行政院國家科學委員會專題研究計畫 成果報告
養生與養身──晚明日常生活的起居、攝生與衛生
計畫類別： 個別型計畫 計畫編號： NSC94-2411-H-004-029- 執行期間： 94 年 08 月 01 日至 95 年 07 月 31 日 執行單位： 國立政治大學歷史學系 計畫主持人： 陳秀芬 計畫參與人員： 林弘毅 報告類型： 精簡報告 處理方式： 本計畫可公開查詢中 華 民 國 95 年 10 月 11 日
中英文摘要
中文摘要
本研究旨在探討晚明時期（十六世紀到十七世紀中葉）中國人的養生觀點及其在 日常生活中的實踐。長久以來，養生一直是傳統中國醫家、道家與道教傳統的重 要課題。自宋代以後，隨著印刷術的發展、經濟繁榮與商品市場競爭等現象的出 現，各式各樣主題的出版品大量湧現，連帶使得原本侷限於某些特定階層、身分 的知識與技術，得以有廣泛流通的社會條件；帶有宗教、方技色彩的養生思維與 作為跨越原有軫域，在不同的社會場域中現身始成為可能。到了明代晚期，除了 道教修煉書與醫學典籍，士人的文集與民間日用類書、家庭百科也大量摘錄養生 法、攝生術，對於養生提出各種評論與看法。雖說這個現象非始自明代，但就其 形式之繁、數量之多，卻是在晚明達到高峰。為了釐清這個「養生的通俗化」現 象在當時以及在整個中國歷史上的意義與重要性，本計畫將以上述資料為基礎， 去考察晚明的養生與士庶生活、物質文化、家庭禮儀、個人衛生與身體規訓的關 係，並提供一個關於傳統社會日常生活史的側面瞭解。 關鍵詞：養生、攝生、衛生、身體、生活起居、晚明English Abstract
This survey is set out to explore the ideas of‘nurturing life’(yangsheng)–the specific techniques broadly aimed at physical and mental cultivation for the sake of longevity –and its practices in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, i.e. 16th–17th century China.Foralong time,‘nurturing life’had played a key role in thetraditions of classic Chinese medicine, religions and court societies. From the Song dynasty (960-1279) onwards, the initially restricted knowledge to certain social classes including the medical, the religious and the noble began to be widely spread into different fields, mostly owing to the rapid changes of contemporary societies. The social mobility, economic prosperity, wide circulation of commodity and advanced technology of printing all helped to secularise and popularise different types of medicalknowledge.Itisin thiscontextthattheoriesand practicesof‘nurturing life’ attracted more elegant scholars with broad interests and wealthy merchants seeking novelty. Not until the 16thand 17th centuries did the popularisation of knowledge of ‘nurturing life’reach itspeak.In anumberofscholars’literary collections, jotting works and the laity’s family encyclopaedias for daily use there were recorded and
transcribed a great deal of discourses and sections on ‘nurturing life’. They demonstrated various ideas and techniquesof‘nurturing life’by meansofregulating the body in daily living, sleeping, exercising, washing, eating, drinking, etc. Moreover, their purpose were no longer limited to the old ideal of longevity but, rather, extended to the more pragmatic ones, i.e., ‘serving the parents’and ‘nurturing the elderly’. To highlight the significance of this unique historical phenomenon in the late imperial period, this survey will be focused on the literati’s ‘nurturing life’in terms of their body disciplines and mind cultivation in the material culture of the 16th-17th centuries. In so doing, it will hopefully not only display a lucid image of a Chinese way of conceptualising life, health and the body, but also to provide a picturesque of everyday life of a traditional Chinese society in the pre-modern ages.
報告內容
※ 本報告內容已發表於以下場合：‘Practices and Representations of Health: historical Perspectives’, The Society for Social History of Medicine Annual Conference, University of Warwick, U.K., 28-30 June, 2006
※ 尚未正式出版，請勿徵引
Nurturing life and nourishing the body: regimen and
hygiene in the daily life of 16
th-17
thcentury China
By
Dr. CHEN, Hsiu-fen (Assistant Professor)
Department of History, National Chengchi University, Taiwan E-mail:[email protected]
Introduction
This survey issetoutto exploretheideasof‘nurturinglife’(yangsheng 養 生) and its practices in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, i.e. 16th–17th
century China.Fora long time,‘nurturing life’had played a key role in the traditionsof classic Chinese medicine and religions. In early China, yangsheng –the specific techniques broadly aimed at physical cultivation and longevity in term of qi exercise – was mainly practised by the nobility and the aristocrats.1 Given evidences by the excavated manuscripts from Mawangdui 馬王堆 tombs (Hunan), Zhangjiashan 張 家山 (Hubei) and the received medical canons such as the Huangdi neijing 黃帝內 經 (The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor) it is clear that yangsheng involves in physical regulation and/or spiritual harmonisation. Preliminary ideas and techniques for daily regimen, such as breathing, eating, drinking, exercising and even sexual activity were recorded in these documents.2 A bibliography of the second century
1 Forathorough discussion,see:Lo,Vivienne(1998),‘The influencesofyangsheng culture on early Chinesemedicaltheory’,Ph.D.thesis,School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, U.K..
