Supplement to the Compendium of Materia Medica, Volume One

...I believed that while living in the mountains, one might occasionally be unable to obtain help from medicines or surgery 藥石 (Yaoshi): literally "drugs and stones," referring to the full spectrum of medical treatment including herbs and physical procedures like acupuncture, so I compiled the Verified Records of Incantation Therapy original: "Zhuyou Luyan" (祝由錄驗); Zhuyou is an ancient practice of spiritual healing.

I have always had a "book-addiction" original: "shupi" (書癖). The day was never enough for me, so I would burn the midnight oil idiom: "burning fat to continue the daylight" to keep reading. Fearing that the elders of the house would scold or forbid me, I used to hide a lamp within my bed curtains. I would hide my books and read at night until the soot accumulated so much that my green silk curtains were completely blackened.

In the autumn of the Bingzi year 1756, I suffered from an eye ailment that nearly blinded me. I could not see or open my eyes for six months before I was finally cured. Because of this experience, I composed the Dew in the Satchel Collection original: "Nanglu Ji" (囊露集). I compared it against classic texts like the Jade Casket and Silver Sea Yao Han Yin Hai, the Treatise of Longmu Longmu Lun, and the Mirror of Ophthalmology Mingjing Jian, and I believed my work surpassed them. The reason I named it "Dew in the Satchel" is that I took the idea that "dew from cypress leaves gathered in a pouch can cure the eyes."

My friend Zong Zibai, known as Baiyun, possessed the medical arts of the legendary masters Hua Tuo and Bian Que The most famous doctors of ancient China, used here as a high compliment. He traveled through famous cities, and in the Wuyin year 1758, he returned from his voyage to the Middle Mountain Kingdom Zhongshan, usually referring to the Ryukyu Islands/Okinawa. We had been separated for eight years. He presented his visiting card to pay his respects; at that time, I was at home observing a period of mourning original: "reading the rites" (duli), a euphemism for the mandatory retirement and study period following a parent's death. I hosted him for three months.

Whenever we discussed medical matters, I would listen for any errors. Baiyun was a scholar of humble spirit and largely agreed with my assessments. He generously produced the various methods he had gathered during his travels, including "top-knot" and "string" techniques 頂串 (Dingchuan): the specialized medical techniques of itinerant "bell-doctors." "Ding" refers to medicines applied to the head, and "Chuan" to the medicines they carried on strings or their distinctive bell-rings. I combined these with the formulas I had personally tested in my Garden of Cultivating Simplicity Yangsu Yuan, Zhao's private study and compiled them into the Elegant Lore of the Itinerant Chuanya (串雅). I did so because I truly knew that these were not the lowly, vulgar skills of common street charlatans.