Healthcare has a long history in China. As early as the Spring and Autumn period of the Warring States era, the classic Chinese medical work "Huangdi Neijing" comprehensively summarized the health preservation experience of the pre-Qin period. It explicitly pointed out that "sages do not treat the already sick, but treat the not yet sick; they do not treat the already chaotic, but treat the not yet chaotic. It is like a thirsty person digging a well, or forging a needle after a fight. Isn't it too late?" This laid the foundation for the development of traditional preventive medicine and health preservation in China.
Over thousands of years, successive Chinese traditional medicine practitioners and health preservation scholars have continuously accumulated and summarized the health preservation experience passed down among the people. They have also written numerous specialized works on health preservation, promoting the development of traditional Chinese health preservation studies. There are various schools of traditional Chinese health preservation, each with its own strengths. Generally speaking, they can be divided into six major schools: spiritual cultivation, physical exercise, essence preservation, qi regulation, diet therapy, and herbal medicine. Each school has its own system of health preservation theories, combining strengths and absorbing from each other, forming China's unique methods of health preservation.
Many concepts of health preservation in traditional Chinese medicine are similar to modern life sciences, and many traditional health preservation methods are also effective. For example, tuina massage, cupping, diet therapy, acupuncture, Five Animal Frolics, Tai Chi, calligraphy and painting, qigong (guided breathing and abdominal respiration), etc. Except for acupuncture, anyone can personally practice these convenient methods. Regular use of these methods for health preservation, strengthening the body, and preventing diseases has special therapeutic effects.
