The Lone Pharmacist

Name: The Lone Pharmacist
ISBN: 9787020115228

Zhang WeiPeople's Literature Publishing House2016

3.1

Chapters: 18
ISBN: 9787020115228

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Summary

The novel is set in the Jiaodong Peninsula in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was precisely the era when China experienced "a transformation unprecedented in thousands of years": Christianity was establishing itself in the north, mission schools and Western hospitals were quietly emerging, and the peninsula had since ancient times also had a tradition of seeking longevity and valuing health cultivation. The Ji family, the richest in the peninsula, was renowned for generations for its secret arts of health cultivation, and its head was called the "Lone Pharmacist"; by the time the title passed to the sixth generation, Ji Zuofei, the family fortune already showed signs of decline. Ji Zuofei was originally a leisurely, idle, and physically delicate young master, on the one hand indulging in self-cultivation through elixirs and health practices, and on the other having to deal with revolutionaries: the Ji family was closely connected to the leaders of the northern revolutionary party and was therefore constantly embroiled in trouble and instability. He navigates the grudges and entanglements of the health-cultivation elder Qiu Qizhi, an emotional attachment to a Western-medicine woman, and the life-and-death parting from his elder brother and closest kin; between longevity, desire, and revolution, he struggles to find his place. The main body of the novel is Ji Zuofei's retrospective first-person account, supplemented by "The Steward's Notes," which, in the form of historical notes, fills in the broad background of the era and the revolutionary upheavals; the two form an inside and outside to each other. Zhang Wei calls the book a work of "great truth and great fiction": the revolutionary history, the mission hospital, and the peninsula's health-cultivation tradition all have prototypes and historical sources, while the plot and characters are literary inventions, ultimately leaving questions such as how to settle body and mind amid troubled times for readers to ponder themselves.

Editor's review

《独药师》是张炜在《你在高原》之后推出的长篇小说，作者说这个题材在心里装了二十年。小说最特别的地方在于它同时写了两件看似不相干的事：一是一个养生世家在时代变局中的凋零，二是一群年轻人在辛亥前后为国家前途奔走的热血。季府第六代“独药师”季昨非夹在两者之间，既舍不得祖传的丹丸和自修，也不得不面对外面已经换了天地。张炜自称“大实大虚”，因为胶东半岛的革命党人徐镜心、教会医院、乡村里的种种奇特养生实践，都有真实的史实根基；但人物的爱恨与选择，则是文学想象。本书结构也别致：正文是主人公的回忆，附录“管家手记”以史料笔记的方式叠上一层，让读者既跟着人物走，也能退后一步看清时代。对读惯了张炜寓言式作品的读者来说，这本书故事性更强，镜头感也更明显，是一次风格上的转折。

Who it's for

A good fit for

喜欢张炜《古船》《九月寓言》的读者，想看他风格上的一次转变。
对胶东半岛地方史、辛亥革命史感兴趣的读者。
喜欢家族叙事与回忆录体长篇小说的读者。
对传统养生、丹丸与身体观念等文化话题好奇的读者。

Not a good fit for

期待完整、纯粹革命史诗或纯历史考据作品的读者。
不喜欢慢节奏、内心独白较多叙事的读者。
只想读轻快爱情故事的读者，其中爱情线只是线索之一。

Reading tips

先读正文自述，再回头读附录“管家手记”，能体会两个文本互相印证的结构。
可配合了解徐镜心、辛亥革命在山东的情况，小说中的革命人物多有原型。
不必把书中的养生内容当作可操作的养生指导，它更接近文学化的生命哲学思考。
读完可思考：在乱世里，“养生”与“革命”是否真的只能对立？

About the publisher

People's Literature Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

People's Literature Publishing House publishes across classical literature, foreign literature, documentary writing and folk literature, with 492 titles in its catalogue. Representative books range from the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms to Lao She's Teahouse and Longxu Ditch in the Selected Works of Lao She, as well as translated foreign literature such as Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Dante's Divine Comedy and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Novels, alongside documentary and fictional works including Primo Levi's If This Is a Man and João Guimarães Rosa's The Devil to Pay in the Backlands. Its authors include Chinese writers such as Lao She, translators such as Shen Emeri and Li Wenjun, and foreign authors such as James Wood. Overall, the house has a strong record in editing classic works and translating foreign literature, with a publishing character that bridges Chinese and foreign writing and values textual quality.

Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Coda
Appendix: The Steward's Notes

FAQ

这本书是讲养生知识的实用书吗？

不是。小说写的是半岛养生世家的故事，涉及丹丸、身体与长生的观念，但它是文学作品，并非养生指南，书中内容不宜直接照做。

《独药师》和《古船》《九月寓言》相比有什么不同？

张炜前期作品更偏寓言与哲理，本书故事性、传奇性更强，有较明显的情节线索和镜头感，被评论界视为他风格上的一次转折。

书中人物是真实历史人物吗？他们是否有原型？

小说属于虚构，但革命人物徐竟有原型，作者曾表示其依据是同盟会创始人之一的徐镜心；教会医院等背景也有史实依据，人物情节则经过文学加工。

没读过张炜的其他作品，能直接读这本吗？

可以。本书是独立长篇，不依赖其他作品，但事先了解清末民初胶东一带的社会与革命背景，会让阅读更顺畅。

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About the author

Zhang Wei Author · China · 1956

Zhang Wei, born in Shandong in 1956, is a contemporary Chinese writer and chairman of the Shandong Writers Association. He began publishing in 1975; his representative works include Ancient Ship and September Fable, and his novel You Are on the Plateau won the Mao Dun Literature Prize. His writing spans fiction, poetry and essays, and the ten titles held here show that range: literary works such as Ode to the Orange and Iron and Silk, lectures on craft such as Eight Talks on Fiction: Lectures at Hong Kong Baptist University, modern poetry including A Close Friend's Message, and history writing in The Way of Great Powers: Ships and Sea Power. Several medical titles are also included alongside his literary work; public information on this side of his output is limited. Overall, Zhang Wei's writing is known for solid storytelling and sustained intellectual inquiry, giving him a steady influence in contemporary Chinese letters.