Chapter Summaries

After graduating with a master's degree in Chinese medicine, Su Ziyang began working at a Daoist medical clinic and adjusted to his new role. He was left preparing to see patients while learning from the clinic's experienced Daoist physicians.

• Su Ziyang joined the Daoist medical clinic after turning down a hospital job, and Daoist Zhang welcomed him and introduced him to the staff.
• Daoist Xiao Yang asked Su Ziyang what conditions he treated and wrote an expansive introduction listing his internal medicine, acupuncture, and tuina skills.
• Su Ziyang listened to Daoist Jin treat children next door and realized he had much to learn from the clinic's physicians.
• With no patients of his own that morning, Su Ziyang read Treatise on Cold Damage and reflected on the balance between treating patients and studying.
• Daoist Xiao Yang brought Su Ziyang a massage table and his introduction sign, then told him he could eat vegetarian food at the temple dining hall for free.

Su Ziyang saw his first patient, Liu Li, whose persistent cough had not improved after costly treatment. He prescribed her a three-dose herbal remedy for under thirty yuan and recorded his diagnosis, expecting her to recover.

• Liu Li told Su Ziyang that she had been coughing for half a month despite hospital treatment and spending nearly ten thousand yuan on Chinese medicine.
• Su Ziyang examined Liu Li and prescribed three doses of a mild formula for a wind-cold cough.
• Liu Li was surprised that the medicine cost only 29.1 yuan, then left to collect it.
• Su Ziyang recorded Liu Li's case and predicted that she would recover after the three doses.

Su Ziyang began his new job at the Daoist medical clinic feeling pleased after treating his first patient, but Mr. Mengfei challenged his confidence by exposing that he could not take a pulse. After Mr. Mengfei left, Su Ziyang reread Zhang Zhongjing’s preface and realized he needed to learn pulse diagnosis, though he did not know where to begin.

• Su Ziyang finished his first day at the clinic, then exchanged messages with Fairy Li, who had helped him get the job.
• The next morning, Mr. Mengfei visited Su Ziyang with the old Daoist priest and asked whether he knew how to take a pulse.
• Mr. Mengfei recited Zhang Zhongjing’s criticism of physicians who diagnosed patients without properly examining their pulses, leaving Su Ziyang ashamed of his own shortcomings.
• Su Ziyang asked whether Mr. Mengfei could take a pulse, but Mr. Mengfei remained silent before leaving with Daoist Xiao Yang.
• Su Ziyang reread the preface to the Treatise on Cold Damage and decided he needed to learn pulse diagnosis, but he hesitated to ask the clinic’s Daoist priests for help.

Su Ziyang joined Fairy Li and Daoist Master Xiao to examine Liancui, who described decades of nightly dreams in which a handsome youth claimed her as his wife. Her strange episodes began in childhood and continued after she married Dazhuang, leaving Su Ziyang questioning whether she had an illness at all.

• Fairy Li brought Su Ziyang to Daoist Master Xiao's room to hear about a woman's strange illness.
• Liancui recounted that, starting in childhood, she dreamed almost every night of marrying a handsome youth and woke moaning, drenched in sweat.
• After Liancui married Dazhuang, her episodes continued, and she violently struck him whenever he tried to wake her.
• Dazhuang kept Liancui's condition secret for five years before telling his parents, who arranged unsuccessful visits to spirit mediums.
• After hearing Liancui's story, Su Ziyang wondered whether her condition was an illness at all.

Mr. Mengfei identified Liancui’s condition as ghost intercourse and prescribed chloranthus root as its treatment. After explaining the illness and his sources, he left Su Ziyang humbled by the depth of his knowledge, while Liancui’s treatment was due to take effect overnight.

