🌿 Folk Prescriptions

Liang Xiaosheng, a renowned writer, has authored numerous literary works including *Tonight There Is a Blizzard*, *This Is a Magical Land*, *Snow City*, *Floating City*, *Year Rings*, *Father*, *Mother*, and dozens of other novels and screenplays totaling over 7 million words. With moral standards guiding his view of society, Liang hopes to be a proponent and celebrator of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Aside from writing and reading, Liang frequently engages in alternating physical and mental activities—such as playing tennis or swimming. Listening to music, collecting items, admiring flowers or artworks—these refined hobbies serve as spiritual therapy, helping relieve fatigue, clear distractions, and enhance appetite. Tea tasting is another of Liang’s passions. He believes tea drinking and health preservation are interconnected; tea can sharpen the mind and uplift the spirit—exactly what health preservation requires—but tea consumption should not be excessive.
Health is the foundation, and Liang places great importance on wellness. He is skilled in self-cultivation and inner refinement. He distinguishes “self-cultivation” from “nurturing the soul”: “Self-cultivation” pertains to health preservation in a literal sense. While middle-aged people know the importance of health, they often lack time to implement it due to busy schedules. Only after retirement do they have ample time for health practices. “Nurturing the soul” emphasizes a particular mindset—using thought and spirit to nourish the soul, employing different ways of thinking for self-comfort, learning to perform a mental wellness exercise. He often does this: when facing setbacks or obstacles, feeling extremely sensitive and believing oneself the unluckiest person alive, he steps back and sees the bigger picture—realizing his situation is not so dire—and quickly regains clarity.
Being able to “nurture the soul” depends on prerequisites. Liang says: first, one must be someone with a reading habit. Timeless wisdom from classical literature worldwide offers indirect education. No one is naturally skilled in self-cultivation and nurturing the soul. Second, one must be someone who pays attention to life and others’ fates—by comparing oneself to others, realizing one is neither the greatest nor the weakest, neither the most miserable nor the happiest. Third, one must be capable of limiting desires. Those with intense, unrestrained desires cannot cultivate self or nurture the soul. Conversely, this serves as a reminder of the importance of self-restraint. For instance, regarding money, luxury, and pleasure—someone who is already wealthy and successful should understand that excessive ambition and desire are harmful, not beneficial. Liang strongly endorses traditional health practices such as calming the spirit, pleasing the spirit, and nurturing the spirit. These not only maintain mental balance, keeping the nervous system in a harmonious, relaxed state, but also promote smooth qi and blood flow, nourishing the skin and tissues externally and the internal organs internally—effectively preventing disease and slowing aging. Liang’s self-cultivation is largely focused on considering others. His work involves others—such as meeting deadlines for manuscripts or articles. If a piece isn’t delivered on time, how will the editor cope? Seeing critical reviews, he refuses to let them affect his mood or influence his direction—even if the language is aggressive. “Writers must maintain a normal mindset toward external criticism, viewing life surrounded by comments as a normal existence—just as athletes accept reasonable and unreasonable collisions on the field.” Dark emotions are enemies of mental health. Worry, loneliness, resentment, jealousy over fame, status, wealth, or vanity—all can trigger anger or depression, leading to premature aging and illness. Only by uplifting the spirit and healing the body can one truly experience the transcendent vitality of nature. Thus, Liang says: “Cultivating self and nurturing the soul emphasizes the quality of inner experience, aiming to shape the ideal self. No one who fails to cultivate self and nurture the soul can be a true thinker.”