"On the Innocence of Antiquity": The Highest Realm of Mental Health

The first chapter of the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), titled "Shanggu Tianzhen Lun" (On the Innocence of Antiquity), takes up human mental hygiene from its very opening.

In this chapter, the Yellow Emperor asks his teacher Qi Bo: "I have heard that people of antiquity all lived beyond a hundred years without their movements failing; people of today, at fifty, have movements that are all failing. Is this because the age is different, or because people have lost the way?"

Qi Bo replies: "Those of antiquity who knew the Way modeled themselves on yin and yang, harmonized with the arts of calculation, ate and drank with measure, rose and rested with regularity, did not recklessly overwork, and so could keep body and spirit together, complete their natural span, and pass beyond a hundred years before leaving. People of today are not so: they take wine as water, turn recklessness into normality, enter the bedchamber intoxicated, exhaust their essence through desire, dissipate their true qi through craving, do not know how to keep their fullness, do not timely govern their spirit, rush only to please their hearts, act against the joy of life, rise and rest without measure; therefore at fifty they decline."

Qi Bo continues: "When the sages of antiquity taught the people, they said that one must at the proper time avoid vicious wind and evil qi; be placid and empty, so that true qi follows; keep the spirit inwardly guarded, and how could illness ever arise? Thus will be an unhurried will with few desires, a peaceful heart without fear, a body that labors but is not wearied, qi that flows smoothly, each person following his own desires and obtaining what he wishes. Therefore they were content with their food, pleased with their clothing, happy in their customs, and did not envy one another's station; their people were called simple. Hence desires could not strain their eyes, licentiousness could not bewitch their hearts; the foolish, the wise, the capable, and the incapable were not fearful of material things, and so they accorded with the Way. The reason they could all pass a hundred years without their movements failing is that their virtue was whole and free from peril."

The way of life and attitude Qi Bo advocates is one that follows nature, measures diet and daily routine, and holds modest desires. Not comparing, not greedy, not craving, not licentious, not depressed, without fear, without anxiety, with a peaceful heart and an unhurried will—whoever achieves these, in any age, is already in the healthiest possible psychological state.

Such a person, further practicing to "avoid vicious wind and evil qi at the proper time," will rarely fall ill and so can live long. In today's terms, this is an extremely simple yet joyful life; people who hold this attitude have already transcended the secular world, so the secular world cannot easily affect them. For human beings, gregarious animals so easily swayed by the crowd, achieving this is truly no small thing.

As the French philosopher Gustave Le Bon said, the great majority of people have a herd mentality and find it very hard to break away from the crowd. Only someone who can truly detach from the crowd can escape the fate of "the crowd" and live independently and freely in the world.

In "On the Innocence of Antiquity," the Yellow Emperor also speaks at length.

The Yellow Emperor says: "I have heard that in antiquity there were Zhen Ren (true persons) who upheld heaven and earth, grasped yin and yang, breathed essence and qi, stood alone and guarded their spirit, kept their muscles as one, and so could live out heaven and earth without end. This was those who were born of the Way."

"In mid-antiquity there were Zhi Ren (ultimate persons) whose virtue was pure and whose Way was whole, who harmonized with yin and yang, adapted to the four seasons, left the world and departed from custom, gathered essence and whole spirit, roamed between heaven and earth, and whose sight and hearing reached beyond the eight directions. These were those who extended their lifespan and strengthened themselves, and they also belonged to the true persons."

"Next came Sheng Ren (sages), who dwelt in the harmony of heaven and earth and followed the patterns of the eight winds, adapted their desires to the secular world without anger in their hearts, behaved without wishing to depart from the world, wore robes with patterns, acted without seeking to be gazed at by the vulgar, externally did not strain the body with affairs, internally had no burdens of thought, took placid joy as their task and self-sufficiency as their achievement, so that their form was not worn and their spirit not scattered; they, too, could reach a hundred."

"Next came Xian Ren (worthies), who took heaven and earth as their model, imitated the sun and moon, discerned the stars, followed or resisted yin and yang according to the season, and aligned themselves with the Way of antiquity; they, too, could extend their life span to its natural limit."

The "true person of antiquity" the Yellow Emperor mentions here is an idealized sage, someone who lives entirely in accordance with the laws of nature. The Yellow Emperor believed such people could live out heaven and earth without end; this is of course a fantasy. Every living thing has its day of death; the natural human life span, at around 120 years, approaches its limit, and there can be no "without end."

More realistic are the "ultimate persons" of mid-antiquity, and below them the sages and worthies. The ultimate person is far from secular society and follows the Way of heaven and earth, and so can extend life. The sage lives within secular society but moderates desires and controls emotions, harboring no anger; his conduct follows the world but his heart does not wallow in it, so that his heart remains peaceful, placid, and joyful, and he does not overwork his body; such a person can also live past a hundred. The worthy is someone who follows nature and lives according to the Way of antiquity, and such a person, too, can extend life.

Secular society is a great melting pot; once you jump in, you inevitably experience joy, anger, sorrow, and delight within it and produce all sorts of excessive, extreme emotions. So withdrawing from the world and being moderately solitary can lighten the spiritual burden and also reduce a considerable part of desires—because the great majority of human desires arise from comparison in secular society. People who stay away from the world can be psychologically healthier; in fact, those who can enjoy moderate solitude do have fewer worries.

But the degree must be just right. In practice, those who truly cut themselves off from the world are not necessarily inwardly healthy. Suicide rates in many developed countries are in fact higher than in developing ones; one reason may be that in such societies people are too lonely.