Health preservation is something that modern people attach great importance to, but do you know? The concept of health preservation has been around since the pre-Qin period, and has experienced thousands of years of development and has been passed down to this day. In the long history, the concept of health preservation has experienced several prosperous periods, and the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties are one of the typical eras.
Due to the high political pressure, scholars in the Wei and Jin Dynasties often discussed all things in nature together, and metaphysics talks emerged as a result. At the same time, celebrities in the Wei and Jin Dynasties also focused on indulging in the mountains and rivers and returning all things to nature. Affected by this, the dietary concepts in the Wei and Jin Dynasties underwent different changes.
People have also paid attention to health preservation, and even the diet is mainly vegetarian. So why did such a strange concept of health preservation come into being in the chaotic Wei and Jin Dynasties?
In the early Wei and Jin Dynasties, Buddhism gradually emerged, and many emperors also became Buddhists.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, the "Eight Kings Rebellion" that lasted for sixteen years and the "Yongjia Rebellion" that lasted for six years plunged the people of the country into dire straits. The displacement and psychological pain caused by the war require psychological comfort, which provides an opportunity for the spread and development of Buddhism.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Buddhism developed particularly vigorously, with the emergence of the "four hundred and eighty temples in the Southern Dynasties". Coupled with the invasion of ethnic minorities in the north, wars were frequent, and a large number of northern nobles moved south, establishing a precarious Southern government.
The society was chaotic and the politics was dark. The dominant Confucianism was gradually left out because it could not solve social problems. Metaphysics took the opportunity to replace it and became the mainstream of social thought. The spread and development of Buddhism and metaphysical thoughts had a huge impact on the food culture at that time.
The increasingly prosperous Buddhism advocates not eating meat, not drinking alcohol, advocating vegetarianism, and avoiding five pungent foods.
But this was not a hard requirement until Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty promulgated the "Essay on Prohibition of Wine and Meat", which stipulated that monks eating wine and meat would be disposed of according to the law, and required that the ancestral temple sacrifices should be mainly flour-based foods, with Sutuo as the main food. Meat and vegetarian diets began to become the precepts that Chinese Buddhists must abide by.
The talk of metaphysics coincided with the lightness of vegetarian food, and vegetarian food became a highly respected meal among scholar-bureaucrats during this period. The characteristic of meat-eating is that it makes people fat and manic, while vegetarian food makes people thin and strong, reflecting the indifferent aspirations of far away from the world, and is in line with the life and value orientation of scholar-bureaucrats who retreat from the world. The Buddhist prohibition on alcohol and meat and the talk of metaphysics made the trend of vegetarianism for the purpose of health preservation popular.
The trend of vegetarianism for the purpose of maintaining health has swept across the entire society, ranging from monarchs to officials and officials, and to the common people, and a nationwide vegetarian trend has arisen. Even the rulers and their families, despite their wealth, admired vegetarianism.
According to the "Book of Liang·Wudi Ji", Emperor Wu of Liang's diet did not contain meat and fish, but consisted of foods such as soybeans. Not only that, Emperor Wu of Liang also promulgated the "Essay on Avoiding Alcohol and Meat" and became a vegetarian like Buddhist disciples. Although many of the high-ranking officials spend money like water and eat sweet food but hate fat, there is also no shortage of vegetarians. Lu Yixi, the official secretary of the capital, although he held a high position, was an honest official, had a cool breeze on his sleeves, and liked to eat wheat, rice and vegetables.
Most of the hermits who secluded themselves from the mountains and forests enjoyed vegetarian food. Ji Kang even gave a thorough explanation of the dietary theory of Lao Zhuang's way - fry the internal organs with flavor, cook the intestines and stomach with fermented rice, and rotten the food with fragrance. marrow. He advocates a light diet, less selfishness, and good health.
In the dietary life of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, vegetarian food was the mainstay, but meat food was not completely excluded. In special occasions such as festivals and banquets, the status of fish and other non-vegetarian foods is particularly important. However, generally speaking, compared with vegetarian foods such as rice, wheat, and vegetables, fish and other non-vegetarian foods are always in a secondary and secondary position.
The handsome man Pan An mentioned in "Xianju Fu" that "irrigating the garden and copying it to provide food for the day and night; shepherding cheese for Avora's expenses", which shows that most people respect vegetarian food
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According to "Qi Min Yao Shu", in terms of staple foods in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there are large wheat, large and small beans, cereals, millet, rice and other food crops.
