A Study Of Health Preservation Thoughts Based On The Harmony Between Confucianism And Taoism In Baopuzi Inner Chapters

Baopuzi is a representative work of the Eastern Jin scholar Ge Hong,which contains abundant ideas of preserving health.Because of Ge’s personal experiences and the external environment he was in,his "theory of health preservation" in Baopuzi is based on a comprehensive understanding of Confucianism and Taoism.Therefore,this essay will use such a comprehensive perspective to analyze the theory of health preservation in Baopuzi thoroughly.As for thoughts of Taoism,here are three main aspects that are involved in Ge Hong’s theory of health preservation.The first aspect is Taoism-based principle that originally comes from Taoism in pre-Qin period,which provides an ontological basis for preserving health to achieve immortals.The second aspect is specific explanations of the existence of immortals and the accessibility of how to be immortals.Based on these two aspects,additionally,it also includes the third aspect,which is taking alchemy as the primary option to combine with other methods for preserving health to achieve immortals.The thoughts of Confucianism in Ge Hong’s theory of nourishing life,are mainly reflected in the absorption of Confucian moral order.Ge Hong pointed out that the principle of moral order is the essential condition of preserving health to achieve immortals,and he also made a further argument with the idea of respecting and worshiping the wills of gods.In terms of the relationship between Confucianism and Taoism,Ge highlighted the priority Taoism and the inferiority of Confucianism,and he also pointed out that Confucius and Lao are both sages.Through such an argument,he additionally analyzed the differences between Confucianism and Taoism in detail.All in all,in the context of infested Fake Taoists’ bringing calamity to the country and the people,Ge has resolutely criticized fake Taoists and maintained the social order,which made him become a representative figure of upper-level immortal Taoism.Moreover,His theory nourishing of life promoted Taoism to enter a new phase of development.Furthermore,his life philosophies such as “nurturing both body and soul," and "Inner Sagelihood And Outer Kingliness" have provided many inspirations in health maintenance and spiritual pursuit for us.