Early Chinese Values

A time of strife and conflict, the conditions the early Chinese lived through during the Warring States period were hazardous enough to produce philosophies which would shape and mold Chinese development across the rest of its history. Numerous classical works were released during this time, including Huang Di’s Inner Classic, Chunqiu fanlu yizheng, and the Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts—all of which offer perspectives on how the body functions. These medical texts lay the foundation for not just how to stabilize oneself as an individual, but simultaneously larger steps through which a ruler could create order in such a politically chaotic period. This begs the question, what early Chinese values—if any—do these texts reflect? What do they tell

us about the lives of the authors and what they were concerned about? Through investigating how these texts interpret and advocate maintaining the body, how they see the body in relationship to the state, and where they conflict on how to execute that maintenance, we can pinpoint what these men—and thus the Chinese ruling elite at large—are looking to discover: one correct way to live their lives.

Early Chinese scholars interpreted the body as the main resource for interacting with the world. In Huangdi Neijing, a medical text from the warring states period, the advisor to the emperor, Qi Bo, gives a lecture on why people no longer have long lifespans, “The fact that people of today are different is because they take wine as an [ordinary] beverage, and they adopt absurd [behavior] as regular [behavior]. They are drunk when they enter the [women’s] chambers”. Here Qi Bo is commentating on how poor habits, exhaustion, and overindulgence leads to the short lives that modern people are living. The solution which he recommends therefore involves looking back to their ancestors for guidance; Qi Bo believes that through embracing a certain set of rules reminiscent to that which the ancients followed that not just better health, but immunity to disease is possible. He tells the yellow emperor exactly what methods need to be employed in order to achieve these results: “…they were with the Way. That by which all of them were able to exceed a lifespan of one

hundred years, while their movements and activities did not weaken, [that was the fact that] their virtue was perfect and they did not meet with danger”.

Following the Way is simple, according to Qi Bo; live like the perfect ancestors and success will come easily to any ruler. As this is written during the chaotic time of the warring states period, it would not be a stretch to assume that Huang Di wants this knowledge of immortal life so that he can rule long and prosperously. Qi Bo capitalizes on this, and insinuates that a person who lives long is one that is following the Way. Following the Way leads to a good life, and thus a happy population is one ruled by a monarch who accepts the Way and is an example for his people on how to follow the Way. Opposing this viewpoint is Dong Zhongshu, a contemporary of Qi Bo, who argues that the body is the consummation of heaven and earth’s energies. Because the body is a microcosm of heaven and earth’s energies, fulfilling one’s duty to heaven by clinging to the Way is beneficial, but must be met with equal dedication to one’s duty to earth, which is fulfilled by nourishing their ability to follow the Way. In other words, to properly follow

the Way one must first prepare their body for following the Way. This is in direct conflict with Qi Bo, who states that following the Way in and of itself maintains the body. Both of these interpretations conflict with the Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts, other medical texts created at about the same time as the previous two. Instead of being abstract and speaking of following the Way, the Medical Manuscripts provide a very detailed explanation of how to maintain the body’s Yin and Yang levels through proper exercise, “Increasing Yin Vapor. Sit in the regular position with thighs straddled. Do not feel remorse for food. Press the left hand on the ground…”. Utilizing the technique of breath cultivation, the Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts provide a cultivate-first, follow-second approach to maintaining the body, as opposed to Qi Bo’s philosophy and in accordance with Dong Zhongshu’s. That so many conflicting methods to cultivate the body are available from the same time period shows that the early Chinese felt that they were interacting with their world inadequately and not living to their fullest potential: hence the search for a better way of life.
The perspectives on how the body was related to the state in early China were just as varied as the methods used to cultivate and maintain the body. Dong Zhongshu states it best: “The norms of the people’s ruler are derived from and modeled on Heaven”. Dong Zhongshu argues that the ruler of any given kingdom is the conduit for heaven’s energies, and the subjects are the representation of earth’s energies. Thus, both the body and the state are a microcosm for heaven and earth; it stands that cultivating the state as a ruler would his own body would therefore be the optimal way to rule. It thus becomes essential for a ruler to be able to discipline their body. Because the ruler derives so much power, they must be certain to have total control over their governing body. This ruling philosophy is shared with Qi Bo, who urges the yellow emperor to live a life according to the Way. Qi Bo believes that an emperor who governs himself according to the Way is more likely to act as an example of the Way for his people. This aspect of the ruler’s body being a reflection of their ability to rule a body of people seems to link these two different approaches; proper maintenance of the body that is followed by the ruler sets an example of proper moral behavior for his subjects. The political implications are obvious: a ruler who cannot control himself is unlikely to succeed in a period where armies are waging battles and people are dying by the number every day. This is not a situation in which neither Qi Bo nor Dong Zhongshu can afford to have a poor leader—entire states are at stake.
With entire political dynasties at stake, it should be no surprise that there is conflict surrounding how these ancient people thought that they should go about executing maintenance of the body. Dong Zhongshu and Qi Bo both believe that the body is capable of expressing the Way, but Dong believes that it can only be done after cultivating the body with specific exercises, while Qi Bo believes that exercises are irrelevant so long as one lives a good lifestyle. In particular, Dong Zhongshu promotes a brutal regimen meant to reign in the heavenly energies in a person’s own body, “Only when the body is free from pain can it achieve tranquility… Those who desire to accumulate vital essence must empty their minds and hearts and still their bodies”. Zhongshu’s regimen of training oneself on techniques for harnessing one’s inner qi directly contradicts Qi Bo’s belief in learning techniques through imitation, “The people of high antiquity, those who knew the Way, they modeled [their behavior] on yin and yang and they complied with the arts and the calculations”. The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts instead focuses on four different approaches to cultivating the body for a proper lifestyle, giving instructions on how to perform breath cultivation, exercise, sexually cultivate oneself, and practice dietetics, all in the name of hygiene which preserves the body’s jing and vapors. The thought process behind the logic is explained by Harper on page 146, “self-cultivation is the key to ordering the world”. This mandate to express oneself as an ordered individual can still be seen in Chinese culture today.
China has always been remarkable in that it established government and bureaucracy early on in its history. Instead of tackling the question of how to execute the will of the government, the question instead became, “What is the correct will to execute?” These texts were written by authors struggling to find an absolute method to stabilize not just themselves, but the world they live in; the correct will to rule the world by. The obsession with putting themselves in order was just the first step in instantiating stability over their entire world. For people born into an era of war and strife, this motivation is completely understandable. By perceiving the state as an extension of the body and through understanding the individuals who make up a state, these authors can discover a better, less violent way to live their lives.