In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming dynasty, in the year of the Jia-Shen Incident, the imperial city fell and flames blazed high above the palace.
Su Jingyuan, a senior physician at the Imperial Medical Academy, fled through a secret passage at the Shenwu Gate, clutching three yellowed ancient books.
One was the Secret Annotations to the Plain Questions, one the True Exposition of the Spiritual Pivot, and one the Classic of Needling at the Bright Hall.
All three were unique copies from the imperial palace, passed down from the Sui and Tang dynasties and kept secret through the Song, Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.
When pursuers caught up, Su Jingyuan sealed the three medical books inside a rosewood box and sank it in the river.
With his dying breath, he bit his fingertip and wrote eight characters in blood on his lapel:
As long as medicine’s way survives, its art can save lives
