Tasting a Hundred Herbs, Healing the World

A sweeping novel blending the culture of traditional Chinese medicine with spiritual cultivation.

The protagonist, Jihuan, is a young man mired in urban anxiety. At the lowest point in his life, he meets a mysterious mentor, Shide, and is awakened by a single sentence: "You only need to wake up." He makes a solemn vow to "taste every herb and practice medicine to help the world," then enters the Zhongnan Mountains to study the myriad medicinal herbs under Granny Gancao. As he gathers and tastes them, he comes to understand the truth that "medicine is the mind." After descending the mountain, he uses the "ten bodies" theory as his diagnostic framework, and the "I am a tortoise" mindset, fire breathing, and the principle that food and medicine share the same source as his treatments. Amid skepticism and conflict, he forges his own path in medicine.

The book features 100 medicinal herbs that can also be used as food, and 120 stories of healing. It is an epic about "waking up": wake up, see your own heart, and then warm it.