Analyze the Thought of Health Preservation in the Shanggu Tianzhen Lun from the Perspective of Rhetoric

Abstract

Shanggu Tianzhen Lun is the inaugural text of Su Wen (Plain Questions), predominantly presented in a question-and-answer format. The chapter has exceeding 900 words, it systematically elucidates the ancient populace's the Dao of health preserving. This article scrutinizes the rhetorical phenomena within the Shanggu Tianzhen Lun from three perspectives. First one, discuss the importance and principle of the Dao of health preserving. Second one, discuss the importance of maintaining the essence-qi in the kidney on the basis of whether people can bear children in their old age. Last one, different methods of health preservation will affect the person of life span. It concludes that this text exhibits distinctive features in its choice of words, sentence structures, layout arrangement, and employment of rhetoric techniques. Furthermore, the key to the Dao of health preserving is maintaining a desirable harmony between the Shen (mind or spirit) and the body. The cultivation of body hinges upon fully harnessing essence-qi within the kidney. While the cultivation of Shen (mind or spirit) relies on attaining harmony between spirit and emotion.