2 Therelated recordscan befound in:themanuscriptsof‘yangsheng fang’ 養生方,‘si wen ’ 十問 and ‘he yinyang’ 合陰陽 in the Mawangdui hanmu yishu jiaoshi 馬王堆漢墓醫書校釋 (Annotation on Medical Manuscripts from the Han Tombs at Mawangdui), ed. by Wei Qipeng 魏啟鵬 and Hu Xianghua 胡翔驊 (1992), Chengdu: Chengdu chubanshe, 2 volumes; the ‘yin shu’ 引書 in the Zhangjiashan hanmu zhujian 張家山漢墓竹簡, ed. by Zhangjiashan er si qi hao hanmu zhujian
also showsthatthe‘artsofbedchamber’(fangzhong 房中) as a part of yangsheng culture had long existed before that time.3 In addition, ancient philosophical masters such as Confucius, Laozi 老子 and Zhuangzi 莊子 too showed their ideas of regimen.4 It seems plausible to assume that yangsheng as unique conceptions and techniques had emerged since the Zhou-Qin-Han dynasties.
The culture of yangsheng had been supplemented by some new contents since the rise of religious Daoism in the second century.5 The religious Daoism is renowned for its ultimate concern of seeking immortality and longevity. To attain this goal they invented some new techniques and absorbed some old arts of antique
yangsheng for religious cultivations. Daoist believers therefore became the major
practitioners who had inherited and elaborated the traditions of yangsheng during the mediaeval period (3rd–10th centuries). In the Daoist heritage the culture of yangsheng was enriched by the exercises of ‘outeralchemy’ (and later the ‘inneralchemy’) ‘breathing outand in’(tuna 吐納),‘suspending diet’(pigu 辟榖),‘taking herbal medicine’(fushi 服食),‘massage’(an qiao 按蹻; an mo 按摩), ‘guiding and pulling (the body)’(daoyin 導引), and the arts of bedchamber.6 Books written by Daoists and Daoism-inclined hermits had far-reaching impacts upon the ages to come. Even in the period of 16th-17th century the influence of their legacy was distinctive.7 Besides, a small number of emperors, officials and scholars in mediaeval China showed no less interest in the techniques of yangsheng –e.g. ‘taking herbal medicine’–for the sake of immortality.8
zhengli xiaozu 張家山二四七號漢墓竹簡整理小組, Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2001; the Huangdi neijing suwen 黃帝內經素問 (Inner Canon of the Yellow Lord: Basic Questions), edited and annotated by Wang Bing 王冰, 762, reprint 1963/1996, Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe.
3 Thebibliography of‘theImmortal’(shexian 神仙)and ‘theartsofbedchamber’(fangzhong 房中) is shown in the ‘fangji lue’ 方技略 of ‘yiwen zhi’ 藝文志 of the Hanshu 漢書 (History of the Former Han), compiled by Ban Gu 班固 (32-92), during 58-76, pres/print 92, commented by Yan Shigu 顏 師 古 , reprint 1962, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju. For general discussion of the arts of bedchamberin early China,pleasesee:Umekawa,Sumiyo (2004),‘Sex and immortality:a study of Chinese sexual activities for better-being’, Ph.D. thesis, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, U.K..
4 ForConfucius’idea,pleasereferto,forinstance,thechapterof‘xiang dang’ 鄉黨 of the Analects, in Sishu jizhu 四書集注, annoted by [Song] Zhu Xi 朱熹, Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1956/1995, pp.125-126. ForphilosophicalDaoistconcepts,pleasereferto thechapter‘yangsheng zhu’ 養生主 in the Zhuangzi jishi 莊子集釋, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, pp.115-130, and the Laozi.
5 In my view, philosophical Daoism and religious Daoism, despite their shared ideas derived from Laozi and Zhuangzi, should be distinguished from each other clearly.
6
Zheng Jinsheng 鄭 金 生 (1998), Zhongguo gudai yangsheng 中 國古 代 養生 , Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu yinshuguan, chapter 2.
7 Of the influential Daoist works on yangsheng culture, Yang xing yan ming lu 養性延命錄 (536) by Tao Hongjing 陶弘景, Beiji qian jin yao fang 備急千金要方 (651) and Weisheng ge 衛生歌 (682) by Sun Simiao 孫思邈 were the most popular ones, frequently included and reprinted in some compendium on yangsheng in late imperial China.
8 Liao Ruiyin 廖芮茵 (2004), Tangdai fushi yangsheng yanjiu 唐代服食養生研究, Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, pp.137-241.
There seems to have been a transformation in the yangsheng culture since the Song dynasty (960-1279). The rising neo-Confucianism in contrast to the declining Buddhism and Daoism threw new light to the exercises of yangsheng. Certainly some members of Daoism kept paying attention to yangsheng by writing, compiling handbooks and compendia on the related issues.9 Although Daoist influences remained, however, more Confucian scholars with broad intellectual interests also contributed to reading, writing and even advocating yangsheng.10 The literati’s writing and publishing works on yangsheng became prosperous since the 10th century. It reached to the peak in 16th-17thcentury China.
It will therefore be my attempt to answer the questions as follow: In which contexts would scholarly publications of yangsheng culture flourish, and why did their amounts reach to height in the 16th and 17th centuries? What were the characteristics of yangsheng in that period that made them distinctive from those in previous ages? Also, how were yangsheng exercised in the daily life of people? These questions will be enquired in detail in the rest of this survey.
