The World of Chinese Medicine (The Great Chinese Doctor)

This is a novel built on Chinese medicine as its bones and the martial world as its flesh, originally titled The Great Chinese Doctor. The protagonist, Song Hao, was mysteriously abandoned by his parents in childhood and taken in by an old Chinese medicine practitioner who taught him the healing arts, setting him on a distinctive path through the four diagnostic methods of observation, listening, inquiry, and pulse-taking. Legend tells of the "Song Tiansheng Acupuncture Bronze Man," a supreme medical treasure lost for nearly a thousand years, that suddenly resurfaces in modern times; the struggle over its secrets draws in folk medical schools, martial-world factions, and all manner of extraordinary people and rare medicines, and Song Hao is thrust into the center of the storm. The book unfolds along Song Hao's journey as a wandering physician across the land, recounting what he encounters after leaving Baihe Town: exploring ancient tombs, entering copper mines, visiting the Shangqing Temple, meeting masters of pulse diagnosis, and becoming entangled with old medical-school affairs and forces such as the Ghost Doctor Sect and the Heavenly Doctor Group; along the way, the lost Hua Tuo anesthetic powder, the Thirteen Departments of Zhuyou that treat illness through incantation, and the unique healing arts of distant ethnic minorities also come to light. The book weaves in a great deal of Chinese medical theory and practice, integrating medical mysteries such as meridians, pulse diagnosis, the meridian tropism of medicinal properties, and the correspondence between humanity and nature into the plot, hoping to reveal the essence and substance of Chinese medicine through fiction and let readers truly "see" Chinese medicine while following the story. At about 310,000 Chinese characters, it is a popular novel combining Chinese medicine themes with light martial arts, suited to readers interested in Chinese medical culture.