Recaps

Su Ziyang met Liu Xiaozhe, a wealthy playboy whose wife had bruised his eye, and heard how she challenged him to a drinking contest to curb his nights out. Liu Xiaozhe agreed, confident that his shy, virtuous wife could not outdrink him.

• Xie Dong brought his friend Liu Xiaozhe to Su Ziyang’s consulting room for treatment.
• Liu Xiaozhe told Su Ziyang that after marrying the woman he loved, he returned to his old habit of staying out drinking and neglecting his family.
• When Liu Xiaozhe’s son developed a fever, his wife calmly took them to the hospital and waited until the child recovered.
• Liu Xiaozhe’s wife proposed a drinking contest, promising not to object to his nights out if he could outdrink her, but requiring him to stay home if he lost.
• Liu Xiaozhe accepted, assuming his shy and obedient wife would be easy to beat.

Liu Xiaozhe recounted how Yaya had repeatedly disciplined him after he tested her patience, and how her latest blow left his vision blurred. Su Ziyang treated his eye and proposed a scheme to help Liu Xiaozhe win Yaya’s forgiveness.

• Liu Xiaozhe challenged Yaya to drink, but she outdrank him and made him behave for a while.
• After Liu Xiaozhe resumed staying out, Yaya dragged him from a restaurant, and he passed out after she kicked him and broke three of his ribs when he tried to hit her.
• Liu Xiaozhe learned Yaya had been an armed police instructor and scout, and he later met Xie Dong at a shelter for male victims of domestic abuse.
• Yaya hit Liu Xiaozhe with a thermos after discovering he had cheated while she was pregnant, and he developed a dark shadow over his eye.
• Su Ziyang examined and disinfected Liu Xiaozhe’s injury, then offered to write a certificate so Liu Xiaozhe could claim it was serious and ask Yaya to forgive him.

Su Ziyang treated Liu Xiaozhe's bruised eye and taught him massage techniques to help his wife, Yaya, recover from old injuries. At a group dinner, Fairy Li impressed a restaurant's head chef by identifying how to improve his nine-turn large intestine, and he rewarded the group with complimentary dishes.

• Su Ziyang treated Liu Xiaozhe's eye with hibiscus leaves and vinegar paste, and Liu Xiaozhe's vision recovered a few days later.
• Liu Xiaozhe asked Su Ziyang to teach him massage techniques for Yaya's shoulder and thoracic spine injuries, and Su Ziyang also gave him medicinal wine.
• Liu Xiaozhe's massage and Su Ziyang's wine improved Yaya's lingering injuries, so she brought her family to thank Su Ziyang with a necklace for Fairy Li.
• Liu Xiaozhe, Yaya, their son, Su Ziyang, Fairy Li, and Xie Dong ate at a Shandong cuisine restaurant, where Fairy Li said the nine-turn large intestine was overcooked.
• The head chef returned with an improved dish after Fairy Li's advice and offered the group more complimentary food.

Yaya asked Su Ziyang to treat her mother’s cataract without surgery, and he prescribed an internal medicine and promised eye drops. After a busy day at the clinic, Su Ziyang prepared the eye drops in Daoist Jin’s courtyard and headed home after Fairy Li called him.

• Yaya asked Su Ziyang whether he could treat her mother’s cataract with medicine instead of surgery, and he agreed to prepare pills for her.
• Liu Xiaozhe gave Su Ziyang the information needed for the prescription, and Su Ziyang prescribed the Opacity-Polishing Pill and offered to make eye drops as well.
• After seeing patients, Su Ziyang wrote the eye-drop prescription and bought the ingredients before preparing the medicine in Daoist Jin’s courtyard.
• Su Ziyang ground and filtered the ingredients for several hours, then sealed the finished eye drops in a bottle.
• Fairy Li called Su Ziyang late at night and told him she had bought him clothes and was waiting for him at home.

Su Ziyang received Liu Xiaozhe’s gifts and then examined a boy whose furious mother accused him of pretending not to know his numbers. The boy called a 6 a nine and a 9 a six, leaving Su Ziyang and his mother speechless as she threatened to beat him.

