A Good-for-Nothing Guy

Hu Yanzi, nicknamed Nao Pie Wa Zi as a baby

In 1968, he was born in the Hu family home beside the Earth God Temple in Cangxi County, northern Sichuan. His grandmother casually named him “Nao Wa Zi.” In the local dialect, “nao” means bad. A lowly name was supposed to make a child easier to raise, so the King of Hell wouldn't bother claiming him. The King of Hell spared him, but he still suffered more than enough.

When he was fifteen, his grandfather gripped his wrist and said, “Go study medicine and keep this family together.” The five crescent-shaped marks from his fingernails took a long time to fade. At nineteen, he became an apprentice, and after qualifying, practiced medicine in his hometown. To support his family, he carried bricks at a kiln, dug soil for the subway, and tied rebar on a bridge. At night, he practiced acupuncture by piercing the Hegu point with a sewing needle. Later, he opened a clinic and a pharmacy, and fell 1.85 million yuan into debt. In 2006, at thirty-eight, he headed south to Zhejiang with his debts on his back. He started as a masseur at a wellness center and earned his physician's license at fifty-eight. Thirty-six years, and one license after a thousand-kilometer journey.

Over fifty-nine years, his grandmother taught him “never admit you're no good” with a stone mortar; his grandfather demonstrated “when people are waiting, you can't just sit still” with mugwort fire; his master told him “never put down the needles” when passing on his silver needles; his wife said, “I chose you, so I'm not afraid of being poor”; his daughter took up the needles; and his father said on his deathbed, “Nao Wa Zi, you're not useless.” Those people passed their words to him one by one, and he took them in, one by one. He spent fifty-nine years becoming the answer to that word “not.”

The character “nao” can be split into “not” and “good.” But over fifty-nine years, he became the answer to that “not.”

This isn't a success manual, an exhibition of suffering, or a collection of medical case studies. It's the hollow worn into a stone mortar, the light of a silver needle passed from northern Sichuan to Yiwu, and the story of people whom fate has told “you can't” finally finding the courage to say, “I refuse to accept being called no good.”