The Characteristics of
yangsheng
in Late Imperial China
As noted above, the fashion of writing and publishing works on yangsheng seems to have reached its peak in the 16th and 17th century in China. The first evidence is given by the number of publications (including both general and specific discussions) on the issues of yangsheng. According to the statistics of extant books as recorded in the Union Catalogue of Books of Chinese Medicine (Quanguo zhongyi lianhe mulu 全國中醫聯合目錄), there are only 18 works of general treatises on
yangsheng in the Song-Yuan dynasties (960-1368). But the number of books with
similar topics rose to nearly 150 in Ming-Qing China (1368-1911). Of these works, almost 60 (i.e. 40%) were written/compiled/edited during the period of 1500-1700, namely, the late Ming and early Qing.11 In addition to books solely attributed to
9 In addition to the Daozang 道藏, the greatest repertoire of Daoist canon collections, the Daoist masters and hermits remained active of contributing to the works of yangsheng. For the related works, see:[Yuan]Qiu Chuji’s 邱處機 Shesheng xiaoxi lun 攝生消息論 (1287), in Yangsheng si shu 養生 四書, Hubei: Chongwen shuju,2004;[Ming]Zhou Lujing’s 周履靖 ed., Yi men guang du 夷門廣牘 (1597), abridged as Yimen changsheng mishu shier zhong 夷門長生秘書十二種, Taichung: Ziyou chubanshe,1998;and theanonymousMing writer’sXiaoyaozi daoyin jue 逍遙子導引訣, in Xiaoyaozi daoyin jue wai si zhong 逍遙子導引訣外四種, Taipei: Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi, 1987.
10 For further evidences, please see the Song works include Dongpo zhi lin 東坡志林 by Su Shi 蘇軾 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), Mengxi bi tan 夢溪筆談 by Shen Gua 沈括 (Taipei: Sijie shuju, 1989), Laoxuean biji 老學庵筆記 by Lu You 陸游 (Beijing: Zonghua shuju, 1997), and Yijian zhi 夷堅志 by Hong Mai 洪邁 (Shanghai: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1988).
11 Quanguo zhongyi tushu lianhe mulu 全國中醫圖書聯合目錄 (Union Catalogue of Books of Chinese Medicine), Beijing: Zhongyi guji chubanshe, 1991., pp.606-615.
yangsheng, many contemporary literary collection, jotting (biji 筆記) and medical
works also contain abundant paragraphs/sections related to yangsheng.
Syncretism of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism
Unlike their predecessors in earlier times, interestingly, the 16th-17th-century writers, compilers and editors of the works on yangsheng were no longer restricted to religious practitioners, hermits and physicians, but widespread to neo-Confucian scholars and even government’s officials. Some of the writers –e.g., Luo Hongxian 羅洪先 and Li Zhi 李贄 –were well known for their leading roles in Wang Yangming’s 王陽明 School of neo-Confucianism, the most influential current of thought in the Ming times. Some of the writers –e.g., Yuan Huang 袁黃 and Zhou Chen 周臣 –were successful bureaucrats serving the government. In spite of their less eminent political career, the hermit-scholars such as Gao Lian 高濂 and Chen Jiru 陳繼儒 actually had far-reaching influences upon the circle of the literati.12 Thesescholars’broad knowledge and wide interest in everyday things had coincided with the fruitful and diversified contents of their works. It is probably owing to the atmosphere of syncretism of the three teachings (Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism) these gentlemen tended to view yangsheng in broader and more complicated contexts.13
For a better understanding of the 16th-17th century popularisation and secularisation of the yangsheng culture there are three related facets to be addressed as below.
Printing, publishing and the reading public
One of the facets of book production on the yangsheng topic is surely related to the industry of printing and publishing. It is well known there had been a revolutionary advancement of printing techniques from the Tang to the Song dynasty (i.e. the 8th-12thcenturies). In the second half of the Ming dynasty, Chinese publishing industry went through a second transition. 14 The commercialisation of
12 The works on yangsheng written/compiled/edited by these authors include: [Ming] Luo Hongxian 羅洪先, Wanshou xian shu 萬壽仙書 (1565); [Ming] Yuan Huang 袁黃, Shesheng san yao 攝生三 要 (1591); [Ming] Gao Lian 高濂, Zhunsheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (1591); [Ming] Zhou Chen 周臣, Housheng xun zhuan 厚生訓纂 (1592); [Ming] Li Zhi 李贄, Yangsheng tihu 養生醍醐 (1602); and [Ming] Chen Jiru 陳繼儒, Yangsheng fu yu 養生膚語 (1606).
13
The syncretism of the three teachings is a key issue to understanding philosophy, religions and popular beliefs in the late Ming. Please see: Ch’ien, Edward T. (1986), Chiao Hung and the Restructuring of Neo-Confucianism in the Late Ming, New York: Columbia University Press; Berling, Judith (1980), The Syncretic Religion of Lin Chao-en, New York: Columbia University Press; Brokaw, Cynthia (1991), The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
14 Qian Cunxun (Tsien Tsuen-hsuin) 錢存訓 (2004), Zhongguo zhi he yinshua wenhua shi 中國紙與 印刷文化史, Guilin, Guangxi: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, chapter 5, pp.123-175.
