(Minghui.org) The long river of history has left us with countless floods and rapids, revealing remarkable figures and extraordinary events along the way. Understanding history helps one to inherit the essence of traditional culture and live an upright life in today’s modern society.
We would like to share some recollections about Ye Tianshi, a well-known Chinese physician of the Qing dynasty.
Ye Tianshi’s given name was Gui and his courtesy name was Tianshi, styled Ye Xiangyan. He lived from 1667 to 1747 and was born into a family of physicians in Wu County (today’s Suzhou in Jiangsu Province). Both his father Ye Shi and grandfather Ye Chaocai were very skilled in traditional Chinese medicine.
According to Ye Xiangyan Zhuan (Biography of Ye Xiangyan), when Ye Tianshi was young, he studied medicine during the day and went with his father to treat patients in the evenings. His father passed away when he was 14, so he continued to learn from Zhu, one of his father’s students.
Ye Tianshi was very talented and a fast learner, humble and broadminded, and always willing to apprentice himself to anyone with more advanced medical skills.
Whenever he heard about someone with special skills, he would go to learn from him until he became proficient. It is said that from age 12 to 18, he learned from 17 teachers in total.
During the reigns of Emperors Yongzheng and Qianlong, he became famous for his outstanding skills, and was revered by the Chinese people as the “Heavenly Medical Star.”
There are many legendary stories about Ye Tianshi. The following three are from records by Liang Zhangju in the Qing dynasty.
1. Seeing What’s Ahead Through Small Signs and Offering Timely Advice
One day, while Ye Tianshi was on his way home, it suddenly started to pour, and the road was badly damaged. When a villager he knew carried him over a water pool, Ye Tianshi said, “You may die on the same day next year unless you seek treatment straight away.” However, the villager didn’t believe him.
True enough, on the same day the next year, the villager became very ill with a nasty head sore. His family brought him to Ye Tianshi for treatment, but it was too late to do anything. He gave them some money and said, “I’m very sorry, but he won’t live to see sunset tomorrow.” The villager indeed died before then.
2. Act According to Specific Situations and Make Use of What Heaven Provides
Once, a local woman was experiencing a difficult labor and still had not given birth after a few days. The family got a prescription from another physician. Her husband asked Ye Tianshi to take a look, and he added an autumn parasol tree leaf to the prescription as a “medicinal guide” (used to enhance or direct the effects of a herbal formula). When the woman took the medicine, she gave birth soon afterwards.
Later, someone tried to replicate what Ye Tianshi did with the prescription, but it didn’t work. Ye Tianshi told him with a smile, “I added the parasol tree leaf then, because it happened to be the beginning of autumn. What benefit would it bring after that day has passed?”
3. Staying Calm and Rational Under Great Emotional Pressure
Once, Ye Tianshi’s one-year-old grandson showed signs of smallpox but the pustules would not clear. His daughter brought the child to him for treatment, but Ye Tianshi could not do anything at the time.
His daughter became very frustrated and said, “You often say ‘smallpox is not fatal,’ so why can’t you save your own grandson? If you don’t treat him now, I will die right here in front of you!” As she said this, she picked up a pair of scissors to kill herself.
Ye Tianshi thought about how to deal with the situation. He removed the little boy’s clothing and locked him in an empty room before going out.
His daughter wanted to see her son, but couldn’t open the door. So, she kept sending people to ask Ye Tianshi to come home, but he didn’t take any notice. Meanwhile, his daughter kept crying in distress.
Ye Tianshi didn’t return until midnight. When he unlocked the door, the boy’s body was covered with blistering pustules like pearls. As it turned out, there were quite a lot of mosquitoes in the room, and Ye Tianshi wanted them to bite the boy’s skin to bring the pustules out.
From a Buddhist point of view, this was like inducing karmic elimination, and through the suffering process, the karma inside one’s body would be reduced.
According to “Xiangyan Zhuan” (Biography of Xiangyan) by Shen Deqian, Ye Tianshi said to his descendants before he passed away, “Not everyone can learn to be a physician. One needs to have exceptional talent and read extensively before being able to help people with one’s medical skills. Otherwise, few can avoid harming or even killing people, so medicine is like a blade.”
Inspiration From These Stories
Keep Learning With an Open Mind
Even though Ye Tianshi came from a well-established family of physicians, and was extremely talented, he humbly learned from 17 teachers when he was young. He only moved on after he finished learning from the previous teacher. Regardless of whether they were well known or just ordinary physicians, he could still learn from them.
His noble character presents a sharp contrast with the narrow-minded “arrogance” and “complacency” commonly seen in modern society. His humility also echoed a Confucian principle: “When three people walk together, there must be one who can be my teacher.”
These stories about Ye Tianshi serve as a reminder to keep improving our abilities and skills with a humble and broad mindset in today’s rapidly changing society.
Revering Nature While Being Practical
When someone copied what Ye Tianshi did when he added an autumn parasol tree leaf to the prescription for a woman struggling in labor, it did not work. This explains the importance of acting according to the specific conditions and time frame—two significant ancient Chinese adages.
“Act according to local conditions” first appeared in the book “Wu Yue Chun Qiu” (The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue) by Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han dynasty, while “Adapting to specific times” can be traced back to the early Qin period. These ancient adages align with the philosophy of “The Book of Changes,” emphasizing that “When one path is blocked, change opens another, and what works endures.”
In today’s fast-paced society, people tend to rely more on computers at work or in their home environment, gradually losing their ability to think independently and rationally or to quietly observe and learn from the laws of nature. As a result, people tend to fall into the trap of blindly copying others and rigidly following established practices.
Balancing Rationality and Emotion
When Ye Tianshi had to cope with his daughter’s emotional outburst over her son’s illness, he must have felt her frustration and pressure, but he dealt with the situation rationally and relieved his grandson’s misery in the end.
In our fast-paced and stressful modern lives, we have to deal with mental anxiety and emotional outbursts from relatives, friends, and other people around us. To be able to handle such pressures with common sense and rationality, one needs to cultivate one’s character to a high level and standard.
Reverence and Observation of the Relationship Between “Heaven-Earth-Humanity”
In one of the stories, Ye Tianshi accurately predicted the death of a villager – demonstrating the fundamental principle of “discerning internal conditions by observing subtle external changes” in traditional Chinese medicine and its profound insight into the laws of nature.
In comparison, people today tend to rely on precision instruments, modern medical theories, or advertising instead of gaining a deeper insight into the human body and mind, as well as natural laws. Over time, they have gradually lost interest in spiritual development.
The stories about Ye Tianshi remind us to revere the laws of nature and life and to keep reflecting and improving ourselves instead of grasping at straws when it’s too late. As the saying goes, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” This is not only relevant in health matters, but also in dealing with conflicts and major issues in life.
Category: Traditional Culture