• Fairy Li urged Su Ziyang to shower and try on the new clothes she had bought him, then went to bed while he practiced and meditated.
• Su Ziyang gave Liu Xiaozhe the finished eye drops and accepted the food and drinks Liu Xiaozhe brought him.
• A woman brought her silent, thin son Xiaobao to Su Ziyang and angrily tried to hit him, so Su Ziyang intervened and examined the boy.
• The woman wrote a 6, and Xiaobao called it a nine; when she wrote a 9, he called it a six.
• Su Ziyang and Xiaobao’s mother reacted in disbelief, and she cursed and threatened to beat the boy.

Su Ziyang discovered that Xiaobao was not pretending to avoid school: after eating wood ear mushrooms and vomiting, the boy had begun seeing characters upside down. Su Ziyang identified the condition as Inversion of the Liver Lobes and started writing a prescription, leaving Xiaobao’s treatment about to begin.

• Su Ziyang stopped Xiaobao’s mother from hitting him and asked whether someone at school was bullying him or he disliked studying.
• Su Ziyang tested Xiaobao with letters and characters, finding that he read upside-down characters as if they were upright.
• Xiaobao told his mother that the problem began after he ate wood ear mushrooms and vomited, and she apologized for not believing him.
• Su Ziyang identified Xiaobao’s illness as Inversion of the Liver Lobes and explained that medicinal decoctions could cure it.
• Xiaobao’s mother agreed to the treatment, and Su Ziyang began writing a prescription.

Su Ziyang treated a boy whose liver lobes had become inverted by using a carefully modified Vomiting Method, and the boy recovered after vomiting dark green matter. After teaching the boy’s mother how to care for him, Su Ziyang recorded the treatment and recalled seeing a village doctor use induced vomiting to save a pesticide-poisoned woman.

• Su Ziyang prescribed the boy a modified vomiting decoction and insisted that he take it under supervision at the clinic.
• The boy drank the decoction and vomited dark green matter for about ten minutes.
• Su Ziyang confirmed the boy had recovered when he correctly identified the characters his mother wrote.
• The boy’s mother apologized to him, and Su Ziyang advised a light diet and taught her pediatric massage techniques.
• Su Ziyang recorded how he had modified Melon Pedicel Powder with tonifying medicines to protect the boy’s weak body.
• Su Ziyang remembered a village doctor inducing a pesticide-poisoned woman to vomit with liquid from a dry latrine, which had saved her life.

Su Ziyang relieved Sister Liu’s toothache with a pressure technique and taught her how to repeat it herself. Later, he treated a bald older man’s recurring toothache with a tailored herbal prescription, further increasing his reputation.

• Sister Liu came to Su Ziyang with a swollen cheek and severe tooth pain, and he stopped it by pinching her earlobe and Hegu acupoint.
• Su Ziyang taught Sister Liu how to use her mouth and one hand to apply the same technique, and she went downstairs relieved.
• Sister Liu shared the method with people nearby, bringing Su Ziyang many more patients whose toothaches returned after the pain initially stopped.
• Su Ziyang explained how different teeth corresponded to meridians and prescribed the Immortal Prescription for Treating Teeth with an added herb for the bald older man’s stomach fire.
• After three doses, the bald older man’s toothache did not return, and Su Ziyang’s reputation grew.

Su Ziyang learned tooth-strengthening methods from Daoist Jin and used them to help his patients, further increasing his local reputation. A mysterious visitor then gave him a toothache remedy and vanished, leaving Su Ziyang to wonder whether an immortal had appeared.

• Daoist Jin taught Su Ziyang to clench his teeth while urinating and tap them together after meals to strengthen them.
• Su Ziyang passed the methods on to his toothache patients, and his reputation grew enough that wellness centers invited him to lecture.
• Su Ziyang refused to teach cultivation techniques because he did not know the requested exercises and could not share Mr. Mengfei's teachings.
• A courteous stranger visited Su Ziyang and offered a remedy of raw atractylodes and drynaria, claiming it could stop tooth pain within a minute.
• The stranger vanished as Su Ziyang bowed, then identified himself as Shenqu Langzhongling and said he came from the internet.

Su Ziyang treated children with tooth decay using an ancient medicinal rinse and removed a badly decayed baby tooth. Later, a call from Mr. Mengfei about seeing Daoist Jin off frightened Su Ziyang, but Fairy Li reassured him as he waited to learn more.