book-marketing, simplification of printing techniques, increasing supply of and demand for books, and reduction of book price and cost, all help to trigger an unprecedented publishing boom. They not only contributed to mass publishing but to the rise of reading public afterwards.15 In response to the diversified tastes of the reading public, writers and publishers were urged to produce books of a wide range of topics, including that of yangsheng. In the 16th-17th centuries, not only a number of books exclusively attributed to the subject of yangsheng were published, but many literary collection, jotting, novels and even family’sencyclopaedic handbooks for daily use included abundant ideas and messages of yangsheng.16
To be sure, not all of the works produced in the 16th-17th centuries had ‘original’ideas. According to the critique by the compilers of the Siku quanshu 四庫 全書 (Complete Compilation of the Four Treasures; the Qianlong Encyclopaedia), some of the late Ming works were simply to copy, repeat, abridge, rewrite and even plagiarise some other contemporary and earlier books.17 This situation applies to the publication of yangsheng as well. Despite the vague ideas of authorship and copyright at that time, however, it is undeniable that this publishing boom has shown to us how popular the works of yangsheng were in the 16thand 17thcentury while comparing to the previous ages. The tremendous number and widespread of yangsheng books, in my view, also coincided with the contemporary literati’s interest in becoming a ‘bibliophile’, attaining ‘encyclopaedicknowledge’. This is the ways of their education as well as their cultivations.
Material culture and the order of things
Another aspect of the literati’s yangsheng that deserves attention is its close affinity to material culture. Modern scholars have remarked the commercialisation of nearly ‘allkind ofthings’as an important characteristic of the late Ming.18 What ‘superfluous things’characterised was not only the daily life but the practices of
yangsheng at that time. The best representative work on the late Ming material culture
15 Dorothy Ko (1994), Teachers of the Inner Chambers: Women and Culture in Seventeenth-Century
China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, pp.34-35.
16
The records of yangsheng in Ming family’sencyclopaedichandbooksfordaily use can befound in the series edited by Sakade Yoshinobu 坂出祥伸 and Okawa Yoichi 小川陽一 (1999), Chugoku nichiyōruisho shūsei中國日用類書集成, Tokyo: Kyūko shoin. For an introduction to this kind of books and its roles in popular education, please see: Sakai Tadao 酒井忠夫 (1958), ‘Mindai no nichiyō ruisho to shomin kyōiku’ 明代の日用類書と庶民教育, in Kinsei chūgoku kyōiku shikenkyū 近世中國教育史研究, Tokyo: Kokudosha.
17 Quoted from Mao Wenfang 毛文芳 (2000), Wanming xianshang meixue 晚明閒賞美學, Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, p.102.
18 Clunas, Craig (1991), Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern
China, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp.116-140. For a whole discussion of the Ming commerce, see: Brook, Timothy (1998), The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China, Berkeley, L.A. and London: University of California Press.
in daily life is the Zhang wu zhi 長物志 (Treaties on Superfluous Things, 1615-1620) by the scholarly official, Wen Zhenheng 文震亨. The art historian Craig Clunas even regards Zhang wu zhi as an extensive work of‘garden-related’materials.19 None of the artefacts included in this book stood out the sphere of commodity, according to Clunas.20
A number of writers showed their very interest and broad knowledge in ‘things’, ranging from foods, herbs, plants, furniture, stationary and incenses to handcrafts. An excellent example is the Zhun sheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (Eight Discourses on Respecting/Following Life, 1591) by Gao Lian 高 濂 (ca. 1527-1596).21 It is worth noted that the materials as recorded in these books also served as objects of connoisseurship in the literati’s tradition. In fact, many contemporary scholars not only live with ‘things’but being keen to write ‘objects’in daily life, of which the new genres were entitled as ‘miscellaneous’(za 雜) in the taxonomy of the Siku quanshu.22 By access to, admiration and writing of the daily objects the scholars had displayed their aesthetic attitudes, namely, ‘elegance’(ya 雅) in contrast to the ‘vulgar’(su 俗) taste of other social strata, e.g. of merchants, who had been degraded as the lowest rank of the society since antiquity. It helps the literati strengthening their class consciousness and self-identity.
Daily cultivation and nurturing the elderly
During the 16th and 17th centuries, yangsheng was surely indistinguishable from everyday life. It is particularly true for retired scholars who usually paid more attention to nurturing and prolonging life.23 When these men enjoyed their casual activities and leisure time, their ‘spiritual cultivation’was embedded in typical scholarly activities such as calligraphy, painting, playing instruments, raising fishes, insects and plants, and travelling. Meanwhile, their ‘bodily cultivation’was often integrated with sleeping, washing, eating, walking, sex, massage, sport and bodily disciplinesuch as‘pulling and guiding(the body)’(daoyin 導引). As early as in the 7thcentury the Daoist physician Sun Simiao 孫思邈 had closely associated yangxing
19 See Clunas, Craig (1996), Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China, London: Reaktion Books, p.166.
20 Clunas, Craig (1991), Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern
China, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp.118.
21
Gao Lian 高 濂 (ca. 1527-1596), Zhun sheng ba jian 遵 生 八 牋 (Eight Discourses on Respecting/Following Life, 1591), Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe.
22 In addition to thecategory ‘zapin’ 雜品,othereasily confused categorieswith itinclude‘zasuo’ 雜說,‘zakao’ 雜考,‘zazhuan’ 雜纂, etc.. Please see: Siku quanshu mulu suoyin 四庫全書目錄索引, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, pp.181-188. For their respective contents, please see Mao Wenfang, ibid., p.104.
