"yellow Emperor" Taoism "inaction"

The formation and development of the theory in Emperor Huang's Classic on Medicine (hereinafter Neijing) is rooted in the soil of ancient Chinese philosophy, especially the Taoist school. The Inaction ("Wu Wei" in Chinese), as the core idea of Tao Te Ching (Laotzu, the main classic of Taoist school and Taoism), has rich meaning and is fully embodied in the Neijing. The thesis carried out an overall arrangement and deep analysis on the idea of Inaction existing in the Neijing, from viewpoints of both epistemology and methodology. The essay includes six main parts as follows.The first part is an overview on Taoist thought. As arranged by origins in this part, the Taoist thought can be divided into two schools of Lao-Chuang and Huang-Lao. The relationship between Taoist school and Taoism, and the development history of Taoist school thought were briefly described in this part. The Tao is the most important concept, and the Inaction is the core idea in the Taoist philosophy. The Taoist philosophy not only crucially gave birth to the Taoism, and relatively influenced the formation and development of other philosophy schools, but also established a philosophical basis for the future formation and development of medical theories.The second part is the description on relationship between the formation of Neijing and the Taoist thought. The formation era and historical background of Neijing proves that the ancient Chinese philosophy, particularly the Taoist thought, played an important role in the formation of the medical theory in Neijing, the Essence-Qi theory, Yin-Yang theory and Five-Elements theory of the time were pivotal parts of the theory in Neijing, the Tao-Qi theory, health keeping viewpoints and dialectical thoughts of Taoist school also existed in Neijing. In the history of TCM, a large number of dedicated doctors were also well-known Taoists, such as Dong Feng in Three Kingdom Period, Ge Hong in Eastern Jin Dynasty, Tao Hongjing in South-North Period, Sun Simiao and Wang Bing in Tang Dynasty.The third part analyzes the connotation of Taoist Inaction. Firstly the literal meaning of Inaction is explained, and then Inaction contents are analyzed, which include three levels of values, life skills and spiritual realm, which means Inaction is the Emptiness weak, ignorant, the value orientation without the matter; Inaction is a kind of harmony with nature, not indulging in life; Inaction is a seeding, selfless, no self in the spiritual realm. Furthermore, the relationships among the three are presented. And also two misconceptions about the idea of Inaction are pointed out. One is that Inaction is a negative weary of inaction. Another is that Inaction is plot treachery and hypocrisy. In addition, the inspiration of the Inaction as a life attitude is summerizde, for dealing with relationships from man to nature, man to society, and man to their own.The fourth part is devoted to a discussion about the Taoist Inaction embodied in the epistemology, from three aspects including viewpoints on nature, human body and disease. According to the viewpoints on nature in Neijing, Qi is the origin of the universe, man and nature is integrated of Four Seasons and five organs of yin and yang, the whole human body has a natural ability to adapt themselves to the external environment, constitute, and everything, and Qi is essentially overcast, tranquility and natural inaction. The viewpoints on human body in Neijing points out that human body is a unity of yin and yang, a unity of five coordinated systems, a unity of mutually harmonized physical body and mind, a unity of organs self-organizing self-coordination, meridian self-regulating adaptive continuum, reflecting that the human body is a harmonious system with independent operation, automatic coordination, natural features, the proposition that the organs should be kept quiet and natural state of Inaction without incident, the various functions of the body to naturally functioning, reflecting the Taoist philosophy of Inaction. The viewpoint on disease in Neijing figures out that disease was the result of violation of the laws of nature, human morbidity and disease variation corresponding to the natural climate, contrary to the natural principle of Inaction which is the root reason of disease, disease diagnosis in patients with Emptiness inaction.The fifth part is about the Taoist inaction in treatment theory of Neijing. This study finds that Neijing treatment principles and treatment methods are reflected in the Taoist connotations of Inaction, including three aspects as follows. Firstly, the thought of doing when nothing in Taoist inaction is related to the thought treating before disease in Neijing. The Neijing advocated taking intervention before occurring, developing, transferring and returning of diseases. Secondly, the thought of doing naturally in Taoist inaction is related to the thoughts of three elements deciding and intervening along the development direction in Neijing. The Neijing advocated treating patients along the movement of Qi in organs, the demanding of transferring in organs, movement of Qi in meridians, position of disease, style of disease, phase of disease and the convenience of patients, considering the person, location and time. Thirdly, the thought of no outrages in Taoist inaction is related to the thought of self healing and recovering in Neijing. The Neijing advocated fully adjusting of the self recovering ability of the body, exerting the ability of the body on self healing and balancing of Yin and Yang, and intervening the big half of the illness, then approaching the result of treating everything by treating nothing. The sixth part researches the Taoist inaction thought in the health keeping theory in Neijing. The health keeping theory in Neijing was constructed on the basis of learning from the viewpoints of health keeping in Taoist schools. So it is very similar to that kind of viewpoints, not only in the theoretical rules but also in practical methods. Among them, the Taoist thought inaction was fully realized by the health keeping theory in Neijing. Firstly, the spiritual pursuing of no desiring or demanding in Taoist inaction is realized in the emotion health of Neijing, to advocate the psychological adjustment in a tranquil way. Secondly, the thought of no outrages in Taoist inaction is realized by the emotion health keeping, sports health keeping, diet health keeping and living style health keeping in Neijing, to advocate controlling emotion from over feeling, taking suitable sports for fitness, limiting the diet from over full, over hungry, or unsuitable hot or cold, controlling the sexual desiring to preserve the vitality. Thirdly, the thought of doing naturally in Taoist inaction is realized by the emotion health keeping, diet health keeping and living style health keeping in Neijing, to emphasize behaving according to natural rules in order to keep a quiet heart, taking suitable tastes in five to avoid dietary bias, living along the seasons. Fourthly, the thought of doing when nothing in Taoist inaction is realized by the prevention health keeping in Neijing, to advocate taking active measures in order to support the positive Qi and keep from deficiency and evil Qi. In short, the Taoist thought inaction can be found everywhere in the emotion, diet, sports and living health keeping methods in Neijing. The purpose is to achieve the goal of treating everything by treating nothing, and keeping longevity and health, enjoying a extremely long life of happiness.The conclusion part summarizes the whole essay including some innovative viewpoints. At the same time several prospects are presented from both theoretical research and clinical application.