• Daoist Master Xiao found Liancui’s pulse normal, and Dazhuang and Liancui began to leave, believing they had no answer.
• Mr. Mengfei stopped them, identified the chloranthus plant’s root as the medicine, and had Xiao Yang prepare it.
• Mr. Mengfei instructed Xiao Yang to place the pounded root in gauze and insert it into Liancui’s birth canal, predicting she would recover by morning.
• Mr. Mengfei explained that Liancui suffered from ghost intercourse and described traditional treatments from two medical texts.
• Su Ziyang recognized how little he knew beside Mr. Mengfei and regretted his earlier disrespect.

Su Ziyang struggled with his lack of medical knowledge and his own recurring illness, then watched Mr. Mengfei resolve Liancui’s nightmare and challenge him to diagnose Dazhuang. After correctly identifying Dazhuang’s condition and explaining how he had spotted it, Mr. Mengfei hinted at Su Ziyang’s opposite condition, leaving Fairy Li flustered as she hurried him out.

• Su Ziyang researched Mr. Mengfei’s recommended books, felt inadequate about his medical studies, and woke with his recurring internal heat.
• Fairy Li took Su Ziyang to see Liancui and Dazhuang, who explained that Liancui’s nightmare had ended after Mr. Mengfei’s treatment.
• Mr. Mengfei challenged Su Ziyang to diagnose Dazhuang, and Su Ziyang admitted he could not identify the problem at first.
• Mr. Mengfei revealed that Dazhuang suffered from erectile dysfunction, then urged Su Ziyang to diagnose him and prescribe treatment.
• Su Ziyang examined Dazhuang and recommended Jinkui Shenqi Pills for signs of deficiency and exhaustion; Mr. Mengfei affirmed his diagnosis and explained how observation had revealed Dazhuang’s kidney qi deficiency.
• Mr. Mengfei described signs suggesting Su Ziyang had the opposite condition, and Fairy Li blushed before hurrying him out of the room.

After Mr. Mengfei criticized Su Ziyang’s medical skills, Su decided he wanted to study under him, and Fairy Li asked Old Daoist Master Xiao to help arrange it. Mr. Mengfei agreed to give Su a chance and told him to meet him at the Daoist temple square at five thirty the next morning.

• Mr. Mengfei and Old Daoist Master Xiao exchanged knowing smiles after everyone else left.
• Su Ziyang admitted to Fairy Li that Mr. Mengfei was impressive and asked her to help him become Mr. Mengfei’s disciple.
• Fairy Li met Daoist Master Xiao Yang and explained Su Ziyang’s request as they went to ask Old Daoist Master Xiao for help.
• Old Daoist Master Xiao encouraged Mr. Mengfei to consider teaching Su, but Mr. Mengfei criticized Su’s understanding and cultivation talent.
• Mr. Mengfei agreed to give Su a chance and told Fairy Li to have him wait at the Daoist temple square at five thirty sharp the next morning.

Su Ziyang waited several mornings for Mr. Mengfei, who finally arrived and questioned him about qi and acupuncture. After Su Ziyang recognized that Deqi meant he had indirectly felt qi, Mr. Mengfei told him to practice the Daoyin Technique to sense qi directly.

• Su Ziyang waited for Mr. Mengfei over several mornings, growing discouraged when he did not appear.
• Mr. Mengfei finally found Su Ziyang in the temple square and asked him what qi was and whether he had seen or felt it.
• Su Ziyang recited what he knew about qi from traditional Chinese medicine but admitted he had never consciously perceived it.
• Mr. Mengfei pointed out that Su Ziyang had indirectly felt qi through Deqi during acupuncture.
• Su Ziyang said he believed a person could consciously feel qi, and Mr. Mengfei told him to practice the Daoyin Technique.

Mr. Mengfei explained how trained qi could aid healing and judged Su Ziyang’s medical comprehension to be poor. He taught Su Ziyang the four forms and closing exercises of the Midnight-Noon Heaven and Earth Art, then ordered him to practice daily for one hundred days without lustful thoughts.

