Random Notes on Health Cultivation

Random Notes on Health Cultivation is a famous work on health cultivation by the Qing-dynasty health practitioner Cao Tingdong (1699–1785), also known as Lao Lao Heng Yan. Cao Tingdong, courtesy name Kairen, sobriquet Liupu and self-styled Cishan Jushi, was a native of Jiashan, Zhejiang. He spent his life reading and writing; frail and sickly in childhood, he lived to nearly ninety because he paid attention to care and conditioning. At the age of seventy-five he organized the health-cultivation experience of himself and his family over more than a century into a book written specifically for the elderly. The work in five juan broadly follows the daily life of old people: juan one discusses sleeping, rising in the morning, washing, diet, food, walking, the midday nap, and sitting up at night; juan two discusses leisurely living, conserving the mind, receiving guests, going out, preventing illness, being cautious with medicine, recreation, and guided exercises; juan three and juan four discuss the study, the couch, the staff, clothing, hats, belts, socks, and shoes, as well as bedroom furnishings such as the bed, canopy, pillow, mat, and bedding; juan five is a porridge manual, listing more than a hundred porridge recipes in three grades—upper, middle, and lower—and discussing the selection of rice, selection of water, heat control, and timing of eating. Throughout, the book upholds the idea that "the Way values naturalness," advocates following the yin and yang of the four seasons, emphasizes cultivating stillness and protecting the spleen and stomach, and grounds health cultivation in trivial matters such as eating, sleeping, dressing, and moving about; it does not seek novelty and involves no arcane theories. This edition provides paragraph-by-paragraph commentary and annotation by a contemporary scholar, making it easier for modern readers to understand the original meaning and relate it to present-day life.