Song Physician

Song Physician is a time-travel historical novel set in the Northern Song dynasty, written by Mu Yi. It was completed on Qidian on January 15, 2011, and runs to about 2.8 million Chinese characters. The protagonist, Du Wenhao, is a medical student with a background in forensic science who dreams his way into a small county town in the Northern Song. Just then, the Wuweitang pharmacy in the town is struggling, and its resident doctor has caused a fatal dispute through a mishap. Du stays on as a temporary physician, starting from the most basic work of taking pulses, writing prescriptions and preparing medicinal herbs, and gradually establishes himself in the marketplace. Combining modern medical knowledge with a foundation in Chinese acupuncture and herbal formulas, Du Wenhao successively handles difficult cases such as sudden blindness, cough and asthma, infantile malnutrition, difficult childbirth and severe trauma, using methods like splenectomy and cesarean delivery that seem ordinary today but were near miracles at the time, earning the name "miracle doctor." The story then expands from the county town to the prefectural city and eventually the capital, involving epidemic prevention, teaching at the Imperial Medical Bureau and diagnosing illness in the palace, with court intrigues and reform efforts unfolding alongside; he treats the sick while being drawn into imperial succession and border military affairs. As an early "medical profession" time-travel novel, the work is relatively careful in its early sections in depicting traditional Chinese diagnosis and treatment details and Northern Song market life, while the later sections turn to court politics and military reform, with a noticeably faster pace and an ending often considered somewhat rushed by readers.