• Mr. Mengfei explained that specialized daoyin practices could cultivate qi, and Su Ziyang recalled how his former acupuncture teacher’s unusual exercises might have made his needling so effective.
• Su Ziyang described his memory to Mr. Mengfei, who agreed with his interpretation, then criticized Su Ziyang’s comprehension and predicted his Cough-Stopping Powder would have little effect.
• Mr. Mengfei began teaching Su Ziyang an art for sensing qi and demonstrated its four forms, which Su Ziyang imitated and partly learned.
• Mr. Mengfei taught Su Ziyang the closing exercises and explained that they should be done after every practice to prevent qi from leaking out.
• Mr. Mengfei instructed Su Ziyang to practice daily for one hundred days, especially at the zi and wu hours, and to avoid lustful thoughts; he named the art the Midnight-Noon Heaven and Earth Art.

Su Ziyang treated Liu Li with the Minor Blue Dragon Decoction and began practicing Mr. Mengfei’s cultivation art, which quickly changed his body and senses. After Mr. Mengfei left him a massive book to study for three months, Su Ziyang struggled with the art’s growing effects and suspected that resisting his heightened desire was the real test.

• Su Ziyang prescribed Liu Li the Minor Blue Dragon Decoction after she returned with a lingering cough.
• Su Ziyang practiced the Midnight-Noon Heaven and Earth Art at night and woke with clearer skin and a refreshed feeling.
• Daoist Xiao Yang gave Su Ziyang a thick book from Mr. Mengfei and told him to finish it within three months before Mr. Mengfei returned to test him.
• Su Ziyang struggled to understand the book and to resist the intense desire and warmth that accompanied his cultivation.
• Su Ziyang increased his practice from three repetitions to nine, and after another week he realized that controlling the art’s effects might be Mr. Mengfei’s true test.

On the hundredth day of training, Su Ziyang completed the Midnight-Noon Heaven and Earth Art’s foundation-building process, gaining a calm current of qi in his dantian and relief from his tormenting desire. Mr. Mengfei formally accepted him as a disciple, explained their lineage and the purpose of the hundred-day test, and told him he was ready to begin studying medicine.

• After three months of intense practice and study, Su Ziyang felt qi surge through his body during his final midnight session, lost consciousness, and awoke with a clear current of qi settled in his dantian.
• Old Daoist Master Xiao sensed the brilliant light from Su Ziyang’s eyes and remarked that the younger generation was to be feared.
• At the clinic, Mr. Mengfei congratulated Su Ziyang, accepted him as a disciple, and stopped him from kowtowing.
• Mr. Mengfei recounted how his master, Mr. Yang, had secretly passed down the family cultivation art to him, and urged Su Ziyang to preserve the lineage.
• Mr. Mengfei explained that Su Ziyang had passed his Hundred-Day Foundation Building test, unlike his four previous disciples, and that each practitioner had only one chance to succeed.
• Mr. Mengfei said that understanding qi and the human body was essential to practicing traditional Chinese medicine, and told Su Ziyang that his medical studies could now truly begin.

Mr. Mengfei began teaching Su Ziyang to become a great physician and tested his ability to examine a sick woman. Su Ziyang saw black qi around her and felt an unusual pulse, but he could not identify her illness.

• Mr. Mengfei told Su Ziyang that medical skill was as important as dedication and sincerity, then began supervising him as his apprentice.
• Fairy Li arrived and took Su Ziyang and Mr. Mengfei to see a sick woman in Daoist Master Xiao's room.
• Mr. Mengfei guided Su Ziyang to see thick black qi around the woman's upper abdomen, then waited for Old Daoist Master Xiao to return.
• After Xiao Qiang complained about the delay, his uncle apologized to Mr. Mengfei, and Mr. Mengfei insisted that Su Ziyang could handle the case.
• Su Ziyang examined the woman's pulse, found its rhythm irregular and its coolness strange, and looked to Mr. Mengfei because he could not diagnose her.

Mr. Mengfei identified Xuan Yu’s mysterious illness as Ghost Strike and Flying Corpse Disease after hearing her history and examining her pulse. He explained that the name described an illness rather than a real haunting, and pointed Su Ziyang to a prescription in Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet.