23 Sakade Yoshinobu 坂出祥伸 (1999), Chūgoku shisō kenkyū:Iyaku yōsei,kagaku shisō hen 中國 思想研究：醫藥養生‧科學思想篇, Osaka: Kansai University Press, pp.147-176.
養性 (nurturing the nature) –another term paralleling to yangsheng –with ‘nurturing the elderly’(yang lao 養老) and ‘living of retirement’(tui ju 退居).24 In later ages these ideas were elaborated further as ‘serving the parents’(fong qin 奉親) and ‘prolonging the parents’life’(shou qin 壽親), in correspondence to the Confucian ideal of ‘filial piety’.25 Perhaps this is one of the reasons to explain why some later Confucian scholars seem to have accepted the arts of yangsheng more easily.
In addition to the purposes of ‘nurturing the elderly’and ‘serving the parents’, there was a no less important purpose for successful official and eminent scholars to come cross yangsheng books, namely, self-healing and self-cultivation. For example, Zhou Chen 周臣, the magistrate of Quzhou 衢州 in 1549, had suffered from a disease of sore at that time. During the period of his sickness he was unable to walk around, often sitting in his office. His friend went to see him, lending him books on various topics including Yanshi jiaxun 顏氏家訓, Yuanshi shifan 袁氏 世範, Yangsheng zazhuan 養生雜纂, Bianmin tuzhuan 便民圖纂, Tongshu 通書, and Jujia biyong 居家必用. Zhou thought that these books include everything ‘needed for daily life’(minsheng riyong 民生日用). He thus took notes based on the topics of ‘nursing babies’, ‘drinking and eating’, ‘daily living’, ‘controlling emotions’, ‘dealing with oneself’, ‘harmonising families’, ‘managing home’, ‘nurturing the elderly’, and ‘admonition discourses’, which were later compiled into a book entitled with Hou sheng xu zhuan 厚生訓纂. This work was included in Shouyang congshu 壽養叢書 edited by Hu Wenhuan 胡文煥 in 1592.26
Likewise, Gao Lian 高濂 and Zhou Lujing’s 周履 靖 interests in yangsheng culture were motivated by their weakness and illnesses since childhood. They practised these techniques primarily for the sake of self-healing.27
Therefore, to practise yangsheng in terms of both mental and physical senses and to situate it into the context of domestic life as a whole became an important characteristic of the yangsheng culture in late imperial China. To elaborate this point I will turn to case studies of the yangsheng works in the 16th-17thcenturies.
24 Sun Simiao 孫思邈, Qianjin yifang 千金翼方 (682), Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 1996, juan 12, ‘yang xing 養性’,esp.pp.116-118; juan 14,‘tui ju 退居’,pp.126-129.
25 The following books are famous examples: [Song] Chen Zhi 陳直, Yanglao fongqin shu 養老奉親 書 (1085), later supplemented by [Yuan] Zhou Xuan 鄒鉉 as Shouqin yanglao xin shu 壽親養老新 書 (1307); [Yuan] Li Pengfei 李鵬飛, San yuan yan shou can zan sh 三元延壽參贊書 (1291); [Ming] Liu Yu 劉宇, An lao huai you shu 安老懷幼書; [Ming] Hong Pian 洪楩, Shi zhi yanglao fang 食治養老方 (1566); [Qing] Cao Tingdong 曹廷棟 (ca. 1699-?), Lao lao heng yan 老老恆言 (1773). 26 [Ming] Zhou Chen 周臣, Hou sheng xu zhuan 厚生訓纂, in Hu Wenhuan 胡文煥 ed. (1592),
Shou yang congshu quanji 壽養叢書全集, Beijing: Zongguo zhongyiyao chubanshe, 1997, p.357, the ‘Preface’.
27 [Ming] Zhou Lujing 周 履 靖 , ‘Postscript’, in his ed., Chi feng sui 赤鳳髓 (1579), Taipei: Xinwenfeng chubanshe, 1987, pp.157-159.Seethediscussion below forGao Lian’scase.
The Instant Ways for Practicing Daily Cultivation
Gao Lian’s 高濂 Zhun sheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (1591)
The first book I will examine is Zhun sheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (1591) by Gao Lian 高濂 (ca. 1527-1596). There is no lucid record about Gao’sbiography. From Tu Long’s 屠隆 (1542-1605) preface to Gao’s book we only know that Gao had suffered from sickness in his childhood, which later motivated his interest in studying medicine and religions and seeking rare recipes and medicinal drugs for self-curing.28 Zhun sheng ba jian as his most highly acclaimed work is divided into
eight topics. These topics include ‘general discourse on cultivation’(juan 1-2), ‘regulation and appropriation according to the four seasons’(3-6), ‘easiness and happiness in daily living’(7-8), ‘longevity and curing diseases’(9-10), ‘drinking, eating and taking medicine’(11-13),‘leisureand connoisseurship’(14-16),‘esoteric formula and alchemical medicine’(17-18), and ‘biographies of the past hermits’ (19).29 As a work written and published in the end of the 15thcentury, Zhun sheng ba
jian manifests itself as an excellent example of contemporary material culture and
everyday life. The title ‘zhun sheng’遵生(尊生) suggests that this is a work on the
ways of ‘respecting’(zhun 尊) life and ‘following’(zhun 遵, obeying) the principles of life.30 These approaches are various and dependent on the uses of ‘things’or ‘objects’. In fact, the compilers of the famous official collection, Siku quanshu 四庫 全書, had classified Zhun sheng ba jian into the category of ‘miscellaneousobjects’ (za pin 雜品) that are aimed at discussing daily matters.31
Interestingly, it seems some of Gao’s contemporaries had questioned Gao’s detailed descriptions of everyday things in his book as‘bothering and trivial’(fan long 煩冗) that would inevitably disturb one’sspirit and thought and even to prevent one’sattainmentfrom the‘GreatWay’(dadao 大道). As a close friend of Gao, Tu Long 屠隆 tended to justify for Gao in his preface to Zhun sheng ba jian. Tu stated clearly that these materials in daily life are essential since men could not live without things. That is, these matters would serve as temporary means only in the process of
28
It is said that Gao Lian 高濂(ca. 1527-1596?) was a native of Qiantang 錢塘, Zhejiang. He used to be an official at Honglusi 鴻臚寺, Beijing. Later he lived as a hermit in the West Lake. He was also a drama writer. See: Tu Long 屠隆,the‘Preface’,in Gao Lian 高濂 (ca. 1527-1596), Zhun sheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (Eight Discourses on Respecting/Following Life, 1591), Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, pp.3-5.
