After dinner, his aunt and cousin cleared away the bowls and chopsticks and went to wash them, leaving only Xu Qingtong and his uncle in the hall. He kept stealing glances at his uncle, several times starting to speak only to stop, looking thoroughly undecided.
Chen Jialiang glanced at Xu Qingtong and said, "Qingtong, if you have something to say, say it. All this hemming and hawing-is that how a real man should act?"
His uncle's words shook Xu Qingtong's young heart, like sacred nectar poured over his head, bringing sudden enlightenment. He thought to himself, Uncle is right. If a man wants to achieve anything, he must not hem and haw or waver indecisively!
Resolve immediately filled his eyes, and he said in a clear voice, "Uncle, I want to learn medicine from you!"
Somewhat puzzled, Chen Jialiang looked at Xu Qingtong with a smile and asked, "Qingtong, what made you think of that?"
"Uncle, when Mother and I left home, she told me that if I could learn even a third of your medical skill, I would be able to support a family. So that I can have a way to earn my bread in the future, please teach me medicine."
"If that is your only reason, you might as well not learn medicine," Chen Jialiang said expressionlessly. Xu Qingtong froze, unable to understand what his uncle meant, and looked at him in bewilderment. Chen Jialiang said nothing either, merely watching him in silence.
After thinking for a long while, Xu Qingtong spoke again. "I want to become someone people respect, just like you."
Chen Jialiang smiled and said, "A physician must have a compassionate heart! Treating illness, saving lives, rescuing the dying, and tending the wounded are a physician's duties. Being respected is only a natural consequence. That reason still isn't enough!"
Hearing his uncle's words, Xu Qingtong lowered his head and sank into thought. Chen Jialiang did not hurry him, merely watching him in silence.
Xu Qingtong thought everything through from beginning to end. At first, learning medicine from his uncle had been his mother's arrangement. After arriving in Houtang Town, everything he heard and saw reflected admiration and respect for his uncle, stirring his desire to become a physician. Then his uncle had prepared a medicinal bath that brought great changes to his body, awakening a deep interest in and longing for the wonders of medicine.
At this thought, Xu Qingtong raised his head and said, "Uncle, I'm very interested in medicine, especially that medicinal bath prescription passed down by your ancestors. I think it's truly miraculous. If I could learn medicine, carry it forward, and develop similar prescriptions to strengthen people's bodies and prolong their lives, so that you and Aunt could live to a hundred, or even live forever without growing old, that would be enough for this lifetime!"
Hearing this, Chen Jialiang felt deeply gratified. His face wreathed in smiles, he said, "The art of medicine is vast and profound! There is so very much to learn! I began studying medicine with your grandfather when I was five, more than forty years ago now, yet what I have learned amounts to less than a tenth of it. You must memorize the appearance and properties of thousands of medicinal substances and herbs. The body's meridians, internal organs, qi, blood, nutritive qi, and defensive qi each hold their own mysteries. Beyond that, you must understand the transformations of yin-yang and the five elements, and how medicines and the human body generate and restrain one another. Great mastery cannot be achieved overnight. Have you thought this through?"
With a determined gaze, Xu Qingtong said, enunciating every word, "I have. Please teach me, Uncle!"
"Good. Come with me."
Xu Qingtong followed his uncle into the room on the western side of the main hall. A desk stood facing the doorway, with a bookcase behind it holding all manner of books, considerably more than his father's collection. The vast majority were medical classics.
Against the northern wall stood an altar table, with a rush cushion placed before it. Memorial tablets of various sizes stood on the table, each engraved with a name. The slightly larger tablet in the center bore the inscription, "Founding ancestor, Chen the Great, personal name: Taiping."
Chen Jialiang led Xu Qingtong before the tablets and said, "Our ancestors taught us, 'Methods must not be lightly passed on, nor the Way lightly taught.' Since you have made up your mind to study medicine with me, you must perform the full ceremony of three bows and nine kowtows and take me as your master. This is a rule left by our ancestors, and we must not cast it aside lightly."
Xu Qingtong did as instructed, paying his respects to the founding master with utmost reverence. He then performed the ceremony of accepting a master, formally becoming Chen Jialiang's disciple.
"Qingtong, now that you have performed the ceremony and become my disciple, you must heed my guidance. You are both my disciple and my own nephew. There is no need for the two of us to stand on the formalities between master and disciple. You may continue calling me Uncle," Chen Jialiang said.
"Starting tomorrow, you will learn medicine and dispense prescriptions with me in the front hall during the day. In the evenings, come to this study and diligently read the medical books. The bottom shelf holds illustrated guides to medicinal substances, recording their appearance, medicinal principles, and properties. There are ten volumes in all, covering more than three thousand substances. Memorize ten each day, and you should finish in about a year. Once you can recognize and distinguish them, I will teach you the rest."
Xu Qingtong nodded in agreement. Chen Jialiang added, "It is late today, and your journey has left you weary in body and mind. Go back to your room and rest." Xu Qingtong assented and returned to the west wing to rest.
The next day, Xu Qingtong rose early, before dawn. After sweeping the courtyard, he went to the front hall to sweep the floor, sprinkle water, and wipe the tables. With everything in order, he quietly waited for his uncle's family to get up, eat, and open for business.
Before long, his uncle, aunt, and cousin Chen Ruoling got up one after another. After a bustle of activity and breakfast, Xu Qingtong followed his uncle into the front hall. They opened the door and took down the sign reading "Away on family business." His uncle sat upright behind the square table, and the day's work began.
Xu Qingtong's main task was to help his uncle dispense medicinal ingredients. Each time his uncle finished writing a prescription, he handed it to Xu Qingtong, then explained where each ingredient was kept and what it was used for.
Xu Qingtong possessed exceptional spiritual awareness and a powerful memory. Once his uncle had told him something, the next time he encountered the same ingredient, he could quickly find it without a reminder, never making a single mistake. Seeing this, Chen Jialiang marveled inwardly. He had never expected his nephew to be so intelligent. With careful training, the boy might truly surpass him.
Xu Qingtong was equally filled with admiration for his uncle. Throughout the day, dozens of people came seeking treatment and medicine, yet his uncle remained as serene as drifting clouds in a gentle breeze, calm and composed. Observing, listening and smelling, questioning, taking pulses, writing prescriptions, and dispensing medicines-everything proceeded in perfect order.
"Doctor Chen, have you taken on a disciple?" asked a middle-aged woman who had come for treatment.
"This is my nephew. He's here to lend me a hand."
As the sun neared the horizon, uncle and nephew closed up after a busy day. They returned to the rear hall and ate dinner, after which Xu Qingtong plunged into the study and began poring over a pharmacopoeia.
Once again, Xu Qingtong displayed his tremendous talent. He read and memorized almost as quickly as he could turn the pages! In less than four hours, he finished a pharmacopoeia more than three hundred pages long.
Xu Qingtong stretched and returned the book to its place. Closing his eyes, he recalled its contents and found that he had forgotten none of the three hundred-odd medicinal ingredients. Judging the time, it should have been somewhere between nine and eleven at night, yet he felt no sleepiness at all.
So he picked up the second pharmacopoeia and began reading. By the time he finished the last page, it was past three in the morning. He put the book back, rose, and returned to his room.
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