In acient time, the first powerful emperor - Shi Huangdi of Qin state conquered
most region of china proper. He had all he wanted but eternal life. He finally
believe in the Taoism theory that secret medication would last living forever.
At last he ordered his men to bring the medicine that make him not to be old
and not to die. According to acient legend, they went to Korean Peninsula to
get the Insam( Natrual Korean Jinsung) and at the same time to void the
emperor's punishment for impossible mission.
Regarding to the desire of Shi haungdi, four words of proverb is being used
when asian people talk about the concept of well being.
No old long life ( 不老長生, 不= no 老 = old 長 = long 生 = life)
Most people interpret the concept of this sentence as they want to think.
They think these four words as a merely fortune.
For your understanding, I refer to the ancient grammar of northern asian
people who are believed to come to northern area of Yellow river and Korean
Peninsula from the area around Baikal Lake. One of them established "Shang"
nation around Yellow River who had letters and metallurgy and the other did
"Chosun" nation around Manchuria and Korean Peninsula. "Chosun" means
that Sun people in morning shiny land. Shang and Sun means the people name
of northen asia native people.
"Chosun" is sometimes pronounsed as asadal. "Asa" is to asia, assyria, asha and
other similar pronounced words that mean sun, morning and light. "Dal or Tal" is to
stan, stang and t^ang that mean land. The reason why I explain the acient history
is to say the acient chinese letters are not made by Han people (pure chinese people
who have lived in the south of Yellow River) but made by the acient Korean or korean
cousin people. So the grammar of acient chinese sentenses are not unificated as that
of the present. However many people even scholars think that the grammar of acient
sentence is the same of the present.
Now coming back to the four words of proverb, the interpretation can be as follows.
1. Keeping one's fortune for very long life without diseases. - This is generally
accepted interpretation. (No and long = adverb, old and life = adjective )
2. To stop getting old and lengthen life that is given by the God( nature).
(No and old = transitive verb, old and life = Objective )
Above two are similiar but the content are very different. The former is a passive
well being but the latter an active well being.
There are too much of health information nowadays. From my experience it
is simple to make not to old and to lengthen life. That is to make five organs
to be easy. All of signs of fatigue from the five organs shows outside so we
can judge the inside status of five organs. And we can regulate and improve
the functions of five organs with natrual ways and usual vegetables - herbs.
The misinterpretation of "No old long life" began from the big emperor in
acient time and have lasted to now. The pure meaning of Taoism ( the original
thinking is called as "Sun thought" or shen(仙) )regarding to well being is
not resorting to non-human objects but to human intelligence and open mind.
Of course the details of sun thought will be ommited herein for the difficulty
of translation and time.
[Source] Harabi Clinic of East Asian Medicine (www.harabiclinic.com)