your teeth in the Qing Dynasty than in the evening, and your teeth will not get sick. "We should inherit and carry forward these good health traditions left by the ancients.

The ancients attached great importance to food hygiene. According to Zhou Li, there was a "food doctor" who specialized in food hygiene and nutrition in the Zhou Dynasty. "The Analects of Confucius" specifically pointed out: "Food is not tired of essence, and food is not tired of detail. The fish is hungry and the meat is defeated. The wine market does not eat, the color does not eat, and the smell does not eat. " Qian Jinfang pointed out more clearly: "Don't eat raw meat to hurt your stomach, but all the meat must be cooked." People take stomach qi as the basis and Shui Gu's essence as the growth. Excessive diet, spleen and stomach injury, affect the function of transportation and chemistry, and produce diseases. Eating too much will produce dampness, heat and phlegm; Excessive consumption of unclean food can lead to diarrhea and dysentery. Overeating leads to cold, and the yang in the stomach is damaged, which will cause abdominal pain and bloating. China advocated drinking boiled water from the Han Dynasty and developed the habit of drinking tea from the Jin Dynasty. In the second century BC, our ancestors began to "dig wells to drink water" to protect water sources and prevent pollution. All these habits help to prevent the occurrence of intestinal infectious diseases.

Our country also attached great importance to environmental sanitation in ancient times. As early as the Warring States period, there were ceramic sewers, and the sewers excavated by archaeologists from the capital of Yan State at that time (now Yixian County, Hebei Province) were of a fairly high level in structure. Oracle Bone Inscriptions showed that there were garbage cleaners in China in Shang Dynasty, and there were cleaners in Lin 'an (Hangzhou) in Southern Song Dynasty, who kept them clean and hygienic every day. Du Toilet in Han Dynasty was the earliest public toilet in the world.

Labor is human instinct and an important part of life, and physical exercise also comes from labor. As early as the primitive times, the seeds of sports activities have already appeared. Frequent wars in Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties promoted the development of sports and military riding and shooting. Swimming, boating, throwing stones, fencing and boxing in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, guiding qi and breathing in the Qin and Han Dynasties, hua tuo wuqinxi and popular swings, throwing pots and chess are all good physical exercise methods, which can prevent diseases. There is an old saying: "The lake is not ripe slowly, and the running water is not rotten." Hua Tuo's disciple, Wu Pu, insisted on Wuqin Opera and lived for more than 90 years. Nowadays, Baduanjin and Tai Ji Chuan are all evolved from Wuqinxi. As long as we insist on physical activity, we can dredge blood vessels and be healthy. However, if we go too far, such as excessive exercise and fatigue, it will be harmful to our health. Neijing points out: "Long-term vision hurts blood, long-term standing hurts bones, long-term walking hurts tendons", and "fatigue consumes gas". All these show that overwork will damage the qi and blood bones of the human body and cause diseases.

In addition, "saving rooms" is also one of the important contents of ancient people's health preservation. The so-called "abstinence" means that lust should not be excessive. Chinese medicine believes that excessive greed will damage the true qi hidden in the kidney. Neijing said: "Excessive entry into the house, ... hurts the kidney." The human body takes the kidney as the place to store essence, which is the foundation of congenital. If you are energetic and strong, your five internal organs will be harmonious, your skin will be moist, your face will be radiant, and your eyes and ears will be smart. If we indulge our lust blindly, kidney yin and kidney yang will lose money, which will lead to insufficient essence, physical weakness, vulnerability to pathogenic factors, long-term and difficult to heal, and even early death. The great China has a long history and a long history of health preservation.