• Su Ziyang explained tooth decay to a child's mother and prescribed a medicinal mouth rinse, warning her to keep the child from swallowing it.
• Another mother brought in a child whose tooth had decayed to the root, and Su Ziyang said it should be removed.
• Su Ziyang used medicine from Master Yang Tianzheng to remove the remaining root and told the child how to care for his new tooth.
• While Su Ziyang and Fairy Li ate together, Mr. Mengfei called and said he was returning to see Lao Jin off.
• Su Ziyang panicked, but Mr. Mengfei scolded him and said he would explain when he arrived the next day, while Fairy Li reassured Su Ziyang that Daoist Jin would be fine.

Su Ziyang visited Daoist Jin after learning that his master planned to leave for the mountains to cultivate, and Daoist Jin entrusted him with the courtyard and urged him to honor his lessons. When Daoist Jin departed, Su Ziyang kowtowed to him and promised to care for his patients and pass on his skills.

• Su Ziyang and Fairy Li went to Daoist Jin's courtyard, where they watched him practice Baguazhang and saw that his internal force had grown stronger.
• Daoist Jin told Su Ziyang he was going into the mountains to cultivate after an expert's advice helped his stagnant cultivation advance.
• Daoist Jin gave Su Ziyang the courtyard papers, keys, and medicine list, and asked him to keep practicing martial arts, improve his medical skills, and marry Fairy Li.
• Daoist Jin refused to let Su Ziyang see him off at the station, but Su Ziyang stopped him at the courtyard gate and kowtowed three times.
• Daoist Jin patted Su Ziyang's shoulder and told him to care for his patients and pass down the skills he had taught him.

After Daoist Jin left, Su Ziyang struggled with his absence before treating a man whose tinnitus had left him deaf in one ear. Su Ziyang made an ear medicine that restored the man's hearing, and the man returned with a silk banner to thank him.

• Su Ziyang stored Daoist Jin's belongings in the courtyard and asked Fairy Li whether Daoist Jin would return after succeeding in his cultivation.
• A week later, a new doctor took over Daoist Jin's consultation room, and Su Ziyang felt less uneasy.
• Su Ziyang examined a man whose tinnitus had worsened into deafness despite extensive prior treatment, but found no clear cause in his pulse or tongue.
• Su Ziyang made an ear medicine from herbs, rosin, and beeswax, then showed the man how to place it in his deaf ear each day.
• A week later, the man told Su Ziyang that he could hear again after using the medicine for three days and gave him a silk banner.

Su Ziyang agreed to lecture at a wellness center and prepared an introductory course on traditional Chinese medicine. At his first lecture, he greeted the audience and asked them about the origins of traditional Chinese medicine.

• Lu Junnan visited Su Ziyang again to invite him to lecture, and Su Ziyang agreed to work with the wellness center.
• Su Ziyang and Lu Junnan settled the lecture topics, schedule, location, fee, and benefits.
• Su Ziyang prepared his slides with help from Fairy Li, who made the PowerPoint more polished.
• Su Ziyang arrived at the wellness center and began his lecture on how to quickly get started learning traditional Chinese medicine.
• Su Ziyang asked the audience who knew the origin of traditional Chinese medicine.

Su Ziyang began his first lesson on traditional Chinese medicine by rejecting its association with superstition and explaining its practical, clinical foundations. He left the audience with guidelines for studying it and standards for judging its theories.

• An audience member called traditional Chinese medicine the art of Qihuang and described the Yellow Emperor as an immortal.
• Su Ziyang wrote “Start with the right understanding; reject feudal superstition!” on the blackboard and defined traditional Chinese medicine as a system developed through clinical practice.
• Su Ziyang addressed four misconceptions, explaining that traditional Chinese medicine was not mysticism or unscientific, could treat acute conditions, and was not opposed to Western medicine.
• Su Ziyang told the audience to respect tradition without blindly following it, separate medicine from superstition, and use modern knowledge to understand traditional theories.
• Su Ziyang opened his presentation and said students should establish clear boundaries and judge theories by clinical effectiveness and logical consistency.

Su Ziyang taught that Yin and Yang and the Five Elements were classification tools and models for understanding the body, grounded in Qi Monism rather than superstition. He explained health and illness as states of balance or imbalance and left the audience discussing how those ideas applied to symptoms.

• Su Ziyang began his lesson by presenting Yin and Yang and the Five Elements as foundational models for describing the body's functions and internal relationships.
• Su Ziyang explained Qi Monism and described Yin and Yang as opposing categories used to classify bodily states.
• Su Ziyang asked the audience what health meant, then defined it as a stable balance of Yin and Yang and gave everyday examples.
• A middle-aged woman told Su Ziyang that her palms and soles were always hot, and he attributed the symptom to Yin-Yang imbalance.
• Su Ziyang described illness as excessive or deficient Yin or Yang and said treatment aimed to restore balance, while stressing that Yin and Yang were relative classifications rather than physical substances.

