Daoist Jin

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Early life and family losses

Daoist Jin began training at eight and recalled needing until sixteen to achieve even a modest measure of success. He later traveled widely before settling at the Daoist Medicine Clinic, where he had practiced for more than a dozen years by the time Su Ziyang began observing his work 44 51 295.

His wife died from severe bleeding during a difficult childbirth, leaving him to raise their son alone. When the boy was thirteen, they encountered an expert who injured him with a blood-blocking acupoint technique and demanded an unaffordable payment to undo it. Jin could only watch his son die. This experience left him intensely hostile toward practitioners who used such techniques to harm others 41.

Conflict and reconciliation with Su Ziyang

Jin first condemns Su Ziyang’s acupoint methods as “crooked tricks and heresy.” Believing Su has injured five men to manufacture paying patients, he demands that Su be expelled from the clinic. He refuses to believe Su’s explanation that the injuries arose during a conflict with Bai Pengyu and his companions, with whom Su has since reconciled 38 40.

The dispute becomes violent. Jin withstands Su’s acupoint strikes, repeatedly throws him down, and attempts to sever his hand tendons. Mr. Mengfei intervenes, disarming Jin and overwhelming him with Lion’s Roar 40 41.

After the misunderstanding is resolved, Jin apologizes and offers to leave the clinic and surrender his month’s consultation fees as compensation. Su persuades him to stay for his pediatric patients. Jin instead agrees to treat Su’s injuries and cover his meals for a month 41.

Taking a disciple

Over mutton soup, Jin offers to teach Su pediatrics, Eight Trigrams Swimming Dragon Palm, and Iron Cloth Shirt. Su accepts him as a teacher, beginning with daily Nine Palaces footwork practice 43.

Jin subsequently teaches through clinical observation, questioning, calligraphy practice, memorization, and demanding physical training. His determination to preserve Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt drives him to put Su through painful conditioning rather than allow the arts to disappear without an inheritor 45 48 81 85.

Jianghu investigations

Using contacts among experienced jianghu figures, Jin investigates the harmful acupoint practitioner encountered by Su and traces him to his master, Yang Jinguang. He also uncovers Guo Tianren’s reputation for cheating people 80 92 93 94.

Jin joins Mr. Mengfei and Su in confronting Guo, recognizes his itinerant-doctor jargon, and blocks Zhang Guozhou’s escape. He then agrees to a best-two-out-of-three contest secured by Guo’s rhinoceros-horn hairpin, explaining the old contest customs to Su 97 98.

Seclusion and departure

Jin eventually reduces his clinic attendance to one morning a week, spending most of his time meditating at the temple while continuing to teach Su Baguazhang at night. After emerging from a longer seclusion, he resumes treating patients and gives Su intensive instruction in pediatric tuina 183 295 297 304.

When renewed cultivation progress leads him to leave for the mountains, Jin gives Su his courtyard documents, keys, medicine inventory, and personal clinic belongings. He asks Su to maintain his martial practice, improve his medicine, remember The Great Physician’s Sincerity, and marry Fairy Li 336.

Jin refuses a farewell at the station, but Su stops him at the courtyard gate and kowtows three times. Jin’s final instructions are to care for his patients and pass on his skills. Afterward, Su preserves his belongings in a dedicated room in the courtyard 336 337.

Appearance

• Elderly and bearded: Frequently strokes his beard while speaking or teaching 43.
• Daoist dress: Wears robes and normally arranges his hair in a bun or topknot 85 295.
• Stature: Half a head shorter than Liu Yanzhen and shorter than Yang Tianzheng 46 179.
• After seclusion: Appears with loose hair and a meditation cloak; his clear, bright eyes and detached bearing make a strong impression on Su 295.

Personality

Jin is stubborn, short-tempered, and capable of extreme judgments. His unresolved grief initially makes him interpret Su’s blood-blocking technique as evidence of malicious intent, and he escalates to violence despite Su’s explanations. Once convinced he is wrong, however, he apologizes directly and insists on accepting the consequences himself 40 41 82.

His harshness as a teacher coexists with genuine affection. He threatens and teases Su, becomes jealous of Mr. Mengfei’s indulgence, and fiercely protects treasured possessions. Yet he also tends Su’s training injuries, gives him prayer beads, promises to teach without withholding anything, and ultimately acknowledges him as a son 81 85 295 336.

With children, Jin is notably gentle. He speaks kindly, comforts them, and performs tuina with light, controlled movements. He is also candid about limits: he calls fever-reducing massage a temporary measure and acknowledges that improperly practiced hard qigong can damage the body 47 48 82 297.

Abilities & Skills

Pediatric Medicine

A heavily sought-after pediatric practitioner, Jin sees more than thirty patients even on his quieter days 44.

• Diagnosis: Examines children’s finger-vein markings, abdominal findings, and symptom patterns, using cases to test Su’s understanding 45 47 48 295.
• Pattern-based prescribing: Uses Major Order the Qi Decoction for Liu Yuchen’s severe constipation and abdominal masses; the masses disappear after the child passes numerous hard stools 47.
• Classical formulas: Prescribes an adaptation of Minor Bupleurum Decoction when treating a child after returning from seclusion 295.
• Medical teaching: Combines demonstrations with questions about diagnosis, changes in symptoms, and follow-up prescriptions 47 48.
• Household influences: Explains illness through his belief in an intangible qi environment and instructs Liu Yuchen’s parents to stop arguing at home 48.

Pediatric Tuina

Jin’s massage movements are light, brisk, and gentle. He attributes their smoothness to repeated practice 297.

