The rise of health preservation techniques during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties may be related to Lao Zhuang's Taoist ideas of "quiet and inaction" and "Taoism and nature".
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars were frequent and social turmoil occurred, and a large number of literati and celebrities who admired Lao Zhuang and Taoism appeared.
Some of them have either suffered from being hindered in their careers, or disdainful of secular etiquette, and choose to retreat to the mountains and forests, seeking spiritual sustenance in Lao Zhuang's thoughts, and turning to explore the way of health preservation. Ji Kang in the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest" is the author of "A Treatise on Health Preservation" and "A Theory of Answering Difficult Health Preservation", and the famous Taoist Ge Hong and Tao Hongjing are also good at health preservation, but the way of health preservation respected by celebrities at that time is mostly to take pills, and the art of alchemy is very prosperous, and there are still relatively few people who advocate health preservation techniques such as breathing and breathing, flexion and stretching.
Although Ge Hong advocated taking pills, his "Hug Puzi" also recorded a variety of sorcerers who were widely popular in the middle and lower classes at that time, such as Xiongjing, Bird Stretch, Tiger Guide, Dragon Guide and other bionic guidance techniques.
When it comes to bionic guidance, the most famous is of course the "Five Birds Play" of the divine doctor Hua Tuo in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which is still a common health care for people to this day.
"Hug Puzi" also recorded the fetal breath method, the method of keeping one, the method of internal vision and other guidance techniques, becoming the originator of "internal nourishment" and "Jinggong" in modern qigong.
In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Tao Hongjing, on the basis of his predecessors, improved into a series of clear routines such as "guiding the seven potentials", "eight methods of massage" and "eight potentials of the limbs".
The seven potentials of guidance include clasping teeth, pharyngeal fluid, spitting, forgetting, inward vision and listening, dining and drinking, and absorbing the essence of the sun and the moon.
The eight methods of massage include rubbing the palm and ironing the eyes, pushing the forehead and wiping the eyebrows, hitting the drum, pinching the auricles, rubbing the hair and neck, rubbing the body and other actions, which can be said to be the earliest medical massage in China.
The Eight Postures of the Limbs are a bit similar to our current broadcast gymnastics, with two arms straight, two hands pushing forward, left and right bows, and one hand supporting the sky.
Some of these health preservation methods are harmful to the human body, are dross, and should be abandoned, and some such as some breathing methods, guidance, massage techniques, aerobics, etc., are healthy and reasonable, and are worthy of our inheritance, improvement, and development.