Geographic Connections

Tongan Baijiao (now part of Longhai), Qingjiao (now Haicang, Xiamen), Quanzhou (Zayton), Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen, Kinmen, Taiwan (Yunlin, Xuejia, Taichung, Taipei, Kaohsiung), Penghu, Manila, and Singapore.

Introduction: Survival Wisdom in the ‘Land of Miasma’

In the opening chapters of the Fujian Provincial Chronicles: Medicine, Fujian is described as a region “backed by mountains and facing the sea, with a hot and humid climate,” historically prone to epidemics where bacteria and disease-carrying insects thrived. The famous Song Dynasty scholar Wang Anshi once sighed in a poem: “Fujian’s mountains reach Zhangzhou’s end… where mist and miasma arise in spring and winter.” This extreme environment forced the ancestors of Fujian to develop a unique healthcare system—one that appears in digital archives as a fusion of “Medicine, Pharmacy, and Divinity.”

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Tongan area (now part of Xiamen) birthed two medical giants: Su Song (1020–1101), who compiled the world’s earliest woodblock illustrated herbal, Tu Jing Ben Cao; and Wu Ben (979–1036), later revered as “Baosheng Dadi” (the Great Emperor of Preserving Life). While Su Song represented the scientific rationality of the literati, Wu Ben represented a grassroots medical belief with high social mobilization capabilities.

Core Archive Interpretation I: The Wu Ben File—From Doctor to ‘Saint of Medicine’

According to the General Overview of Fujian Provincial Chronicles and the Biographies, Wu Ben was a native of Baijiao, Tongan (now part of Longhai). The archives meticulously record his historical trajectory:

  • Medical Practice: Wu Ben practiced medicine during the Northern Song, saving many lives with his extraordinary skills. Archives describe him as a “nationally renowned master of medical arts.”
  • Deification: After his death in 1036, locals began to worship him as a deity. During the Qiandao era of the Southern Song, the Ciji Palaces were built in Qingjiao and Baijiao, known as the “East Palace” and “West Palace.”
  • Maritime Spread: As residents migrated to Taiwan and Southeast Asia, the belief in Wu Ben became a bond of blood and culture. Today, there are over 160 branch temples of Baosheng Dadi in Taiwan alone.

Core Archive Interpretation II: Digital Prescriptions—The ‘Early Prescription Database’

The Xiamen City Chronicles specifically mention the “Xiamen Wu Zhenren Research Association,” established in 1989. One of its core achievements was the systematic study of “Wu Zhenren Medical Prescriptions” (Yao Qian).

  • Archival Function: In an era of scarce medical resources, people obtained prescriptions by drawing lots (divining) at temples. Modern scholars view these prescriptions as “folk carriers of ancient medical archives.”
  • Interdisciplinary Value: Through pharmacological and folkloric analysis, the association published works like Research on Wu Zhenren’s Medical Prescriptions and Chinese Herbal Medicine. Archives prove these prescriptions were not merely “superstitions”; many formulae echoed orthodox texts like Tu Jing Ben Cao, reflecting the standardized dissemination of TCM knowledge since the Song and Yuan Dynasties.
  • Early Medical Management: During the Song and Yuan, Fujian established “Huimin Medicine Bureaus” in various counties. The spread of Wu Ben belief effectively served as a grassroots medical network, achieving the distribution of medical knowledge through these “prescriptions.”

Core Archive Interpretation III: Pilgrimage Tourism and Modern Medical Cooperation

Digital archives reflect contemporary social changes. Since the easing of cross-strait relations in the late 1980s, the Wu Ben belief has become a core driver for “Root-Seeking Tourism” and “Pilgrimage Tourism”.

  • Statistical Data: Since 1987, numerous pilgrimage groups from Taiwan have visited the Qingjiao Ciji Palace. The 1989 academic seminar marking the 1,010th anniversary of Wu Ben’s birth signaled the transition of this traditional belief into modern academic and public management spheres.
  • Modern Integration: A curious archival detail records that a clinic in Xiamen’s Kaiyuan District established a prosthetic assembly center with a Taiwanese company—modern medical collaborations often leverage these traditional religious or hometown networks to succeed.

Modern Enlightenment: ‘Social Capital’ in Digital Chronicles

Deconstructing these yellowed prescriptions and pilgrim data offers three insights for modern urban governance:

  1. Faith as a ‘Soft Connector’ for Public Health: The history of Wu Ben belief proves that before formal medical systems were fully established, faith-based Social Capital could effectively organize medical mutual aid and disaster relief. Modern public health should not exclude traditional culture but convert it into a mobilizing force.
  2. Scientific Value of ‘Prescription Archives’: Digitizing and scientifically verifying the 330+ local medicinal materials and folk remedies recorded in chronicles is a vital way to explore the TCM treasure house. Research on these prescriptions proves that folk beliefs often preserve significant early scientific observations.
  3. Cultural Identity as a Regional ‘Root System’: From Yunlin to Taipei, and Haicang to Baijiao, the “Ancestral Temple Identity” shared by hundreds of temples forms the most stable “social safety net” between Fujian and Taiwan. Such exchanges, based on shared historical memory, are irreplaceable by any administrative decree.

The medical archives in the Fujian Provincial Chronicles are like a “timeless prescription.” They remind modern readers that the war against disease relies not only on cold scalpels but on the warm faith written on temple prescriptions and carved into the rocks of history.