Part Four: The Relationship Between Spirit, Essence, Qi, and Spirit, and the View of the Movement of Life

(III) God is the ruler of life activities.

God is a higher-level functional activity that arises from the foundation of life functions.

God is the ruler of all life activities.

God is the master of all human life activities, including physiological and psychological activities, and is the external manifestation of life activities.

The spirit is closely related to essence, qi, blood, and body fluids.

The creation and function of the spirit are based on essence, qi, blood, and body fluids.

At the same time, the normal functioning of the body's organs, tissues, qi, blood, and body fluids is inevitably governed and regulated by the gods.

For example, the Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot) states, "The origin of life is called essence, and the interaction of two essences is called spirit." Xunzi (Xun Kuang) of the Warring States period said in his Xunzi, "When the form is complete, the spirit is born."

Nourishing and regulating the spirit is the principle of health preservation.

The spirit is the master of life activities, and traditional Chinese medicine also regards nourishing and regulating the spirit as one of its basic principles.

Therefore, a strong spirit leads to a healthy body and long life, while a weak spirit leads to a frail body and a short life.

Although the concepts of essence, energy, and spirit are different, they are closely related and inseparable in the process of human life activities.

The spirit is born from essence, and after the spirit is formed, it needs the nourishment of essence.

Therefore, essence can generate spirit, and spirit can control essence. When essence is sufficient, the body is healthy, and when the body is healthy, the spirit is vigorous. Qi can generate spirit, and spirit can control qi. When qi is abundant, the spirit is vigorous, when qi is weak, the spirit is sick, and when qi is exhausted, the spirit dies.

Essence, Qi, and Spirit are not only the basic substances that make up life, but also the guarantee of vitality.

Therefore, health practitioners throughout history have attached great importance to the conditioning of essence, qi, and spirit in their theories and practices of health preservation, and have clearly defined the health preservation principles of nourishing essence, benefiting qi, and regulating spirit.

II. The View of Life in Motion

The concept of motion is to grasp the laws of life from the perspective of change.

The view of motion holds that everything in the universe is in perpetual motion without end. Even things that appear to be still are actually in constant motion. "Motion without ceasing" is the fundamental law of nature.

(I) The world is in motion

Everything in nature is in motion.

The world is a world in motion; all matter, including all things in nature and the human body, is in constant motion.

The basic forms of material movement are rising, falling, entering, and exiting.

Only movement can give birth to all things. The occurrence, development, change, and even decline of all things originate from the movement of Qi. Human life also has the characteristic of constant movement.

The basic forms of material movement are rising, falling, entering, and exiting. As stated in the "Suwen·Liuweizhi Dalun": "The birth of things comes from transformation, and the extreme of things is due to change. The interaction of change is the cause of success and failure... Success and failure depend on movement. If movement does not stop, then change will occur... If entering and exiting cease, then the divine mechanism will perish; if rising and falling cease, then the qi will be isolated and in danger."

Therefore, without coming and going, there can be no birth, growth, maturity, aging, and death; without rising and falling, there can be no birth, growth, transformation, harvest, and storage.

(II) Human life is also a process of movement.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that not only is the entire life process of a person a process of growth, development, aging, and change, but also that a person's physiological functions are a constantly changing and balanced process. The material basis for maintaining physiological functions, namely essence, qi, blood, and body fluids, are also in a state of constant change.

For example, the rising, falling, entering, and exiting movements of Qi, or the coordinated balance of Qi, are an important guarantee for the normal functioning of human life activities.

The "Suwen·Yin Yang Ying Xiang Da Lun" states: "Cold qi produces turbidity, and hot qi produces clarity."

When pure qi is below, it causes diarrhea; when turbid qi is above, it causes anger and bloating.

This reversal of Yin and Yang is the cause of disease. It explains that the digestive process is a concrete manifestation of the ascending and descending movement of Qi, and that disorder in this movement leads to illness.

III. Views on the Aging of Life

Human aging is an inevitable law of life, as recorded in detail in the Suwen (Plain Questions) and Lingshu (Spiritual Pivot) chapters on the concept of "natural lifespan".

(I) The Aging Process

Aging is a natural law of human life activities. After the human body completes its growth and development, it gradually enters the process of aging or decline.

Aging is divided into physiological aging and pathological aging.

Physiological aging refers to the physiological aging or decline that occurs after reaching maturity with increasing age, and it is a universal law for all living organisms.

Pathological aging is caused by internal or external factors that lead to pathological changes in the human body; if aging occurs prematurely, it is also called premature aging.

In real life, absolute physiological aging does not exist. Physiological aging is often accompanied by pathological aging. At the same time, pathological aging appears earlier and manifests more prominently than physiological aging.

Therefore, to prolong life, it is necessary not only to delay physiological aging, but also to prevent aging caused by disease.

The human life cycle is generally divided into the developmental period (0-20 years old), the mature period (20-40 years old), the gradual decline period (40-60 years old), the aging period (60-80 years old), and the advanced age period (80 years old and above). Among them, the gradual decline period, the aging period, and the advanced age period belong to the aging process.

This classification still has some significance, but it will change as human life expectancy increases.

The current age classification standard for the elderly in my country is as follows: 45-59 years old is the pre-elderly stage (middle-aged and elderly people), 60-89 years old is the elderly stage (elderly people), and 90 years old and above is the longevity stage (long-lived elderly people).

The World Health Organization's latest age classification standards for the elderly are: 60-74 years old are young elderly or pre-elderly, 75-89 years old are elderly, and 90 years old and above are long-lived elderly.