• Mr. Mengfei correctly guessed that Xuan Yu’s illness began after she ate, with persistent vomiting and difficulty passing stool.
• Xiao Qiang described how Xuan Yu became ill after a family meal, suffered a stroke after treatment, and continued vomiting for two years despite repeated medical and spiritual treatments.
• Mr. Mengfei asked Su Ziyang to interpret Xuan Yu’s unusual pulse, then explained that ancient texts described it as a Ghostly Pulse.
• Mr. Mengfei clarified that Xuan Yu had Ghost Strike and Flying Corpse Disease, an illness rather than a genuine possession by spirits.
• Mr. Mengfei cited the Galloping Horse Decoction in Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet, and Su Ziyang remembered the prescription.

Su Ziyang and Mr. Mengfei treated Xuan Yu with Galloping Horse Decoction, driving out the illness that had made her weak. Afterward, Mr. Mengfei explained the Illness Qi, the Zhuyou Technique, and his acupoint-striking method to Su Ziyang, who asked to learn it.

• Old Daoist Master Xiao prepared Galloping Horse Decoction as Mr. Mengfei instructed, and Xuan Yu began convulsing after smelling it.
• Mr. Mengfei pressed Xuan Yu’s shoulder and spine to calm her, then Xiao Qiang gave her the medicine.
• Xuan Yu vomited foul black mucus into a wastebasket held by Su Ziyang, and she later returned from the bathroom looking healthier.
• Xiao Qiang thanked Su Ziyang and Mr. Mengfei, while his family promised to fulfill their agreement with Old Daoist Master Xiao.
• Mr. Mengfei explained that Daoist Master Xiao could use the Zhuyou Technique to draw Illness Qi into a Heaven and Earth Bag.
• Mr. Mengfei explained how the medicine stirred Xuan Yu’s Illness Qi and how he used acupoint striking to calm her; Su Ziyang asked to learn the technique.

Su Ziyang diagnosed Li Hui with focal distention syndrome and prescribed the Pinellia Decoction to Drain the Heart. Mr. Mengfei confirmed the diagnosis, then began teaching Su that classical formulas depended on precise ingredients and dosages, leaving Su asking what rules governed changes to them.

• Li Hui visited Su Ziyang after Xiaoli recommended him, and Su identified her digestive complaints by taking her pulse.
• Li Hui described years of bloating and failed treatments, and Su matched her symptoms, tongue, and pulse to focal distention syndrome.
• Su reviewed Li Hui’s previous prescriptions, recognized the Pinellia Decoction to Drain the Heart, and wondered why it had not helped her.
• Su prescribed Li Hui seven doses of the formula with calculated classical dosages, and she left after thanking him.
• Mr. Mengfei confirmed Su’s diagnosis and explained that changing a classical formula’s ingredients or dosages could make it a different formula.
• Su asked what rules governed adjustments to classical formulas, and Mr. Mengfei said the explanation would take a long time.

The narrator explained how dosage, ingredient counts, and traditional numerical principles shaped several Chinese medicine prescriptions, using the Mass-Resolving Life-Restoring Pill, Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill, Kidney Qi Pill, and sweat-inducing formulas as examples. The chapter ended with the narrator defending traditional Chinese medicine’s rules and hoping it would continue to improve.

• The narrator presented the ingredients, preparation, uses, and Wu Tang’s explanation of the Mass-Resolving Life-Restoring Pill.
• The narrator connected the pill’s thirty-six ingredients to the Yellow River Chart’s numbers four and nine and their association with metal and breaking blood stasis.
• The narrator explained how the ingredient counts and methods of taking the Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill and Kidney Qi Pill corresponded to traditional numerical principles.
• The narrator used Cinnamon Twig Decoction and Ephedra Decoction to argue that dosage principles depended on a medicine’s properties and intended effects.
• The narrator recalled praise for traditional Chinese medicine and criticized its Westernization and online detractors, while expressing hope for its future.

