In this post(s) we translated a Chinese text we got from our Shaolin YiJinJing school in China. The text which is a list was compiled by a very competent Chinese medicine doctor in Beijing and since then it was circulating within China between different doctors emails and websites.
Based on our experience and practice of YiJinJing we can confirm the validity of the rules and also we can confirm the fact that following them gives the power for anyone to overcome disease and improve life quality. Some of the rules cannot be applied alone, for instance to cure the blood sometimes we need medicine and we also need a good doctor to check us and prescribe the right medicine. But even in this case applying the rules can help the process and prepare the body for a quicker recovery.
We advise you to read few posts every day and meditate some time about them, how they would apply on yourself, what seems to give a sense of urgency and what should be taken care for the long run. After you finish reading all of them please read them once again. We hope those gems of knowledge will help you improve your life quality and, why not, longevity.
Health Rules – Introduction
Every rule comes in a separate post so readers can start commenting about each one if they feel the need.
I want to warn reader about the Chinese circular thinking. Be aware that Chinese often repeat something they spoken before, this is because it is how they think and want to emphasize the message. Some rules just repeat themselves (I counted four), do not judge they wanted 100 and did not have enough. And there is one rule we did not understand how to translate it well.
I also want to extend thanks to Livia Kohn – which is Professor Emerita of Religion and East Asian Studies at Boston University – for helping with the difficult translation from Chinese language. If you like please check Three Pines Press publishing house for Livia’s specialized books and studies about Daoism.
For those who like to compare the translation with the original text please find here a PDF file in the Chinese language. If you feel that some improvements should be added to the translation please feel free to comment on the respective rule post.
Please watch below an interview with Master Jiang Feng, the Shaolin YiJInJing school shifu, about qigong medicine practiced in this school.
No. 1 – Sleep
Sleep is the first element of nourishing life. Your preferred time to sleep is between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., becausethis time in the course of the day matches the season of winter. If things are not contained in the winter,they cannot grow in the summer, which means that on the next day your spirit will be low.
No. 2 – Medication
All the various medications used to cure diseases work on the surface and don’t penetrate to the root, no matter whether they are Chinese herbs or Western drugs. Because all the different diseases arise from basicmistakes in living and are the result of such mistakes, as long as you do not remove the cause of the mistakes,their result cannot be eliminated at the root.
Now, the root of health is the mind-and-heart and all life factors and experiences originate from there. If themind-and-heart is pure, the body is pure. So, if you get sick, don’t look for a cause outside, but rely on the innatepowers of your own body and self to recover. This reality applies equally to human beings and animals; ifanimals can recover from diseases relying on their own powers, so can people.
No. 3 – Correct Behavior
The right understanding is to stay far away from expensive drugs and dangerous surgery in helping patients to get rid of their diseases. Based on this, you tend to make the right decisions and follow the right patterns of behavior. This will also allow you to ward off the arising of numerous diseases.
No. 4 – Innate Wisdom
People all have innate wisdom, which definitely does not come from book learning. Rather, it comes from their own true mind-and-heart, their pure and clear mind-and-heart (what Daoists call “Dao nature” and Buddhists call the bodhi-mind).
No. 5 – Inner Regulatory Abilities
Among all living beings, people have the most beautiful and complex body, but the degree of its health is determined at birth. Their level of health, then, depends on their original body’s innate regulatory and recovery abilities; it has nothing to do with outside elements. Outside factors can only aid in its functioning.
No. 6 – Purification
The vast majority of symptoms people develop are signs of their bodies ridding themselves of internal toxins in the process of adjustment and purification, conditions that appear as part of the body’s automatic regulation and balancing process. You should therefore take them as signs of the proper functioning of life and never forcefully get rid of them, thinking that they are the beginning of a disease and should be eliminated.
For this reason, when you are sick, by all means avoid developing a mind that is full of resentment, hatred, anger, and anxiety. Rather, make sure there is peace and stability in your mind-and-heart. When the mind is stable, the qi flows properly; when the qi flows properly, the blood is vibrant: the hundred diseases will dissolve.



