Chinese Health Practices

The terms much in use at present are ‘health and fitness’ and ‘health and relaxation’. Both these terms tend to be misread as ‘health equals fitness’ and ‘health equal relaxation’ and many magazine and newpaper articles often lead people to this misunderstanding.

These two terms are at the opposite end of the spectrum from each other and at first glance seem to be contradictory.

A ‘couch potato’ is very relaxed but unlikely to be healthy and many fit people die of disease every day. So what is health?

The oriental concept of health has to do with a sense of well-being. Put simply, if you do not feel well then you are ill. This is quite different from in the west where health is most often defined as the absence of disease.

In oriental medicine problems are seen to arrive when one is out of balance, when something is moving to an extreme (like our ‘couch potato’). A balance of Yin and Yang, passive and active, relaxation and fitness is what leads to health.

In Chanquanshu we look first to prevent being unwell by a balanced approach to health through psychophysical training—working with physical training and meditation (self-help techniques). Secondly, we train to encourage relaxation and to alleviate certain health problems through therapeutic massage (assisted techniques).

Yangsheng

Yangsheng (nourishing life) is a system of health care which focuses on preserving and strengthening the body to prolonging life which is a significant branch of classical Chinese medicine and of the Daoist cultivation. It consists of regimes for personal hygiene, diet, breath-cultivation, therapeutic gymnastics, and sexual-cultivation.

Early classical Chinese medical literature owes much to the literature of Yangsheng which showed a well-established and thorough knowledge of qi, yin and yang, etc..

The modern physical healthcare systems of Taijiquan and Qigong are also an extension of classical Yangsheng practices.