Su Ziyang explained the Five Elements as a model of relationships among the zang-fu organ systems rather than as literal substances or fortune-telling. He then taught the theory of zang-xiang and its view of the organs as functional systems, leaving the audience convinced by his lesson.

• Su Ziyang told the audience to understand the Five Elements as categories of properties and relationships among the liver, heart, spleen, lungs and kidneys.
• Su Ziyang explained how mutual generation and mutual overcoming described nourishment and restraint among the five zang organs.
• Su Ziyang introduced zang-xiang as a way to infer internal organ function from outward signs, with zang-fu organs understood as functional systems rather than anatomical structures alone.
• Su Ziyang described the heart's and lungs' main functions, and the audience laughed at a joke about lard covering someone's heart.
• Su Ziyang summarized the lesson by warning against mechanically equating zang-fu organs with modern anatomical organs, and the audience nodded in agreement.

Su Ziyang taught the class about the causes of illness in traditional Chinese medicine, explaining how natural, emotional, and lifestyle factors could affect health. He ended by stressing the role of vital qi and rejecting supernatural explanations for illness.

• After the class took a break, everyone asked Su Ziyang to treat them and answer questions, and he told them to trust science.
• When class resumed, Su Ziyang explained the external, internal, and neither-internal-nor-external causes of illness, including abnormal climate, excessive emotions, improper diet, and imbalanced work and rest.
• A chubby man joked that his lower back pain and low energy might come from playing cards and lying around too much, and Su Ziyang agreed that people who rested often should do moderate work.
• Su Ziyang explained that strong vital qi helped the body resist and recover from illness, and that illness resulted from interactions between the body's condition and external factors rather than supernatural causes.

Su Ziyang taught his students how traditional Chinese medicine combined observation, listening and smelling, inquiry, and palpation to diagnose illness. He explained the limits and uses of each examination, including tongue and pulse diagnosis, and left them with the principle that all four had to inform a comprehensive assessment.

• Su Ziyang began the second day's lesson by explaining that diagnosis required combining the four examinations rather than relying only on the pulse.
• He described observation of a patient's spirit, complexion, physique, posture, and tongue, including how these could indicate illness and its severity.
• He explained how listening to sounds and smelling odors could help distinguish excess-heat patterns from deficiency-cold patterns.
• He outlined inquiry as a broad method of gathering information and introduced the traditional Song of Ten Questions.
• Su Ziyang taught that palpation included both physical palpation and pulse examination at the cunkou, and concluded that the four examinations had to be combined to identify a pattern accurately.

Su Ziyang taught his audience about Chinese medicinal decoctions, explaining how medicinal properties, processing, and combinations guided their use. He left them with an overview of the principles behind prescribing and preparing traditional medicines.

• Su Ziyang asked the audience which methods traditional Chinese medicine used to treat illness, and they named acupuncture, decoctions, cupping, moxibustion, and massage.
• Su Ziyang explained that Chinese medicinal ingredients came from plants, animals, and minerals and were used according to a system of medicinal properties and combination rules.
• Su Ziyang described the four natures, five flavors, directions of action, and channel tropism of medicines.
• Su Ziyang explained that processing could reduce toxicity, strengthen effects, alter properties, and aid preparation or storage.
• Su Ziyang outlined seven ways medicines could be combined, including mutual reinforcement and incompatibility.

Su Ziyang explained the main forms of traditional Chinese medicine preparations and how formulas could be adjusted to suit changing conditions. The audience took notes as he emphasized understanding formula logic rather than memorizing prescriptions by rote.

• Su Ziyang introduced categories of traditional Chinese medicines and asked the audience what forms they could take.
• Audience members named decoctions, pills, powders, and dan preparations, and Su Ziyang explained their properties and uses, along with paste preparations.
• Su Ziyang described three ways to adjust formulas: adding or removing ingredients, changing dosages, and changing dosage forms.
• Su Ziyang gave examples of basic formulas and urged everyone to understand their composition and underlying logic instead of memorizing them mechanically.
• The audience hurriedly took notes as Su Ziyang taught.

