Disease is the archenemy of longevity. People who want to enjoy good health and a long life must guard against disease, and have the diseases that they have unfortunately contracted correctly treated and promptly cured. They should never look for doctors or hospitals haphazardly or adopt wrong principles and methods of treatment. The following is about proverbial sayings in traditional Chinese medicine which represent a sum-up of valuable experience in prevention and cure of diseases and so are worthy of serous study and application.
"Disease arises from excessive employment". This is a maxim in the Classic of Internal Medicine. It expresses an important view in the etiology of traditional Chinese medicine and also a fundamental principle in the science of health preservation and disease prevention. It tells us that in order to be healthy and long-lived people must pay attention to the need of doing work and taking rest both in moderate amounts, it is the way of disease prevention, because the incidence of a number of diseases is due to engaging in labor, indulging in drinking and eating or doing physical or mental exercises in amounts in excess of normal limits.
Inspired by the teaching in the Classic of Internal Medicine that "in case of trouble with urination or defecation symptomatic alleviation should be attended to," traditional Chinese medical scholars gradually came to the conclusion that "in the case of an acute illness symptomatic alleviation should first be effected; and in the case of a chronic illness a permanent cure should be effected," is an important principle of medical treatment and disease prevention, which would find wide clinical application. Of course, what was termed "acute" or "urgent" is not to be confined to trouble with urination and defecation or the feeling of fullness in the abdomen. Whatever symptoms which will hamper the whole treatment procedure and the recovery of the patient should be considered as "urgent". For example, if a patient who has a chronic disease is running a fever because of a cold, the cold should be cured first.

"What is on the surface" and "what is at the root" are technical terms frequently used by traditional Chinese medical scholars. They form the basis of the principle by which decisions of treatment are arrived at through distinguishing which aspect of the disease has the need for priority treatment, whether it is light or serious, and whether there is the necessity of giving it immediate attention. Generally speaking, the cause of the disease is "what is at the root" and the symptoms produced by the disease are "what is on the surface"; the patient"s constitution is "what is at the root" and the invading disease is “what is on the surface”. Different situations will arise for decisions to be made in different diseases or at different stages of a given disease when the theory of distinguishing "what is on the surface" and "what is at the root" is used to analyze a case of disease to determine which aspect of the disease needs urgent treatment and what method is to be employed. When the disease is going on at a slow rate, the crucial point is to detect what is at the root of the pathological change and this is also the key point in the treatment, whereas in the case of a new disease or in the case of appearance of a critical situation in the development of the disease, what is on the surface will become the crucial point of the pathological change and it will also be the key point in the treatment.

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