The Tale of Two Drugs

Name: The Tale of Two Drugs
ISBN: 9787575303279

Liang GuibaiYilin Press2025

No rating yet

Chapters: 17
ISBN: 9787575303279

Summary

Malaria is an ancient disease that has killed nearly half of all humans who ever lived and has rewritten the fate of many empires. Centered on two antimalarial drugs, quinine and artemisinin, this book tells the long history of humanity's struggle against malaria: from the decline of ancient Rome and the fall of the Inca Empire to Western colonial expansion and the Pacific War, malaria spread with human migration; and humanity's cures came from two places—the cinchona tree in the South American jungle and the sweet wormwood of East Asian wilds. Quinine, the active ingredient in cinchona bark, was identified and synthesized through the efforts of generations of chemists, becoming a life-saving drug for countless people, yet more than half a century later fell into the predicament of drug resistance. Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin dynasty wrote of "a handful of sweet wormwood" in his Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies; this record lay dormant for over 1,600 years until Tu Youyou rediscovered it while working on the secret "523" project, and artemisinin only went abroad in the early 21st century to become the mainstay of malaria treatment today. The author, Liang Guibai, is a scientist on the front lines of new drug development and a popular science writer. The book adopts a "half science, half literature" approach: historically verifiable events are faithfully restored, while scenes and dialogue are filled in with reasonable imagination, bringing figures such as Ge Hong, the Lima apothecary, the imperial physician, and the battlefield doctor vividly to life. The book also discusses how scientific innovation happens and asks: where is the next artemisinin?

Editor's review

一本把科学史写得像小说一样好看的科普书。作者梁贵柏先后在复旦大学化学系、威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校求学，在默沙东新药研究院从事药物研发多年，既懂分子结构，也懂讲故事，此前“新药的故事”系列已获科技部全国优秀科普作品。本书聚焦奎宁与青蒿素这两种抗疟药：一条线索从南美丛林的金鸡纳树出发，经过利马药剂师、欧洲宫廷御医与几代化学家，最终走向人工合成与耐药性困境；另一条线索从葛洪《肘后备急方》的“青蒿一握”出发，穿越一千六百余年，在“523”任务中被屠呦呦重新拾起。两条线索平行穿插，把帝国兴衰、战争与国运、实验室里的灵光一并收进叙事。值得一提的是，书中对史料可靠之处尽力还原，对场景对话则以合理想象补足，“一半科学、一半文学”的写法让专业内容不再枯燥。对于想理解药物从何而来、中医药如何与现代科学接通的读者，这是一部兼具知识密度与阅读快感的作品，出版后入选多家年度书单。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对医学史、药物发现史感兴趣的普通读者
希望了解青蒿素与“523”任务来龙去脉的读者
喜欢叙事型科普、科学史写作的阅读者
医药、生物、化学相关专业的学生与从业者
关注中医药与现代科学关系的读者

Not a good fit for

只想要严格学术论文式引证与数据表的专业研究者
期待纯虚构历史小说、不愿读科学内容的读者
希望获得疟疾诊疗或用药指导的患者与家属

Reading tips

可先读尾声《双药与我》，了解作者从文学青年到新药科学家的经历，再回头读正文更容易进入。
奎宁线与青蒿素线可分别梳理成时间轴，对照阅读更能看清两种药物路径的异同。
遇到文学化补足的场景，留意作者在序言中的说明，区分史实与合理想象。
读完可延伸了解屠呦呦2015年诺贝尔奖演讲与“523”任务相关史料，加深理解。

About the publisher

Yilin Press China · Founded in 1988

Yilin Press focuses mainly on translated foreign literature. Its current catalogue of 318 titles covers common categories such as mystery and detective fiction, foreign literature, world classics, biography, and social novels. Representative books include The Complete Sherlock Holmes 2: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, To the Lighthouse, The Great Gatsby, The Grapes of Wrath, and Lives of the Artists: Michelangelo, often presented in bilingual or English-language editions that serve both original-text reading and language learning. Its author resources include foreign writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Romain Rolland, as well as translators including Li Jiazhen, Gao Fen, and Ma Ye. The catalogue also includes Chinese works such as Li Jieren's Ripples Across Stagnant Water. The press shows a concentrated publishing strength in foreign classics and bilingual readers; given limited public information, this overview is based only on catalogue data.

Prologue: The Jungle Killer
Chapter 1: A Story by the Pond
Chapter 2: The Legend of Mount Luofu
Chapter 3: The Guardian of Qipo
Chapter 4: Writing a Book to Distinguish Qing and Huang
Chapter 5: The Lima Apothecary
Chapter 6: The Imperial Physician's Secret Formula
Chapter 7: The Unexpected Western Visitor
Chapter 8: A Clinical Trial in the Imperial Palace
Chapter 9: Gin
Chapter 10: Chongqing Changshan Drink
Chapter 11: Rest in Peace, Rabe
Chapter 12: The Undying Malaria Parasite
Chapter 13: Searching for It a Thousand Times in the Crowd
Chapter 14: Going Global
Chapter 15: The Rise and Fall of National Fortune
Epilogue: Two Drugs and Me

FAQ

《双药记》是小说还是科普书？

它是一部原创科学史著作，采用“一半科学、一半文学”的写法：对文献可考的历史事件忠实还原，对具体场景与对话做合理想象补足，因此读起来像小说，但主体是科普与科学史。

书名的“双药”指哪两种药？

指奎宁和青蒿素。前者从南美金鸡纳树皮中提取并被人工合成，后者源自中医古籍记载的青蒿，由屠呦呦等在“523”任务中发现。

没有医学背景能读懂吗？

可以。全书面向大众读者写作，以人物与历史事件推进，化学与药理内容多为通俗解释，不需要专业背景。

这本书和作者此前的“新药的故事”有什么关系？

二者同属梁贵柏的科普写作脉络，均由译林出版社出版，但《双药记》聚焦疟疾与两种抗疟药物的历史，是独立成书的专题作品。

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Liang Guibai Author

Liang Guibai is a Chinese popular-science writer. Publicly available information about his nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background is limited; the only confirmed work currently available is The Tale of Two Drugs (Shuang Yao Ji). The book is classified under science and technology and popular science, and introduces drug-related scientific knowledge to general readers. Judging from this classification, his writing focuses on turning specialized content into accessible Chinese popular-science narratives that meet the public's need to understand pharmaceutical science. Because only this one work is included and no more detailed author profile is available, any assessment of his style and influence can only be based on the subject matter of the book: through specific drug topics, the author develops popular-science writing that helps readers understand relevant scientific concepts. His later works and overall profile as a writer await further public information.