29 Seethetableofcontentsand Gao’sown prefaceoftheZhun sheng ba jian, ibid., pp.8-29. 30
It is interesting that Gao chose to use zhunsheng rather than the more popular terms such as yangsheng, weisheng 衛生, and shesheng 攝生.Gao’susagewasto follow anotherliterateman,He Liangju 何良俊 (1506-1573). See the chapter of ‘zhunsheng’尊生 in He’sjotting book,Siyouzhai congshuo 四友齋叢說, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1959/1997, pp.289-297.
31 The book is now put in Siku quanshu, v.871. See: Siku quanshu mulu suoyin 四庫全書目錄索引, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, p.187.
cultivation. When one eventually reaches to one’s ultimate goal of attaining transcendence (i.e. longevity), one could discard these matters immediately.32
It is notable that Tu was once a successful official since he passed the civil service examination at a degree of jinshi 進士 in 1577. Yet, he met a frustration in his career due to a political implication some years later. He retired and returned home finally. The preface he wrote for Gao Lian explains his ideas on yangsheng and his admiration of Gao. His representative work Kao pan yu shi 考槃餘事 is regarded as arevision ofGao’sZhun sheng ba jian, both of which share some similar contents.
Tu’sexplanation of his idea of zhunsheng remarked some fundamental differences between a traditional Daoist and a Confucian scholar in the tradition of yangsheng. For a Confucian with strong inclination to Buddhism, Tu contended that a man who devotes himself to nurturing life shall not necessarily abandon the secular life and material world. The emphasis on materials in Gao Lian and Tu Long’s books look very different from earlier and contemporary Daoist works of yangsheng with a focus mainly on ‘technology’of the body.33
For daily cultivation, notably, Gao’s book provides some ways for people to practise yangsheng. In a short piece named ‘MasterGao’sinstantway forcultivation’ (Gao zi yiyang li cheng 高子怡養立成) in juan 8, Gao stated the ‘methods for cultivation in oneday’(恬養一日之法). These methods will be discussed based on the categories below:
Exercise & walk: Gao instructed that oneshould ‘get up when cocks crow in the early morning. One should exhale qi once or twice to expel the poison accumulated since the last night.’Rub the hands together until them become hot, then to rub the nose, eyes, and ears 35 times each. Strike the back of head with the index finger and the middle finger 24 times. Stretch the arms like a bow, and shake the hips 35 times each. Then one should ‘knocking teeth by teeth’(kou chi 叩齒). Gargle with saliva when it is full of one’smouth,then swallow the saliva in three times. Then take a break after these exercises.34 Obviously, these bodily exercises, in particular swallowing saliva and teeth-knocking, remain deeply influenced by Daoism.35 During the times of a day, walking is essential. In the chamber, for instance, one
32
[Ming] Tu Long, in his preface to Gao Lian 高濂 (ca. 1527-1596), Zhun sheng ba jian 遵生八牋 (Eight Discourses on Respecting/Following Life, 1591), Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, pp.3-5. 33 See, for instance, [Ming] Zhou Lujing 周 履 靖 ed., Chi feng sui 赤 鳳 髓 (1579), Taipei: Xinwenfeng chubanshe, 1987.
34 Gao, ibid., p.216.
35 Similar but more complicated instructions can be found in [Ming] Leng Qian 冷謙, Xiu ling yao zhi 修齡要旨 (1442), in Xiaoyaozi daoyin jue wai si zhong 逍遙子導引訣外四種, Taipei: Xinwenfeng chuban gongsi, 1987, pp.11-12; [Ming] Zhu Quan 朱權, ‘shesheng zhi dao’攝生之道, in his Shen yin shu 神隱書, quoted from Wang Yonghe 汪用和 ed. (1992), Zhongguo yangsheng baodian 中國養生 寶典, Beijing: Zhongguo yiyao keji chubanshe, p.660.
