Tao Hongjing's Health Preservation - Traveling Through Mountains and Rivers

Hongjing went into seclusion in the mountains to fulfill his aspiration for health preservation. His aspiration was firmly established in his youth, but it was also attributed to his years of diligent exploration and in-depth research, eventually leading to a profound enlightenment. Long before he entered the mountains and during his tenure in the Southern Qi Dynasty, he had repeatedly asked the emperor for leave to travel and visited the recluse Gao Xian. During the three years of Jiazi, Yichou and Bingyin, he traveled to Mount Dongyue with Dongyang Sun of Xingshi Academy and sought the Taoist talismans, diagrams and scriptures. Although all the results were from the original texts and had been copied, he was not satisfied with them. Therefore, he invited a senior scholar to correct them. In the year of Wu Chen, I went to Maoshan and obtained the original handwriting of Yang Xu. In the year of Geng Wu, I gradually traveled eastward and sought out the supernatural everywhere. I paid a visit to the layman Lou Huiming at Dahan Mountain in Kuaiji, visited the layman Du Jingchan at Taiping Mountain in Yuyao, paid homage to the master Zhong Yishan at Shining Mountain, and paid homage to Zhu Shubiao and other old Taoist priests from various places at Tiantai Mountain in Shifeng. This journey lasted for more than two hundred days and I gained a lot, obtaining more than ten volumes of genuine handwriting. Wherever my footprints went, There are many famous mountains such as Changshan in Dongyang, Tianri Mountain in Wuxing, and Suian in Linhai, Yuqian. This trip and search had a great impact on Hongjing. A year later, Hongjing resigned from his official position and went to the mountains, and he himself became the reclusive man he had longed for. The most prominent feature of Hongjing's life was his love for nature and his passion for mountains and waters. His footprints can be found all over the famous mountains and rivers under the jurisdiction of the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties. Hongjing was light and agile, and was extremely skilled at climbing and scaling. Whenever he encountered a cliff or a broken wall, he would climb and jump over it. Or when he came across a deep valley or a secluded ravine, he would sing and chant, or sit and lie down there, or pick flowers and herbs. He would stay there until the apes and birds were singing and perching, reluctant to leave. He often spent the night alone among the deer. Hongjing once said to his disciples, "I have seen the grand mansions and mansions, and although I recognize their splendid music, I have no desire to go there. Looking at the high mountains and the vast marshes, I know it is difficult to stop there, so I have always wanted to go there." Loving nature, immersing oneself in nature, and finding joy in returning to nature have become one of the secrets to Hongjing's longevity and health preservation.