Here’s the story. During the Jiajing era of the Ming Dynasty, the magistrate of Fu’an County in Fujian ate only one bean-sized piece of sweet potato at every meal. The locals gave him a nickname, “Shu Gong” (the Sweet Potato Elder). When I first opened Volume 8 of the “Wanli Funing Zhou Zhi” and saw the name “Chen Si” in the “Officials” section, I expected a routine Ming-era biography of a model bureaucrat. ...
Here’s the story. On the Gengchen day of the 10th month of the 34th year of Jiajing, November 12, 1555, a general who had just delivered the greatest anti-Wokou victory of the southeast coast was executed at Beijing’s Western Market. When I first opened Volume 55 of the “Wanli Fuzhou Prefecture Gazetteer” and saw the name “Zhang Jing” in the “Biographies, Meritorious Achievements” section, I expected a routine loyal-official narrative. ...
A royal physician fled Beijing. What did he take? A secret formula. Four ingredients: Musk. Cow Bezoar. Snake Gall. Tianqi. In the Ming Dynasty, these four substances were crown monopolies. Civilians caught with them faced execution. He ran 3,000 li. From the Forbidden City to Pushan Rock Temple, 10 li outside Zhangzhou. When I cross-referenced the ‘Wanli Zhangzhou Chronicle’ and ‘Zhangzhou Medical Chronicle’ in a single database, line by line, I found something: this mountain didn’t just hide a fugitive’s refuge—it was ground zero for the globalization of Southern Fujian medicine. ...