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Since humans rely on the five grains to nourish their lives, they also rely on medicinal herbs and stones to eliminate diseases. If there were no medicines, then excessive cold, heat, labor, and hardship, along with unregulated anger, joy, hunger, and fullness, unpredictable seasonal changes, and a lack of health preservation techniques, would lead to situations where the poor cannot seek medical care, and even the wealthy might lack good prescriptions, or fall ill while traveling far from home without treatment. In such cases, many people would perish. Moreover, those who advocate benevolence possess a heart to aid all things; some may hoard a proven prescription or possess a unique herb. Depending on their capacity, they carefully process and prepare these remedies, widely distributing them to benefit others, so that chronic stubborn diseases, agonizing conditions, and critical states can be cured by a single medicine, turning groans into harmony. Even for those who are poor and weak, unable to personally compound and distribute medicines, if they can obtain effective prescriptions, print thousands of copies according to the diseases treated, and paste them on walls and roadsides, the benefit will be extensive.

Chunfu said: The sages treat disease before it arises rather than after it has arisen. This does not mean that existing diseases are left untreated, nor does it mean that existing diseases cannot be treated. It means that treating disease before it arises involves being cautious at the beginning and preventing it when it is minute, thereby achieving success with minimal harm. By treating it at the initial, minute stage, one avoids waiting until the disease is manifest to treat it, thus naturally avoiding the need to treat only after the disease has fully developed. Nowadays, people treat only existing diseases and do not prevent future ones. This is because when the signs of disease have not yet manifested, they fail to exercise caution, waiting until the disease trend is obvious before seeking medical treatment. This shows how negligence at the minute stage leads to manifestation.

The sages' daily activities and movements were always guided by proper health preservation methods. When there were even slightly subtle or hidden ailments, they paid special attention to preventing them and used medicine to treat them. This is how the sages treated disease before it arose rather than after. The *Analects* states: "What Confucius was careful about were fasting, war, and illness." The explanation says: Fasting is used to communicate with spirits; when sincerity reaches its peak, spirits descend. Illness concerns life and death of the body, while war concerns the survival or destruction of the state. These three areas of caution are indeed the greatest, and illness is among them. Does this not indicate that the body is regarded as extremely precious? When Duke Kang prepared medicine, he said, "I do not yet understand it, so I dare not taste it." This shows that the sages' caution regarding illness and physicians was utmost and complete.

People in the world not only fail to know how to treat disease before it arises, but even when already ill, they remain careless. Initially slight negligence, indulging without restraint, brews major disasters. Only then do they hastily seek doctors, without any selection, relying merely on hearsay or recommendations, entrusting their health to reckless and ignorant individuals, ultimately leading to self-destruction. This is because they neglect medicine in their daily lives and fail to study it seriously, leaving them no time to choose wisely in emergencies. They do not realize that medicine is essential for everyone, including sages. The key lies in studying it beforehand and becoming familiar with qualified physicians. If minor illnesses occur, one should quickly seek their medication, making treatment as easy as turning over a hand. If one could act like bending the chimney and moving the firewood (taking preventive measures), how could one suffer the ridicule of having scorched heads and broken limbs (dealing with consequences)? Danxi discussed this in detail.

My superficial views certainly contain omissions. The criticism of adding dog's tails to a fine fur coat (inferior additions) is unavoidable. Those interested in health preservation may expand upon and enrich these ideas, which may provide some small benefit.