• Fever-reducing techniques: Demonstrates Clear the Heavenly River Water, Draw the Heavenly River Water, Guide Water Up the Heavenly River, and Strike the Horse Across the Heavenly River. During Liu Yuchen’s treatment, the temperature falls from 39°C to 37.6°C 47.
• Broader repertoire: Teaches Push Kangong, Push Zanzhu, Twin Phoenixes Spread Their Wings, Separate Yin and Yang, Join Yin and Yang, and Azure Dragon Swings Its Tail 297.
• Warming technique: Teaches Push the Three Gates as a warming and deficiency-tonifying method 297.
• Limits: Distinguishes temporary fever relief from treatment of the underlying illness. He warns that strongly cooling techniques should stop once the high fever subsides 47 297.

Eight Trigrams Swimming Dragon Palm

Jin’s Baguazhang emphasizes footwork; he tells Su to watch his feet rather than his hands because the palm technique’s skill lies in the legs 336.

• Speed: Moves from directly in front of Su to behind him before Su can follow the movement 43.
• Foundation: Teaches numbered Nine Palaces steps for at least an hour daily, later adding practice facing all eight directions 43 45.
• Combat application: Easily anticipates Su’s attempted evasions and later moves so quickly during sparring that his figure leaves afterimages 85 186.
• Instruction: His renewed personal coaching substantially improves Su’s Eight Trigrams Swimming Dragon Palm 179.

Golden Bell Shield and Iron Cloth Shirt

Jin has cultivated Iron Cloth Shirt for years. Su’s strikes feel as though they have hit an iron wall or plate, leaving Su’s fingers and hand hurting rather than injuring Jin 40 43.

• Conditioning instruction: Uses medicinal-soaked gauze lashes, directed Qi circulation, and a restorative medicinal bath to train Su 81.
• Earth-Qi handling: Recognizes Su’s earth-Qi-assisted conditioning and uses a potted cactus to block the well’s rising earth Qi afterward 81.
• Risks: Acknowledges that the arts require time, may damage the body if practiced incorrectly, and have limited practical usefulness 82.
• Performance knowledge: Explains that hard-qigong demonstrations can involve controlled blade placement, striking locations, and force rather than unrestricted invulnerability 354.

Cultivation and Bigu

Jin practices seclusion and the Water-Drinking Bigu Method to advance his cultivation 183 295 315.

• Distinguishes several Bigu approaches, including Qi Refining and Medicinal Ingestion 314.
• Teaches that Water-Drinking Bigu involves a compassionate vow, purification, an auspicious starting day, blessed water, and prescribed ritual actions—not merely drinking enough to suppress hunger 315.
• Warns against attachment to insights or visions arising during practice 315.
• Is assessed as roughly comparable to Yang Tianzheng in cultivation, while Mr. Mengfei ranks above both 315.

Remedies and Other Skills

• Folk remedies: Advises Su about charred pumpkin seeds for recurring nosebleeds, while identifying an earthworm-powder remedy as untested 183.
• Mouth-ulcer formula: Reveals his secret remedy to be Borneol and Borax Powder 190.
• Unusual external treatment: Treats Xiaobao’s lingering fever with a preparation involving egg white, realgar, sesame oil, and the child’s mother’s hair 304.
• Foundation Establishment Wine: Describes it as medicine intended to replenish kidney essence, improve energy, and restore some lost primordial yang, rather than a miraculous cultivation shortcut 304 305.
• Calligraphy: Writes beautiful clerical script and regularly teaches Su pen calligraphy 45.
• Jianghu knowledge: Maintains an information network and understands traditional contests involving martial arts, medicine, weapons, and other skills 92 94 98.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Small golden knife — Used during his attempt to sever Su’s hand tendons; knocked away during Mr. Mengfei’s intervention 40 41.
• House-call medicine chest — A treasured possession he intends Su to inherit. Su’s claim to have dismantled it for prayer beads is a prank; Jin checks and finds it intact 81 295.
• Late-Qing snuff bottle — A valuable antique Su gives to Jin Tiantian as a pill container, provoking Jin’s furious response 85.
• Small-leaf red sandalwood prayer beads — Gives Su a strand of 108 beads after his first brutal conditioning session 81.
• Gifted prayer beads — Later receives a strand from Su, identified as small-leaf red sandalwood with southern red agate 295 296.
• Courtyard and medical supplies — Entrusts the property paperwork, keys, prepared-medicine inventory, and his personal clinic possessions to Su before leaving 336.

Relationships

• Su Ziyang — Disciple and eventual successor in medicine and martial arts. Jin explicitly regards him as his own son and leaves his property and belongings to him 43 81 336.
• Mr. Mengfei — Fellow teacher of Su. Their initial confrontation gives way to joint investigations, shared concern for their disciple, and frequent teasing 41 92 178 295.
• Old Daoist Master Xiao — Longtime associate who has looked after Jin for years, mediates his conflict with Su, and waits for him to emerge from seclusion 41 295.
• Yang Tianzheng — Fellow instructor who joins Su’s demanding training and sometimes intervenes when Jin loses his temper 179 295.
• Fairy Li — Treats her affectionately as Su’s future wife, gives her valuable antiques, and asks her to look after Su during his absence 185 336.
• Wife and son — Their deaths shape his grief and hostility toward malicious acupoint practitioners 41.
• Guo Tianren — Investigative target and contest opponent whose fraudulent activities Jin helps expose 94 97 98.

Notable Quotes

“Since I’m teaching you, I’ll pass on everything I know without holding anything back!” 81

“Practice makes perfect!” 297

“Good lad, take good care of your patients! Pass down the skills I taught you!” 336

Trivia

• The afterword connects Jin’s temper and pediatric massage expertise to metal symbolism: metal can both kill and protect, while the lungs belong to metal and govern the skin and body hair on which many massage techniques act 392.