Health Preservation

Miraculous nature created the grand, quiet, elegant, wonderful and precipitous landscape of Mt. Emei; special phenological and meteorological conditions shape the excellent ecological environment of Mt. Emei. This God-given kingdom of nature produces a characteristic health-keeping theory of integrating nature with humans and upholding nature for human life science— Emei Health Preservation.

“Emei Health Preservation”, an outlook on life integratingnature and humans, is a life theory and real representation of the culture and natural ecology of Mt. Emei.

Ancient hermits and original Chinese Taoists regard unfrequented and primitive Mt. Emei as a cool and refreshing place. Therefore, they came to build their lodges and lived on mountain beans and wild fruits. They wetted their throat and body with pure mountain spring. Sometimes they walked in the mountain, and sometimes they sat down and contemplated. They were accompanied by various herbs, creatures, the sun, the moon and the stars. They drank water from frost and dew. All of their behaviors and thoughts were in pursuit of longevity and the method for achieving longevity. They attempted to make live immortal in the pure land of Mt. Emei, where hubbub and worldly troubles were far away.

Nowadays, the traces of the life theory advocating “Emei Health Preservation” are still everywhere. Under the thousand-meter cliff of Leidongping, the “Seventy-two Caves” still exist, among which there is Guiguzi Cave. Mr. Guigu, formerly named Wangyi, was an ancient hermit in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.) who cultivated himself under Leidongping in Guiguzi Cave, and wrote the bookLuowangluzi.

As the mixture of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, “Emei Health Preservation”, which has been developed for three thousand years, becomes an independent subject combining ecology and culture. The core content is that humans are the wisest of all creatures. Only by eliminating all material desires and distracting thoughts can people live simple and happy as well as achieving longevity. According toMt.Emei Records,at the time of Xiaojing Emperor of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, Master Danran of Zhongfeng Temple in Mt. Emei died at the age of 127. In the 20thcentury in the early period of the Republic of China, a lay Buddhist by the family name of Liu had cultivated himself in Mt. Emei until he left quietly at the age of 100. Later he settled in Taiwan and wrote articles about his health-keeping experience in Mt. Emei. In the 1940s, Mr. Liu died without any disease at the age of 139. At that time, some Mainland China media published articles introducing this case.