In a remote, impoverished village, one family has practiced medicine for generations. A married couple had been together for many years without having children. Then one day, they heard an old woman in the village say that there was a very efficacious temple not far away. A couple from the neighboring village had also been unable to conceive for years. After asking around, they found the temple in their village and prayed devoutly to the Bodhisattva for a child. Before long, they had a son and a daughter. When the Lu couple heard about it, they hurried to the temple early the next morning and knelt together before the Bodhisattva. The Lu couple said, "Bodhisattva, please show us your divine power and grant us a child! We have been married for years and still have no children. We are willing to give the only cow in our home to the poor people of the village to plow their fields." Two months after they finished praying, the Lu couple conceived, just as they had wished. Nine months later, they welcomed their first son. They named him Lu Zhixing. This child would become the great physician of the future, Lu. After the baby's first-month celebration, the Lu couple went to the temple to fulfill their vow. When they returned, they held a banquet and invited the villagers to celebrate. Though they called it a first-month banquet, it was really just a chance for everyone to sit together and chat. There were only two dishes on each table. The villagers came to celebrate the Lu couple's son's first month because the couple had always been generous and kind to others in the village. Though they were poor, they had often risked their own lives to save others. The Lu couple announced that once their son grew up, he would serve his country and repay the villagers by becoming an official who served the people. They would make sure to raise him well. A year later, Lu Zhixing celebrated his first birthday and took his first step in life.