In addition, Buddhist vegetarian food production at that time was very sophisticated. Although Buddhism banned meat, it could make vegetarian food in a variety of ways. Chicken, duck, fish, etc. could be imitated by vegetarian food. The taste was light and healthy, and the real thing was lifelike. It's refreshing.
Buddhist vegetarian food is made from a variety of raw materials, including fruits and vegetables, fungi, and bean products, which give people a crisp, tender, mellow, and soft feeling. Of course, these exquisite vegetarian foods are not commonly eaten by ordinary monks. Most of the dishes served by monks are light porridge with vegetables. They usually eat porridge in the morning, rice for lunch, and porridge for dinner. Monks use a shared meal system when eating. Each person takes the food and eats it separately.
The metaphysics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties emphasized the integration of "essence" and "spirit" into one, and comprehended the artistic conception of natural integration, which also formed the custom of "taking food to maintain health".
They have unrecognized talents and hope to use their extraordinary spiritual realm and enviable life to show their superiority of "being one with nature".
The person who took the lead in taking Wu Shi Powder was He Yan, a famous metaphysician at that time. He is the grandson of He Jin, the general in the late Eastern Han Dynasty. He was an official in the Ministry of Personnel and liked to take Wu Shi Powder.
Wushi Powder, also known as Hanshi Powder, is made from refined stalactites, actinolites, spiritual magnets, hollow bluestones, and raw sand. Wu Shi Powder originated in the Han Dynasty, but because of the danger of death, very few people took it. However, in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, He Yan took Wushi Powder and advocated its magical effect - "not only cures diseases, but also feels bright and cheerful." He believed that after taking the powder, he would be radiant on the outside and show his inner spiritual vitality.
Regarding the number of people who "taken food", according to the number of people examined in Yu Jiaxi's "Lunxue Miscellaneous Works·Hanshi Sankao·Stories of People Taking Food in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties", there are about 31 cases in the two Jin Dynasties and about seven cases in the Wei Dynasty. , there are nine cases in the Song Dynasty, three cases in the Qi Dynasty, four cases in the Liang Dynasty, one case in the Chen Dynasty, four cases in the Later Wei and Northern Zhou Dynasties, and two cases in the Sui Dynasty.
Ji Kang is also a follower of taking food to maintain health. He advocates breathing in and out, taking food to maintain health, so that the body and mind can be harmonious, and the outside and the inside can be harmonious. Only by "nourishing the mind" can we achieve "perfect happiness". In fact, "taking food" is not a diet therapy, but taking plant-based medicines in order to prolong life, similar to today's health care products.
However, in the later stage of metaphysics, the idea of ??taking health-preserving food went to extremes, pursuing immortality or immortality. In pursuit of immortality, the prescription of Wushi Powder has also changed. The prescription recorded in the "Health Prescription" in the silk book unearthed from Mawangdui actually uses the highly toxic black beak as the main ingredient. Not only is the prescription highly toxic, people who take Wushi Powder must eat cold meals and cannot wear thick clothes. If this continues, their health will be worrying.
In addition, hallucinations may occur easily after taking Wushi Powder. Tuoba Gui, Emperor Daowu of the Northern Wei Dynasty, strategized and was brave and good at fighting. He defeated his opponents in the struggle for hegemony between Yan and Wei, dominated North China, and moved the capital to Pingcheng, which laid the foundation for the subsequent unification of the north in the Northern Wei Dynasty. However, for such a hero, when he took Wu Shi San in his later years, he had the hallucination that "there are always unscrupulous people who want to harm me", and his suspicion grew day by day. He wanted to kill his son Tuoba Shao's mother, Mrs. He, and Tuoba Shao wanted to kill him. To protect himself, he colluded with the guards and eunuchs and killed his father with his own hands.
The famous metaphysicians had unsatisfactory career paths, were cynical, and had a lot of passion but little ambition. Therefore, they chose to take Wushi Powder regularly to express their determination not to fall in line with the secular world. Later, the aloofness pursued by taking Wushisan gradually turned into a desire for immortality. Maybe they wanted to compete with that era on "whose life was tougher."
During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Ji Kang’s free and easy spontaneity, the soul-stirring "Guangling San", Ruan Ji’s bohemian and famous celebrities, and his works are stunning and admirable.
However, the frequent changes of political power, the disaster of "I will appear on stage after you sing", and the fleeting life, people began to pay attention to health preservation.
However, from the vegetarian diet to the pursuit of immortality and immortality by taking Five Stone Powder, the "health" situation of alienation and demonic transformation is filled with the sadness of the times. As Dickens said: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
References:
"Essentials for Qi Min"
"Book of Jin"
"Xianju Fu"