Taoist Medicine as a Chinese medical science integrates the theory of Yin and Yang, the Theory of Five Elements and the principle of correspondence between heaven and man, including different aspects of theories with different theoretical terminologies such as “Hsing” (body), “Qi/Chi” (energy) and “Shen” (mind). Being based on Taoist Medicine, this thesis intends to take “Well-Being Forming” as the main focus, through the perspective of daily life and diet, to explain the goal of medical treatments based on what is stated in The Essential Prescription for Emergency: Nurturing, saying that “Nature is good by itself, and neither internal or external diseases would arise.”
Taoist Medicine emphasizes the dynamic equilibrium of Yin and Yang, asserting that when a human body is in the "smooth flow of Qi/Chi, (energy)" body as “Hsing” (body) is not cold, while “Qi/Chi” (energy) is not sluggish and “Shen” (mind) is not slackened, resulting in being less likely to get sick. Thus, it is important to pay attention to one’s diets, taking different shapes and odors of food for letting them work separately and properly at the layers of physical matters, energy, message for nourishing the body. On the other hand, according to the principle stated in Taoist Medicine, saying that “when food therapy might not heal, medicine would take over the task,” it asserts a “principle” of having a proper proportion of consideration of the function of healing within 30% while nourishing 70%.” This decisive “principle” implies the processes of medical treatment based on Taoist Medicine with medicine for curing disease in the beginning, followed by food for the nourishment. In other words, taking medicine is taken as a directive method while food as supplement for increasing the vitality of body. In application based on the “principle,” the purpose of food supplement is for dealing with “deficiency” while the use of medicine is to get rid of disease with the parallelism in both medicine and food to enrich “Ching” (essence), Qi/Chi (energy) and “Shen” (mind) for obtaining needed energy for life.
In conclusion, the proper management of both “Hsing” (body) and “Qi/Chi” (energy) by following the “principle” of governing the body based on “Tao” in a consistent process throughout. In other words, understanding the essence of life through inner view and introspection is to achieve the goal of preventing illness by having prudent diets and balancing work and rest. Consequently, this conclusion matches the original intention of this article in reflecting upon the “equilibrium” of “Hsing” (body), “Qi/Chi” (energy) and “Shen” (mind) for a holism in life.