should walk on fifty or sixty steps while drumming on his belly with hands. Sometimes one can do so on hundred steps. It is also fine to walk to the courtyard and even into the woods for better circulation of blood and vessels.36 Sometimes one may walk to the gardens, asking his gardener to plant vegetables and flowers, to cultivate the fields and farms. It would be wonderful to bring back a flower on the return trip, putting it into a vase in the study room for connoisseurship.37
Meal: For breakfasts, Gao suggested to eat one or two bowels of congee
with vegetables. Do not eat too much spicy and hard-to-digest foods, he said. For lunches, take foods depending on the capacity of stomach. Avoid eating too much, especially foods of thick flavours and strong fragrance. Drink one or two cups of tea after the meal. Gargle with the tea and spit it out to clean the remained food between the teeth. As for suppers, it also depends on the extent of hunger and fullness. One may drink a dozen cups of wine to have one’s hundred vessels relaxed –but not to get drunk.38 Meanwhile, clothing depends on the conditions of weather. That is, to wear more when it is cold and to wear less when it becomes hot.39
Sleep: Unlike some of his predecessors who had emphasised the importance
of early sleep, interestingly, Gao instead suggested to sleep late in order to prevent fire or theft. In winter nights, he stated, one can read poem or novels before going to bed. It is important to keep the mind peaceful to prevent from bad dreams. In case one has nightmares, there are several treatments: e.g., to put vermillion cinnabar into a red bag and place it beneath top of the head or into the pillow to expel them. Alternatively, one can recite the Buddhist spell ‘po shan po yan di’婆刪婆演帝 twenty-one
times.40 Prepare warm drink in the bed chamber for occasional need. Burning incense (such as cangzhu 蒼朮) is suggested to dispel bad odour and misfortune. As for old men who easily feel cold, it is necessary to put a clothed tin bottle filled of hot water under the blanket before they go to bed. It will keep them warm during their sleep.41
Social life and metal cultivation: in addition to study or meditate alone,
social life is also indispensable in the process of cultivation. When meeting friends the host could share with the guest cake or noodle along with a cup of tea. Do not eat something deep fried or oily that is bad for digestion. In the conversation they may have speculative thought and casual talk. But it is better not to mention any issue concerning political struggles or personal merits and demerits, gains and losses, which might spoil their mood. When the guest is going home, the host could walk with him
36 Gao, ibid., p.216. 37 Gao, ibid., p.216. 38
Gao, ibid., p.216. 39 Gao, ibid., p.216.
40 This was a famous Buddhist spell to dispel nightmares. See the record in [Tang] Duan Chengshi’s 段成式 Youyang zazhu 酉陽雜俎.
for two or three hundred steps. He can take a nap, read poem or play string instrument.42 For other activities related to mental cultivation, Gao advised that one should keep the mind joyful, not to get angry easily by little trouble. Do not talk or shout loudly. When one returns to home/room, one closes eyes with peaceful breath, sitting and calming spirit.43 Sometimes one may go to attend Buddhist affairs, burning incense and reciting a sutra to accumulating one’s morality.44
In sum, Gao Lian’s advices of ‘respecting/following life’were focused on both mental and physical cultivation in everyday life in the domestic sphere. His ways of cultivation were characterised by ideas deriving from Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism.
Li Yu’s 李漁 Xian qing ou ji 閒情偶寄 (1671)
No long after Gao Lian’s death, Li Yu 李漁 (ca. 1611-1677), the renowned play-writer, also expressed his ideas of cultivation in his famous literary collection,
Xian qing ou ji 閒情偶寄 (Some Notes on Leisure Time, 1671). In this book,
interestingly, the chapter ‘well-nurturing’(yiyang 頤養) was arranged after detailed discussion of ‘poetry & music’, ‘play & performance’, ‘voice & face’, ‘house & room’, ‘vessel & ware’, ‘diet’, and ‘plant’. Similar to Gao Lian’s Zhun sheng ba jian, it seems that Li also situated the practice of cultivation in the contexts of daily activities.
Li Yu’s practices of ‘well-nurturing’could be divided into six ways: ‘making fun’(xing le 行樂),‘ceasing sorrow’(ziyou 止憂),‘regulating diet’(tiao yin cuo 調飲啜),‘restraining lust’(jie seyu 節色欲),‘preventing from diseases’(que bing 卻病), and ‘healing diseases’ (liao bing 療病). The reason why Li Yu put ‘making fun’prior to other issue, according to him, is primarily on consideration of the length of life. Li thought that human life is so short that everybody should take opportunity to seeking happiness.45 Unlike his predecessor Gao Lian, Li Yu was not interested in Daoist ideas of nurturing life at all. Instead, he regarded himself as a Confucian. He stressed further the difference of nurturing life between diviners (i.e. religious practitioners) and Confucians: when the former relies on ‘techniques’(shu 術) only, the latter depends on ‘principles’(li 理). In other words, Li thought that one can seek the arts of nurturing life without adopting any Daoist means, e.g. ‘medicinal prescription’(yao shi 藥石), ‘pulling and guiding’(dao yin 導引) and ‘quiet sitting’ (zuogong 坐功). He thus suggested to replace the rather complicated diviners’
42
Gao, ibid., p.216. 43 Gao, ibid., p.216. 44 Gao, ibid., p.216.
