Tonifying ≠ Yangsheng
To put out a fire, everyone knows to use water or an extinguisher; but to drag away the not-yet-burning fuel is more effective still. So to succeed at yangsheng and health-keeping, one must first step out of certain wrong corners. Sadly, the vast majority of yangsheng enthusiasts insist on staying inside them.
I am over eighty; I still work, and my efficiency has not dropped. All day my spirit holds full, with no weariness. Rise at six, in bed by half past eleven (in late spring and early autumn); no nap at noon; no aching back, no panting breath, no insomnia, no other old-age ills. Going to the wards on the 16th floor: 50% by foot up, 100% by walk down. Not long ago I had four mixed hemorrhoids ligated and one anal fistula radically treated; out of hospital in two weeks; no sequelae. Day or night, in the busy city, I come and go alone, cross the crossroads, manage at ease. Read and write — no reading glasses.
I have not deliberately pursued yangsheng — because I have never walked into one of its wrong corners.
To take tonifying = yangsheng as synonym is the most dangerous wrong corner.
First — in theory, tonic ≠ yangsheng
Luo Guogang said: "To tonify is to relieve a deficiency." (Mirror of the Luo School · On Tonifying.) Conversely: "With no deficiency, no tonifying." Any medicine applied to a normal person who needs no tonifying disturbs his balance. That is tonifying ≠ yangsheng (1).
Which medicines are tonics? To this day, no one dares draw the line. He Mengyao, in Yi Que · On Tonifying and Draining: "To drain this is to tonify that (e.g., drain fire = tonify water); to tonify this is to drain that (e.g., tonify fire = dispel cold) — so draining is tonifying." Cheng Xingxuan: "For some diseases, tonify; tonify with the method of draining. For some, drain; drain with the method of tonifying." (Yi Shu · Yao Lüe.)
More tellingly, Qian Yigui, in Yi Lüe · Ginseng and Rhubarb Used Together, advocated giving ginseng (tonifying) and rhubarb (attacking) — at opposite poles — together. Even the line between tonifying and draining was abolished. And TCM has the saying: "The six bowels are tonified by flowing." Then rhubarb and mangxiao (Glauber's salt) may rightly be called tonics. That is tonifying ≠ yangsheng (2).
Wu Da, in Yi Xue Qiu Shi · The Differences Between Gao-Liang and Li-Huo Constitutions, denounced tonifying for the gao-liang (rich-fat) constitution — the well-fed, comfortable, with no real illness. They take tonics — is that not eating arsenic with eyes wide open? That is tonifying ≠ yangsheng (3).
Mo Meishi, Yan Jing Yan · On Drug Use II: "All drugs that drive out evil can injure the right; all that supplement deficiency can retain evil… So know: no drug is free of bias… Why befriend renshen and huangqi while making enemies of mangxiao and dahuang?" Wang Kentang puts it more starkly: "In recent times, those who use ginseng often bring harm and death." (Kantang Yilun · Lingzhi Yaolan.) Tonifying ≠ yangsheng (4).
After theory, the Chunzi Yi · Tonifying Cannot Be Hardened-Into sums it up: "All in the world say tonifying is good — but who knows how hard it is when tonifying is misapplied? The human body is a small heaven and earth; sun and moon are spirit; rivers are channels; the chest favors smooth flow; the bowels favor open regulation; three he of rice a day surpasses a great bag of renshen and huangqi. Now look at the dunderhead young master, arraying baizhen to brag — these are the so-called good at tonifying, like the praying mantis hugging the treetop."
Second — in fact, tonics ≠ yangsheng
The long-lived mostly dwell in deep mountains; eat coarse tea and plain rice. Who has the means to tonify? Look instead at the emperors after Qin unified China — many short-lived.
What counts as short-lived? By the old saying, fifty is not premature, so death before fifty is short-lived. Look at history:
- Qin — Shi Huang (Ying Zheng), 49.
- Western Han — Wen Di (Liu Heng) 45; Jing Di (Liu Qi) 47; Xuan Di (Liu Xun) 42; Yuan Di (Liu Shuang) 43; Cheng Di (Liu Ao) 45.
- Eastern Han — Ming Di (Liu Zhuang) 47; Zhang Di (Liu Ju) 30; An Di (Liu Hu) 5; Huan Di (Liu Zhi) 35; Ling Di (Liu Hong) 33.
- Wei — Wen Di (Cao Pi) 39; Ming Di (Cao Rui) 34.
- Tang — Shun Zong (Li Song) 45; Xian Zong (Li Chun) 42; Xuan Zong (Li Chen) 49; Yi Zong (Li Cui) 40.
- Song — Taizu (Zhao Kuangyin) 49; Yingzong (Zhao Shu) 35; Shenzong (Zhao Xu) 37.
- Yuan — Chengzong (Temür) 42; Wuzong (Khayishan) 30; Renzong (Ayurbarwada) 35.
- Ming — Xuanzong (Zhu Zhanji) 38; Yingzong (Zhu Qizhen) 37; Xianzong (Zhu Jianshen) 40; Xiaozong (Zhu Youtang) 35; Wuzong (Zhu Houzhao) 30; Muzong (Zhu Zaihou) 35; Guangzong (Zhu Changluo) 37.
- Qing — Wenzong (Xianfeng — Aisin Gioro Yizhu) 30; Dezong (Guangxu — Aisin Gioro Zaitian) 37.
This roll of well-fed, heavily-tonified emperors are especially short-lived. Those under 30 and those who died by assassination or suicide are not in the list — else more. The statistic strongly bears out: tonifying is not the way of yangsheng.
Today the press keeps reporting: ten-year-old girls with breast development; nine-year-old girls menstruating; eleven-year-old boys with beards — all from over-tonifying. Before such evidence, those drunk on tonics should wake.
Third — a moment's thought shows tonics ≠ yangsheng
Anything living — animal or plant — has a born-with self-protective function. Look at plants: when bark is wounded, they secrete sticky fluid to mend. Chicken in ice-and-snow curls one foot for warmth. Cats and dogs lick wounds with saliva. Monkeys, cleverer still, find tiannanxing-family leaves and roots to apply on hornet stings. Humans, spirit of the ten thousand things — even ancients knew to put leaves or petals on wounds, hot or cold liquid for toothache, kneading for pain, tapping for joint ache, walking for cramps.
For clothing: if it is torn, mend it; short, lengthen it; full of holes, patch it. No one patches new clothing. So with the body. Even if you are deficient, deficiency has many types: yang-deficient, yin-deficient, qi-deficient, blood-deficient, qi-and-blood double deficient; fluid-spent; spleen-deficient, kidney-deficient, kidney-yang-deficient, kidney-yin-deficient, stomach-yang-deficient, stomach-yin-deficient, wei qi deficient, heart qi deficient. Each kind of deficiency has its own formula. Tonifying yin in a yang-deficient — useless, even harmful.
Conversely, each tonic has its indication; it cannot treat every deficiency, just as one set of clothes cannot fit all four seasons. Further: if one habitually tonifies, then when right qi truly weakens — when one really needs tonifying — long use has built tolerance (though TCM does not speak of resistance), and there is nothing to give. Hence the TCM saying: "Tonify young; suffer old."
I once wrote a Tonic Song:
Chew the food slowly; wear the clothing thin; sleep with one breath drawn; throw cigarettes and wine; the heart not anxious; run, jump, leap — all of these are tonics.
Ladies and gentlemen who love tonics — take this kind: a hundred goods and no harm.