The Four Famous Chinese Doctors
There are four famous doctors in the city of the Republic of China, all of which refer to traditional Chinese medicine. It generally refers to, Shi Jinmo and Wang. There is also a saying that Wang, and Yang Hao Ru. These five famous doctors except Kong Bohua is from Qufu, Shandong, the other four are from the south. Wang was from Suzhou, Jiangsu, Shi Jinmo was from Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, a native of Santai, Sichuan, and Yang Haoru was from Huaiyin, Jiangsu. Regardless of whether it's the Big Four or the Big Five, these five were the most famous TCM practitioners in Beijing during the Republican era.
In 1929, the U.S. national government in Nanjing had to withdraw its policy of banning Chinese medicine because it was strongly resisted and opposed. However, it was suggested that the qualifications of TCM practitioners had to be assessed, and in other words today they must be licensed. So an appraisal committee was set up in Beiping. The members of the Appraisal Committee were, Shi Jinmo and Wang, Yang Haoru was not among them because Yang Haoru's health was no longer good. However, Yang Haoru was the founder of the first Chinese medicine hospital in Beiping, i.e. a Chinese medicine hospital in the form of a modern hospital. The earliest Chinese medicine education in Beiping was the Beiping National Medical College, in which Kong Bohua and others were also involved, but did not don't continue. Later Shi Jinmu opened the North China Medical College, which trained many Chinese medicine talents. This university can don' don't today. The concept to understand. They only enroll dozens of students a year, only 20 students when young. But the North China Medical College did produce a lot of talents later.
While there are a lot of TCM practitioners in Beijing, there is a big difference between TCM practitioners and Chinese medicine practitioners in terms of the number of patients and the survival of the doctors. Some can be unable to make a living, so they have to go to a pharmacy or open a small clinic on their own, and can only make ends meet. However, these five famous doctors are all crammed into their homes, queuing up every day, and they do not don't go out to clinics easily. The cost of medicine was also very expensive. From the early 1920s to the early 1930s, the medical fee for a visit was usually one silver dollar. What is the concept of a silver dollar? As we said before, in the late 1920s, one silver dollar was almost enough to buy a tricycle. My family's daily expenses during the war against Japan were only one silver dollar a day for Americans. A silver dollar for the average poor family could be ten days and a half a month, which was quite high. However, the cost of a Chinese medicine practitioner who was not well known in the hutongs could not be as high as that. Also, when it comes to herbs, they were not expensive at that time, and there were no pills or creams. Generally speaking, drinking tablets were cheaper. Except for the expensive herbs, they were all cheaper. A child with a high fever needed a medicine - Purple Snow - that required antelope horn, which was more expensive. When I was a child I used to take precious pills for indigestion. It only cost a few cents. When we lived in Dongsi, the children of the poor families in the hutongs got sick and they didn't don't go to the doctor. Just buy some medicine for themselves.
The four famous doctors had their own specialties. For example, Kong Bohua was good at treating heat illnesses, and he liked plasters best because they were cool. Kong Bohua used a lot of medicinal poultices, either one or two, so there was a nickname for Kong's poultices. Wang specialized in the treatment of warm diseases, and most of his writings focused on the treatment of warm diseases. Of the four, Shi Jinmo lived the longest, until 1980. There was also living until 1960, Yang Haoru until 1940, and 1955 and 1949.
While my family was sick, I did seek Chinese medicine, but not too much. When I looked for TCM practitioners, I most often sought out Kong Pak Wah. I was told I went to see Xiao Longyou when I was a child. At that time I seldom went to the hospital to see a doctor. Usually, I would ask the doctor to come to my house. However, I would go to his house to see Xiao Luo
Pharmacies and generic orders
Nowadays, there are a lot of legends about Tongrentang, and we know a lot about its reputation and the quality of its medicines. At that time, in addition to Tongrentang, there were also Le Rentang, He Nian Tang and Yong An Tang. Pharmacies in Beijing commonly sold medicines, whether in the form of pills, powders, creams or tablets. But there was a question of whether it was genuine. Usually the good doctor's prescription had a designated pharmacy. There is a short story that happened in the Republican era about a doctor who liked to use ephedra. Generally, a dose of ephedra only lasts a few minutes and costs a dollar at most. The doctor started prescribing ephedra for one dollar, but the patient still didn't take it without breaking a sweat. The doctor increased it to two dollars, but he still didn't don't sweat. When he drove to three dollars he had reached his limit, but it still didn't don't work. The doctor felt that the patient was going to sweat, so he prescribed five dollars' worth of ephedra, which was already an overdose. In the old days, double signatures were required to increase the dose in the hospital. So after taking this medicine, there was a medical malpractice and the patient sweated and even died of exhaustion. Then the family reported it to the government and the court investigated and asked him where he got the medicine from. The patient's family said that one dollar went to three dollars, which was taken at some small pharmacy, and the last five dollars of the prescription was taken at Tong Ren Tang. A drug like ephedra is like a little stick of grass. It was caught in a little drugstore. They rubbed the kangzhi into small pieces. It looks like ephedra. Like this ephedra, you win if you take one or two, you won't sweat. Tong Ren Tang is the genuine article. The people who take the medicine don't want to catch it, they think the amount of ephedra is too much. But the doctor's prescription was there, and the doctor's double signature made it necessary to catch the real ephedra, and the patient died. So its not Tong Ren Tang's fault or the doctor is her fault. In the end, the court put the pharmacy owner who sold the fake medicine in jail.
