A Study Of Tao Shu's Life Philosophy

Tao Shu is a book on health care which is compiled by Zeng Zao.It is mentioned as "an encylopeadia of Taoist's ways of health-caring before Southern Song Dynasty" in the book The Summary of Taoism Classics.What Tao Shu mainly concerns is life, in which we can discover life philosophy,life wisdom and longevity pursuing etc.But scholars are seldom do research on these field.This dissertation will probe into Tao Shu from the angle of life philosophy.With its focus on life,Tao Shu forms his own system of life philosophy.We can analyze its life philosophy from the aspect of ontology,the theory of body-culturing and the theory of ideal state.From the angle of ontology,its life philosophy focus on the relationship between human and nature and its deepest foundation is cosmology. "Tao" is treated as the nature of everything in the world,the origin of life and the motive or vital force of the development of everything there.Tao Shu not only studies the origin of life from the angle of metaphysics but also care about the origin of life in physical world.It holds that human's life is produced by the way of love-making of his parents.From the angle of body-culturing,Tao Shu holds that the improving of human life should "imitate nature" and adjust,culture according to the change of "yin" and "yang",and care about the unity of "xing" and "ming" with its base on its the material basic theory of meridians and collaterals and the structural theory of appearance,qi and sprit.From the angle of ideal state,Tao Shu insists the traditional idea of life-valuing,longevity-pursuing,life-improving,self-transcendence and immortality-achieving.So it proposes mind and disposition culturing,desire-control, and think highly of the status of human being and its power,wisdom and self-confidence.Furthermore,human should enquire Tao actively and obey the law of Tao.Only by uniting with Tao can people achieve longevity and the ideal state of gods.About the question of how to unite with Tao,Tao Shu expatiates for us many practical ways in detail.So far as to the wisdom of life,we should pay attention to both the wisdoms of inner environment and external environment.As far as its medicinal idea,Tao Shu discuss the concept of the origin of illness and its diagnosis, therapy of belief and its psychological base,treatment of dieting,love-making and so on.About the health-caring,Tao Shu not only shows us the theoretical base but also expounds the process of varied ways of health-caring and its efficiency on the base of practicing.It hold that we not only should value the Neidan culturing but also should take breath-control,dieting,massage,love-making etc.as complement.