Ji Kang And The Taoist Regimen

People lived painfully in the era of Wei and Jin Dynasties, but their spiritual world acquired great liberation. Individuals who have evoked themselves began to question the value of life, and pursued the survival of the ideal. As one of the representatives of Wei and Jin academy, Ji Kang's thinking and behavior presented the unique style of that era, as well as his own characteristics. Ji Kang respected for nature, and pursued individual freedom of the spirit and noble character. He appreciated life and comprehended the truth of life with his exceeding tolerance.He was a great writer and artist who lived among the chaos, he emphasized the importance of life, abandoned fame and fortune, lead a simple but elegant life. He inherited the pre-Qin's thinking of regimen which is taken for the purpose of immortality, combined it with his own pursuit of free and beauty of life, and then formed his own unique view of regimen. Ji Kang insisted that individual life should digest worldly troubles, surpass the earthly fetters and enter the aesthetic habitat in the aesthetic living ways of "natural" and "happy". Being in such a state, the meaning and value of life can be acquired, and the life can be called a kind of aesthetic and happy life.Based on Ji Kang's opinions on regimen, this thesis explores the ideological origins and the social and cultural backgrounds of Ji Kang's regimen, systematically combs the basic content of Ji Kang's regimen, summarizes its basic characteristics, thus elucidates its inherent aesthetic thinking on life, and does a further exploration on the influence and inspiration of Ji Kang's health aesthetics. The thesis can be divided into two parts, including introduction and the main body. The introduction section outlines the causes for choosing this topic and the research objectives, summarizes the present situation and existing problems of the study, describes the research ideas and the basic structure of this paper. The main body comprises three chapters. The first chapter mainly discusses the origin of the regimen and its development prior to the Wei and Jin dynasties, focuses on analyzing the Taoist viewpoint which exists in the dominant position of the traditional regimen, and points out three theoretical levels of the traditional regimen. The second chapter firstly discusses the rise of the health metaphysics during Wei and Jin dynasties, as well as its relationship with Ji Kang, in order to investigate its influence on Ji Kang. Then, according to Ji Kang's comment on issues of regimen, the basic theory and its ideological significance are generalized. Chapter three generally comments on the relationship between Ji Kang's regimen and Taoist regimen, which is the innotative part as well as the core of this thesis.In the21st century, various cultural and ideological thought integrate together, we withstand the violent impact of the western thought. Meanwhile, many westerners begin to have a strong interest in traditional Chinese culture in which Taoist traditional culture is the core. Due to the obstacles of geography and language, the classic doctrine is difficult to spread, but the widespread of Taoist regimen such as Qigong martial arts is not affected. Therefore, it is profound for us to arranging, investigating and promoting the Taoist regimen, which plays an active role in promoting fine national traditional culture as well as participating in the healthy development of contemporary civilization.