It was Tongrentang's most famous pharmacy that also supplied drugs to the Qing Palace, mainly to the palace's Imperial Hospital. The palace has a pharmacy, but some pills, powders and tablets also need to be purchased in the Tongrentang pharmacy, especially some precious herbs such as ginseng and rhinoceros horn. And the checkout is usually once every two years. I entered the Republic of China, the Qing Dynasty abdicated, and the Qing Palace budget was greatly reduced. So then there was a bill for about 10,000 taels of silver for medicines, mainly ginseng, deer antler and antelope horn. The abdicated little dynasty didn't have the money to pay for it, and the Republican government didn't pay for it, and Tong Ren Tang lost a huge amount of money.
It was fun to catch medicines in those days, with all kinds of imitations. For example, 22 medicines were used in a single dose, each of which was accompanied by a small slip of paper, usually in red letters on a white background, with small pictures of medicinal plants, with roots, stems and leaves. The text indicates the temperature, cold, heat, chill, and elevation of the drug, as well as its efficacy. A little more medicine saves a lot of imitations, just like a little herbal medicine. When I was a kid, I saved a lot of imitation sheets to play with, one by one, all from the pharmacy. What is the role of imitation? One is to have a popularizing effect, and the other is to know what medicines are prescribed in it, all of which are incomplete, and whether there are any missing medicines. For example, the doctor prescribes 22 medicines. When you come back count this list and see if there are 22 copies. All the way up to licorice, which is no more and no less, there are copies of all the medicines. One check and you'll know. Of course, you may not be able to check it out, but the pharmacist can. Such imitation lists are relics today. Some of the big pharmacies of the time such as Wing On Tong, Hak Nin Tong and Lok Yan Tong all had their own printed imitation sheets.
Massey Doctors
At that time, Beijing's leading American traditional Chinese and Western doctors essentially had their own clinics in their own homes. As a result, in the early 1950s, doctors were granted freelance work. Doctors back then were in a completely different situation than they are today. They could be employed by one or two hospitals, or they could run their own private clinics while still performing the duty of making house calls. In those days, being a good doctor was a particularly decent profession,
Western medicine had many private practitioners. As far as I can personally remember, I basically never went to a hospital when I was younger. At that time, doctors paid for their visits, and the horse paid, which was much more expensive than hospital charges. Many famous western doctors had private cars. I remember that many of the doctors who came to visit my family in the 1950s had private cars. For example, Dr. Wu Ruiping, a pediatrician at that time. Her husband was a good-looking woman, but she was known as a housewife. She only did housework at home and educating the children and such was her husband's business.
Some diseases can be home doctor visits can not, such as stomatology, ophthalmology, ENT and other diseases. So it such as the dentist Zhang in Xizongbu Hutong, and later Xu, head of the ENT department at Tongren Hospital. All have to rely on medical equipment to confirm the diagnosis, out of the difficult.
When I was a child, I have no I have no impression of going to the hospital. The last doctor who saw me was Zhou, who was from the northeast and came to my house until the early 1960s. Children in the same yard would sometimes get sick and ask Dr. Ji Min Zhou to show them. Zhou also gave a look and took some medicine or something, and did not fail to charge a penny. Dr. Zhou was a very nice man. Dr. Zhou was a very good man. He was at the Dongsi United Hospital, where many private doctors had gathered because private practice was not allowed, and in 1966, during the Cultural Revolution, because he worked as a doctor for the National Army, the streets were covered with posters about him, and his house was also raided. At that time, I secretly went to his house to visit him and gave him food. Later on, many doctors stopped working. For example, Zhu Futang opened a children's Dongdan Sanjiao s hospital, which was later donated to the state without compensation.