The Knowledge Production Of Health Preservation In The Late Ming Dynasty

The late Ming Dynasty was a “secular period” and a “special period” in the history of ancient health preservation.Health preservation,as a manifestation of life,body,and medical care,inevitably had close connections with various aspects such as the economic transformation of the late Ming Dynasty,the rise of the civil class,the transformation of the governance concept of “awakening the people to walk the way”,and the rise of public awareness,and was imbued with complexity,modernity,and transition.Therefore,it is necessary and reasonable to explore the knowledge production of late Ming health preservation in multiple dimensions.It can not only clarify the motivation,process,and results of the knowledge production of late Ming health preservation,but also promote the “external history research” of traditional sports health preservation,the integration of internal and external history research of traditional sports health preservation,and stimulate the “internal vitality” of traditional sports health preservation.Based on the above considerations,this study takes the“knowledge production” of late Ming Dynasty health preservation as the main thread,takes the “history of knowledge” as the methodology,and takes the health preservation behavior and activities of the late Ming intellectual class as the clue.It analyzes the multiple aspects and values of health preservation techniques presented in the dimensions of politics,publishing economy,and religionization in the late Ming Dynasty,and further explores the background,methods,and results of health preservation knowledge production in the late Ming Dynasty.Firstly,health preservation in the late Ming Dynasty became a governance technique based on its political discourse.Based on the difficulties of achieving official positions through the imperial examination in the late Ming Dynasty,the “difficult to pay” aspirations of the literati group,and the absence of the “disease politics” of the entire society,the literati used two approaches: “treating oneself” and “treating others”to promote the production of the function and content of health preservation knowledge,using both self technology and social governance techniques as treatment methods.Among them,the “self governing method” of scholars not only regards health preservation as a form of self rescue and treatment to resist the threat of life brought by the “incurable illness”,but also consolidates the “trauma” of imperial examinations and official positions with health preservation techniques such as spiritual preservation.The“method of treating others” is that scholars use health preservation techniques as an auxiliary way to “pacify the world”.It not only improves the situation of “incurable diseases” with the new identity of “a good doctor,guidance for people’s health care and epidemic prevention”,but also integrates the production of health preservation knowledge into the social governance process of “life politics” through “respecting relatives for elderly care,nurturing children with enlightenment,and educating rural areas”,and endows health preservation knowledge with new functions and values through different governance scenarios.From this,it can be seen that the discourse on health preservation in the late Ming Dynasty,with its politicized transformation of body technology,not only brought health preservation from private life into the Confucian perspective of family and country society,but also transformed health preservation technology from a single method of taking care of oneself to a social governance method,and exerted the social function of “realizing the people’s path” through the management of the national body.Secondly,under the influence of the publishing economy in the late Ming Dynasty,health preservation in the late Ming Dynasty shifted from personal care to public health.Based on the orientation of “abandoning Confucianism and following Jia” and “relying on literature and commerce” in the late Ming Dynasty,as well as the flourishing development of the publishing economy,scholars regarded health knowledge as a writing hotspot and selling highlight,using daily books and popular series as the main text form and dissemination carrier,promoting the commercialization development of the health economy and the mass production of health knowledge.Its commercialization production and writing have strategic implications.It not only utilizes the “substantive tradition” of “telling without writing,but also establishes the authority of health knowledge based on the concept of” sages and immortals “,but also forms a set of daily life based self physical health management rules based on the logical starting point and case system of” deficiency and deficiency “,as well as daily life issues such as” rhythm,four seasons,daily life,daily life,goods,diseases,and emotions “;It also promotes its popularization development through the concretization and interesting transformation of illustrations,as well as the colloquialism and ease of reading and recitation of words.It is not difficult to see that in the late Ming Dynasty,with the new production of its health preservation products of “authority,liveliness,and popularity”,the health preservation publishing economy began to take shape.This not only transformed the originally private body technology from exclusive health care and longevity techniques for the leisure class to public health techniques,but also achieved a new development in the commercialization of health preservation culture and knowledge.Thirdly,in the context of the integration of Confucianism,Buddhism,and Taoism,the orthodox religion and folk religious new production of health preservation knowledge in the late Ming Dynasty made health preservation a complete or supplementary technique of “Chinese self-cultivation theory”,as well as a technique for the physical and mental sustenance of the lower class.Firstly,in the late Ming Dynasty,the “Three Religions in One” first provided a spiritual path for the reconstruction of inner order through the “Heart Nature Theory”,and made the “Heart Governance Work” of the three religions a topic that the literati group tirelessly explored.With the concept of “Nurturing Virtue is Health Preservation” and the integrated “Ethical Physiological” knowledge structure of “Moral Cultivation Psychological Regulation Physical Health”,as well as the movement of persuasion,the virtue thought was endowed with health preservation significance and function.Secondly,based on the revelation of the health preserving value of “controlling stillness,nourishing the mind,and regulating breathing” and the systematic foundation of sitting and regulating breathing,the health preserving significance and function of the body syndrome work are endowed.Once again,the “clinical practice,knowledge annotation,and theoretical construction” of Inner Alchemy not only achieved the transformation of“cultivating one’s character as an adult” in terms of health preservation,but also perfected the physiological health knowledge of “cultivating one’s character as an adult”.Finally,in their worship practice,proving their beliefs,and avoiding the goal of reincarnation,the leaders of folk religions not only produced new elixirs for “the people’s immortal dreams,treating diseases,and maintaining essence and solidity”,but also created internal elixirs for the people,such as “performing daily and night exercises,maintaining tranquility at twelve hours,” and “Lu Bo points the staff”.They also used precious scrolls and Taoist sentiments as carriers of dissemination The dissemination method of “lectures and gatherings to discuss scriptures” conveys health knowledge to the lower and deeper levels of society,and even becomes the adhesive of group unity.From this,it can be seen that the orthodox religion and folk religious production of health preservation knowledge in the late Ming Dynasty were not only the new construction of the health preservation knowledge system under the background of the“three religions in one”,but also the “physical and mental co governance” of health preservation knowledge for the lower class.Fourthly,in the late Ming Dynasty,health preservation was led by the intellectual class and targeted at the public.On the basis of the intellectual class using health preservation knowledge as “self governance”,it also used “the art of governing others”as a new means of “pacifying the world”,and thus promoted the new production of“commercialized and religious” health preservation knowledge for the public.The politicization,commercialization,and religionization of knowledge about health preservation in the late Ming Dynasty have expanded the practice of health preservation culture not only to the self-cultivation of middle class scholars,but also to the daily lives of lower class people.This not only reflects the ideal of “transforming the people into customs” and “realizing the people’s path” in health preservation in the late Ming Dynasty,but also serves as a beneficial supplement to the country’s “disease politics”.Finally,the late Ming intellectual class,composed of new merchants who combined scholars and merchants,as well as religious individuals who were both scholars and religious figures,not only regarded health preservation as a “foreign king”technique,but also used it as a means of “pacifying the world”,serving the health of the people and implementing education for them,thus leading to a new path of“awakening the people and practicing the Tao”;As stated by the Elias civilization process,the responsibility of social education reflects the characteristics of the Chinese intellectual class when popularizing the health knowledge of elite culture.