Some tips for cultivating longevity
- Rachelle
- Dec 22, 2025
- 1 min read
郭尚賢嘗云服餌導引之餘有二事，乃養生大要，梳頭、浴腳是也。尚賢每夜先髮後腳方寢，自曰：“梳頭浴腳長生事，臨臥之時小太平。”
Guo Shangxian once suggested that, in addition to taking medicine and practising gymnastics, there are another two crucial matters for cultivating one’s life: hair-combing and foot-bathing. Every night, he would not rest before [attending to] his hair and then his feet. As he remarked:
Combing hair and bathing feet are to cultivate longevity:
A grain of serenity at the moment of repose.
* From Tao Gu 陶穀 (903-970) ed., Qingyilu 清異錄, Yingyin Wenyuange Siku quanshu 景印文淵閣四庫全書 (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1987) edition, vol. 1047, 2.4b.
A combing scene in the handscroll "Nüshi zhen tu" 女史箴圖 (Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies)
Image credit: British Museum
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