Record of the Defenders

Nanjing, 1930. At the Shousu Medical Clinic by the Qinhuai River, the young practitioner of classical formulas, Shen Zongjian, honors the teachings of the ancients and devotes himself to studying The Difficult Classic, Treatise on Cold Damage, and Essentials from the Golden Cabinet. He diagnoses patients from all around according to their patterns of illness. He neither blindly trusts formula books nor treats medicine as mystical, knowing that the heart of medicine is saving lives, not confining oneself to a single school.

A regular visitor to the clinic is Lü Songqiao, a former scholar of the Qing dynasty. He keeps a rare edition of The Golden Mirror of Medicine in his home and treasures it dearly. He often brings the book along to discuss the classics and medical principles with Shen Zongjian. The two are kindred spirits despite their difference in age. Shen Zongjian's cousin, Shen Yanqiu, is a Western doctor educated at a modern school. At first, he firmly believes in anatomy and germ theory, considers the principles of Chinese medicine vague and abstruse, and comes to the clinic to observe with skepticism. There is also Zhou Tiezui, a teahouse storyteller who is witty and loyal, with a rough grasp of medicine. He excels at telling amusing medical case stories and tales of misguided treatments, dispelling superstitions about folk remedies among ordinary people and exposing the many misconceptions surrounding their search for medical care.

At the time, Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China, and old and new ideas were colliding fiercely. Newspapers and journals were full of ceaseless debates between Chinese and Western medicine, while the authorities were preparing new regulations for the practice of Chinese medicine. Practitioners were unsettled, and ordinary people were at a loss when faced with two kinds of medicine. The novel follows the clinic's daily consultations. Each chapter contrasts two pairs of cases with similar symptoms but different underlying causes, using vivid medical stories to unpack the diagnostic logic of cold and heat, deficiency and excess, and exterior and interior patterns.

After witnessing the effectiveness of classical formulas in treating various illnesses firsthand, Shen Yanqiu gradually begins to reconsider his preconceptions. The book neither glorifies Chinese medicine nor disparages Western medicine, maintaining an objective perspective: Chinese medicine excels at holistic treatment of internal and chronic illnesses, while emergencies, surgery, and severe infections call for the strengths of Western medicine.