Zhuangzi's Sayings on Health Preservation

In the middle of the Warring States Period, around the same time as Mencius, a brilliant star shone in the sky of human wisdom, and that was Zhuangzi, who has been passed down through the ages in the ideological and cultural circles of our country. Zhuangzi, whose given name was Zhou, was from Mengyi in the State of Song (now northeast of Shangqiu, Henan Province). He was born around 369 BC and died in 286 BC, at the age of 83. Zhuangzi lived a poor life. In his youth, he served as the administrator of a common lacquer garden in Mengyi. For the rest of his life, he lived in a shabby alley, wearing coarse cloth clothes and making a living by making straw sandals. When he was running out of food and unable to make ends meet, he even borrowed grain from the Marquis of River Supervision. He was a man of extraordinary talent, highly appreciated by the feudal lords, and could have easily obtained high official positions and generous salaries, enjoying wealth and honor. However, he was cynical about the world, unwilling to go with the flow, and was content with poverty and hardship. Zhuang Zhou lived in an era when the feudal lords were annexing each other, wars and conflicts were rampant, and the strategists were constantly changing their minds. The Confucian and Mohist scholars, with their theories of benevolence and righteousness, were striving to consolidate the rule of the slave owners, while the rulers were becoming increasingly dissolute and tyrannical. Zhuang Zhou was out of place in all of this. The book Zhuangzi is filled with satire and criticism of the mundane world. Zhuangzi inherited and developed Laozi's teachings. Since the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Laozi and Zhuangzi have been mentioned together as the founders of the Daoist school. However, there are slight differences between the two: Laozi advocated having few selfish desires, while Zhuangzi advocated having no desires. Laozi advocated non-action, with the aim of doing nothing. Zhuangzi, on the other hand, advocated pure non-action. The book "Laozi" not only discusses social and political philosophy but also touches upon the theories and methods of health preservation. In contrast, "Zhuangzi" elaborates on the theories and methods of health preservation with a large amount of content, thereby expounding his political philosophy. This is because Zhuangzi believed that the tyranny and chaos of the mundane world were due to the rulers losing their true nature. Therefore, they must be free from desires and self, calm and inactive, residing in a land of nothingness and in a vast wilderness, preserving their true nature, cultivating their character and virtue, in order to restore their true nature. Only in this way can the world be peaceful. It is precisely this ideological theory that has exerted an extremely profound and significant influence on the life content and practice methods of later Taoist health preservation practitioners.