How did the ancients in China keep fit?

Hua tuo can best represent the ancient people's concept of physical fitness. Hua Tuo was a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty. He is a famous calligrapher from Bozhou, Anhui. He has made great achievements in medical skills, and his longevity, health and energy are inseparable from his own emphasis on sports and fitness. On the basis of inheriting the guiding theory and his own practice, according to the principles of human physiology and medicine, he expounded the important role of exercise in health preservation. He believes that if people want to prevent and treat diseases, they must increase their nutrition and exercise regularly. Promote blood circulation and achieve the purpose of fitness and disease prevention.

According to the biography of Hua Tuo in the Three Kingdoms, he once said to his disciple Upp, "The human body should not be extreme if it wants to work. Shake it, the valley gas will disappear, the blood will circulate, and the disease will not be born. For example, it is immortal. It is guided by ancient immortals, cared by the bear's neck, and it is not easy to get old. "

His theory of guiding health preservation conforms to scientific principles, is original in the medical history of China, and is the ideological basis of correct sports in ancient China.

Hua Tuo's viewpoint and proposition of "moving to preserve health and moving to get rid of diseases" is the essence and core of his guiding theory. In his long-term sports practice, he devoted himself to studying and summarizing the experience of predecessors' guidance, and on the basis of extensively absorbing all kinds of guidance experience, he created five animal forms of the Five Birds Play, imitating tigers, deer, bears, apes and birds respectively. From the content point of view, the five animal forms and movements in Five Birds Play have their own characteristics and functions. For example, the tiger play in Wuqinxi imitates the tiger's bravery and strength to increase its strength; Deer show imitates the galloping of deer, turns around and makes the waist and legs flexible. Bear play imitates bear lying and rolling to dredge blood vessels; Ape play imitates the crawling and jumping of apes and is sensitive to the body; Bird play imitates the wings of birds and flies high to please the mood. Judging from the exercise movements of Wuqinxi, most of the movements are carried out on the ground, with a large amount of exercise. Although it is a set of health gymnastics with the main function of fitness and disease prevention as well as medical function in form, Hua Tuo said that "getting up is a bird play, sweating profusely", which shows that he does not necessarily require people to complete the whole set of movements, but requires exercisers to selectively do exercises suitable for them according to their physical conditions. It is said that Wu Pu, a disciple of Hua Tuo, insisted on practicing Wuqin Opera. By the age of 90, he was still hearing and seeing, and his teeth were complete.