45 [Qing] Li Yu 李漁 (ca. 1611-1677), Xian qing ou ji 閒情偶寄 (1671), Chengdu: Bashu chubanshe, 2003, p.259.
techniques with his own simpler ways since he was very ‘lazy and restless’(lan er hao dong 懶而好動).46
Li Yu’s proposes for ‘well-nurturing (life)’, so to speak, look very pragmatic. For example, he highlighted sleep as the most important way for cultivation. In Li’s opinion, sleep is not only the happiest thing in life, but also the key to health and sickness. The efficacy of sleep includes ‘returning vital essence’(huan jing 還精), ‘nourishing qi’(yang qi 養氣), ‘intensifying the spleen and benefiting the stomach’ (jian pi yi wei 健脾益胃), and ‘solidifying the bones and strengthening the tendons’ (jian gu zhuang jin 堅骨壯筋). In short, sleep is not just sleep but medicine that ‘cures hundred diseases’and ‘saves million people’.47
But what can be counted as good sleep? Li stated clearly that ‘to sleep the heart before to sleep the eyes’, which indicates the importance of inner peace in sleep. Furthermore, the length of sleep should be long enough. He suggested to sleep from 9 p.m. in the evening to 7 a.m. in the next morning. Besides, the happiness of taking a nap in the afternoon should not be omitted, in particular in summer time.48
According to Li Yu, the happiest thing just second to sleep is washing, especially in summer months. Wash can clean dirt away and toxic summer qi. Unlike previous religious practitioners of yangsheng who often warned that wash might damage the primal spirit of the body, Li instead advised to adopt some essential steps before wash (including shower and bath) to reduce the possible harm of washing while enjoying the pleasure of water.49
For other aspects of daily life such as sitting, walking, drinking and chatting, Li Yu also advocated their major principles.50 These easy-to-practise principles explain the increasingly secular characteristics of yangsheng culture in the turn of the 16thand 17thcenturies.
Conclusion
The reasons why 16th-17th-century Chinese literati were interested in
yangsheng were various. According to my discussions above, it is obvious that some
scholars came cross with works of yangsheng probably for intellectual interests or curiosity. But some of them did go further to promote these ideas and techniques for the sake of ‘serving the parents’, ‘nurturing the elderly’, or self-healing when they were aged and/or ill. Longevity might remain as an attractive purpose for people to
46 Li, ibid., p.260, 270. 47 Li, ibid., pp.270-271. 48 Li, ibid., pp.271-272. 49 Li, ibid., pp.274-275. 50 Li, ibid., pp.272-275.
practise yangsheng. Yet, these activities seem to have rather ‘secular’purpose than ever when they were fully integrated with scholarly daily life, in particular in leisure time or retirement. The practical and pragmatic meanings of yangsheng thus can be intellectual, social, economic and even entertaining. My aforementioned viewpoints also indicate that the late Ming and early Qing yangsheng culture could do without occult techniques and arts such as inner alchemy once being a central theme of Daoist cultivation. At least the Confucian scholar Li Yu served as an excellent example. This is absolutely a new aspect of yangsheng culture in 16th-17thcentury China.
On the other hand, the characteristics of pre-modern yangsheng culture as a whole also deserve attention. To denote the transition of weisheng 衛生 from the 19th century to the 20th century, Ruth Rogaski translates the term in earlier times as ‘guarding life’in contrast to its modern connotation, ‘hygienic modernity’.51 This interpretation tends to view pre-modern Chinese weisheng (guarding life), a parallel to
yangsheng (nurturing life), as a system of self-protection, i.e., to regulate individual
body and mind by self-conscious acts for one’s own sake. Neither weisheng nor
yangsheng implies the modern sense of hygiene that attempts to control personal
conducts for collective benefits by governmental forces of the modern state. In short, ‘nurturing life’(and ‘guarding life’as well) in pre-modern Chinese contexts were rather individual duty and personal business only.
While comparing the pre-modern Chinese ‘guarding life’to the regimen in early modern Europe, Rogaski also reminds us the fundamental differences between these two cultural/geographical regions. Despite their similar involvements in the details of everyday life with reference to moralistic implication, pre-modern Chinese seems to have shown more anxiety on potential ‘depletion’(xu 虛) of the body owing to over-indulgence in ‘wealthy but unhealthy’life. In this regard, Rogasky assumes that the arts of ‘guarding life’were mainly restricted to the rich rather than to the poor.52
Indeed, pre-modern Chinese physicians and practitioners of yangsheng paid much attention to the ideas of ‘potential threats’to health and life in pre-modern China. According to them, the harms might result from a number of factors, such as gratification in daily life (e.g. over-working, over-eating, lust), physical damages due to environmental factors (e.g. wind, cold, summer heat, damp, dry, and fire), and emotional problems (e.g. joy, anger, sorrow, worry, grief, fright and fear).53 When any of these elements loses to imbalance, one may feel sick, fall ill and even finish his
51
Rogaski, Ruth (2004), Hygienic Modernity: Meaning of Health and Disease in Treaty-Port China, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp.22.
52 Rogaski, ibid, pp.44-46.
53 Please refer to [Song] Chen Yan 陳言, San yin fang 三因方 (Recipes for the Three Causes, 1174), Taipei: Tailian guofeng chubanshe, 1991, juan 2, pp.6-7.
life shortly. In this regard, the body and mind of a traditional Chinese people seems to have been conceptualised as vulnerable and weak that require frequent cares and attentions.
But Rogasky’s judgement is only partially true since there had been fruitful messages of yangsheng as recorded in the popular family encyclopaedic handbooks for daily use. Obviously, not only the literate and rich but the semi-literate, less wealthy and lower classes of the society interested in the culture of nurturing life. Certainly there remain other questions unresolved in this survey, for example, the laity’s yangsheng, and the gender aspect of yangsheng, the writing genres of
yangsheng books, etc. Owing to the restricted scope of this project report I shall rather