After Mr. Mengfei’s explanation sharpened Su Ziyang’s understanding of classical formulas, Su Ziyang examined Sun Hua, whose family feared she had throat cancer. He diagnosed plum-pit qi and prescribed Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction, but Yongdi distrusted him and insisted his mother had cancer; another person then appeared at the clinic door.

• Mr. Mengfei’s explanation left Su Ziyang newly confident in his understanding of classical formulas.
• Yongdi brought Sun Hua and Xiaoying to Su Ziyang after a hospital suspected Sun Hua had throat cancer based on a high cancer marker and a lump in her throat.
• Su Ziyang examined Sun Hua’s pulse, learned that her throat symptoms began after she became very angry, and suspected plum-pit qi rather than cancer.
• Su Ziyang prescribed Sun Hua a week of Pinellia and Magnolia Bark Decoction, and Mr. Mengfei approved his treatment.
• Yongdi returned privately to ask how long Sun Hua had to live, accused Su Ziyang of merely reassuring cancer patients, and left unconvinced when Su Ziyang said she could be cured.
• Another figure appeared at the clinic door before Su Ziyang and Mr. Mengfei could speak.

Su Ziyang reassured Sun Hua that her illness probably was not cancer, then received a pennant from Li Hui and Liu Li after they recovered from their ailments. Li Hui introduced her friend Wang Jiahui, who came to consult him, and Su Ziyang prepared to check her pulse.

• Sun Hua secretly asked Su Ziyang how long she had to live, and he told her there was an eighty percent chance her illness was not cancer and urged her to take the medicine.
• Mr. Mengfei advised Su Ziyang not to take human feelings too much to heart as he continued his medical path.
• Li Hui and Liu Li presented Su Ziyang with a pennant after Li Hui said three doses had cured her stomach problem and Liu Li recalled that he had cured her cough.
• Su Ziyang told Li Hui she could stop taking the medicine once she had recovered and advised her to avoid overeating and drinking.
• Li Hui introduced Wang Jiahui as a friend who wanted treatment, and Su Ziyang asked her to rest before he checked her pulse.

Su Ziyang misread Wang Jiahui’s pulse, but Mr. Mengfei explained how his pulse visions worked and confirmed a fibroid was possible. Daoist Master Xiao Yang then told Su Ziyang the Daoist Medicine Clinic would close temporarily for renovations, leaving him unexpectedly on paid leave.

• Su Ziyang detected an IUD and suspected a uterine fibroid in Wang Jiahui, but she rejected his herbal treatment and accused him of being a swindler.
• Liu Li challenged Wang Jiahui’s accusation, and Wang apologized to Li Hui before Li Hui and Liu Li returned to the clinic to apologize to Su Ziyang.
• Mr. Mengfei explained that Su Ziyang’s pulse visions showed diseased areas and said Wang Jiahui might have a uterine fibroid based on her complexion.
• Fairy Li joked with Su Ziyang while Daoist Master Xiao Yang announced that Xuan Yu’s father had invested in the clinic and it would close temporarily for renovations, with staff still receiving base pay.

Su Ziyang traveled to Jiangxi to learn acupoint striking from Mr. Mengfei, but he developed a high fever on the way. Jiang Tian picked him up and took care of him, and Su Ziyang fell asleep after taking medicine.

• Mr. Mengfei invited Su Ziyang to Jiangxi to learn acupoint striking, and Su Ziyang eagerly agreed.
• On the train, Su Ziyang lent his power bank to a middle-aged man, then slept through a frightening dream and woke feeling ill.
• After arriving in Jiangxi with a high fever, Su Ziyang called the contact Mr. Mengfei had provided and waited at the station.
• Jiang Tian arrived to pick Su Ziyang up, noticed his fever, and drove him to a pharmacy for medicine and cooling patches.
• Jiang Tian gave Su Ziyang bread and medicine, and Su Ziyang fell asleep in the car.