Su Ziyang taught the class about the eight methods of traditional Chinese medicine and explained how syndrome differentiation guided treatment and prescription choices. The students listened closely and felt that he treated them as adults by giving them substantive instruction.

• A student asked Su Ziyang about medicines that induced sweating and acted as laxatives, prompting him to explain the eight methods of medicine.
• Su Ziyang described the purposes and uses of sweating, vomiting, purging, harmonizing, warming, clearing, dispersing, and tonifying methods.
• Su Ziyang explained that the eight methods could be used individually or combined according to a patient's condition.
• Su Ziyang taught that different syndromes in the same disease could require different treatments, while different diseases with similar syndromes could receive the same treatment.
• Su Ziyang explained that prescriptions were structured combinations of medicines based on syndrome differentiation and treatment principles.
• The students listened attentively and felt valued because Su Ziyang taught them substantial material instead of treating them like children.

Su Ziyang used his final class to explain a structured path for self-studying traditional Chinese medicine, combining textbooks, classics, and practice while avoiding common dangers. He ended the course by urging learners to recognize traditional medicine’s limits and follow legal requirements before treating patients.

• Su Ziyang advised beginners to study four foundational textbooks before moving on to clinical subjects.
• He recommended studying the four great classics gradually and critically, using annotated selections alongside textbook knowledge.
• He encouraged learners to gain practical experience through clinical observation or safe personal health care.
• Su Ziyang listed five pitfalls: trusting miracle doctors and secret formulas, confusing medicine with superstition, self-administering potent substances, assuming traditional medicine could treat everything, and practicing without a license.
• Su Ziyang concluded the final class by emphasizing health management and disease prevention as practical goals for most learners.

Fairy Li made medicinal lamb congee with the seventy-year-old wild mountain ginseng Daoist Jin had left, while Su Ziyang lamented the waste and watched her cook. Mr. Mengfei arrived, tasted the congee, and praised its restorative effects before serving himself another bowl.

• Fairy Li chopped up the seventy-year-old wild mountain ginseng and prepared lamb with poria, jujubes, and astragalus.
• Su Ziyang complained about the costly ingredients, and Fairy Li slapped him and made him take over the cooking.
• Fairy Li discarded the stewed lamb and medicinal dregs, then cooked rice in the broth and added diced lamb to finish the congee.
• Su Ziyang tried a discarded piece of lamb, spat it out, and kept pestering Fairy Li about the dish until she sent him from the kitchen.
• Mr. Mengfei arrived to speak with Su Ziyang, then learned the congee contained wild ginseng and ate several bowls, praising its nourishing effects.

Mr. Mengfei taught Fairy Li how to make nourishing rice oil and invited her and Su Ziyang to prepare for an upcoming trip. As Fairy Li packed practical and work-related supplies, Su Ziyang worried that his master might leave him behind, then realized the outing was likely connected to his studies.

• Fairy Li reassured Mr. Mengfei that Daoist Jin had left two hundred-year-old items, and Mr. Mengfei worried she was wasting them.
• Mr. Mengfei demonstrated how to make rice oil and explained its nourishing effects to Fairy Li.
• Mr. Mengfei invited Fairy Li to accompany him and told her and Su Ziyang to pack because they could leave at any time.
• Fairy Li packed clothes, daily necessities, talismans, a compass, red cords, and a small copper sword while Su Ziyang questioned why she was bringing them.
• Fairy Li told Su Ziyang that Mr. Mengfei had his own affairs and would not stay with him forever, leaving Su Ziyang worried that his master was departing.
• Su Ziyang asked where Mr. Mengfei was going, then hurried to pack after Fairy Li suggested the trip might be for his studies.

Mr. Mengfei took Su Ziyang and Fairy Li on a trip southwest to meet an old friend who would give Su Ziyang one final lesson before his apprenticeship ended. After the car reached the city, Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang to address the friend as Brother Chu.

• Mr. Mengfei explained that Yang Tianzheng had stayed behind at the clinic, and Fairy Li revealed that Su Ziyang was upset because he feared his master would leave him.
• Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang that he was taking him to an old friend for one last helping hand before completing his apprenticeship.
• Fairy Li remembered that she had forgotten to buy her master poria, then reached him by video call and learned he had bought an electronic incense stick for her to use while kneeling.
• Su Ziyang teased Fairy Li about the electronic incense stick, and the three chatted until his mood improved.
• Mr. Mengfei, Su Ziyang, and Fairy Li reached the city, where Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang to call his friend Brother Chu.