Chapter Forty-Four: Apprenticeship in Medicine

An Yi quickly regained her composure and asked, “Why does Doctor Lu want to take me as his apprentice? If you want me to diagnose and treat patients, my mother won’t agree to it.”

“It’s not about sending you to diagnose and treat patients. While that’s important, it’s the medicine that truly cures. If Qiao Shi Wei Niang could become a renowned healer, so can you.” Doctor Lu, excited by his discovery of a medical prodigy, added, “Xier, my own skills are decent—I can surely help you on your path.”

“Mother, is that alright?” In An Yi’s view, learning medicine from Doctor Lu was not a bad thing. In the future, growing and preparing herbs would come naturally to her, and would not arouse suspicion.

Madam Luo hesitated. “Doctor Lu, I appreciate your kindness, but Xier is a girl. Can she really study medicine?”

“Of course girls can study medicine. Not to mention elsewhere, there is a woman doctor right in Changsha City. There are both men and women who fall ill, and women prefer to be treated by a female doctor.”

“Xier, do you wish to become Doctor Lu’s apprentice?” Unable to decide, Madam Luo turned to her daughter.

“Mother, I want to learn medicine,” An Yi replied crisply.

Seeing her daughter’s desire, Madam Luo, who doted on her, naturally had no objection.

Becoming Doctor Lu’s apprentice also made it easier for An Yi to keep track of his whereabouts. From the next day on, every morning, she would spend an hour at the Lu residence, studying with him: reading medical texts, memorizing herbal classics, and learning to identify medicinal plants.

Listening to Doctor Lu’s lectures, An Yi was reminded of her old mentor who had once taught her traditional medicine. After her death, would that old man be sorrowful? She had been his last disciple, taken on in his twilight years. That stubborn old man had placed great hopes on her, wishing she would inherit his mantle and heal the sick with miraculous hands, never realizing that her reasons for learning medicine were not to save lives.

Doctor Lu noticed An Yi was distracted, so he cleared his throat and asked, “Xier, name three herbs for regulating qi and state when they should be harvested.”

After a moment’s thought, An Yi replied, “Costus root, dug up in autumn and winter, dried in the sun, coarse skin removed, cut into thin strips. Nutgrass, tubers harvested in spring and autumn, rootlets singed off, dried in the sun. Lindera, can be gathered year-round, but winter and spring are best; fibrous roots removed, sliced fresh.”

Stroking his beard, Doctor Lu nodded with satisfaction. “A healer’s duty is to cure illness and save lives. When studying medicine, one must not let the mind wander.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, with this hot weather, what herbs can be used to prevent heatstroke?”

With master and apprentice quizzing one another, time passed swiftly.

As noon approached, An Yi took a medical book and said her farewells. On her walk home, she overheard several gossiping farmwives, and soon learned they were on their way to sell herbs at the city pharmacy, but the quality was poor and the price low—a large sack fetched only a few coins.

With little profit in medicinal herbs, enthusiasm in the village waned. Moreover, it was now the busy season for the autumn harvest and sowing; the rice in the fields was far more important, and the hillsides no longer teemed with people. Madam Jiang no longer forced Li Yuan’er to dig herbs under the scorching sun, and Li Yuan’er no longer felt guilty toward the An family.

By mid-June, the rice was ripe, and the fields bustled with activity. An Yi, carrying a small basket, joined Qiao’er, Nini, and the others to glean fallen grains from the ground.

The An family had no land, and An Younian was always scheming; the grain he sent was mostly coarse—millet, sorghum, and hempseed, and often underweight. Madam Luo, unwilling to argue, had to scrimp and save, spending what little money she had on refined grains to mix with the coarse ones. Even then, it lasted only a few months; by November, they subsisted on bean dregs cakes. The money earned from embroidery was set aside for An Kang and his brother’s tuition, so the two boys had to sell firewood to exchange for a little white rice for An Yi.

Once the autumn harvest was done, autumn sowing began. The villagers left at dawn and returned at night, too tired even to gossip, falling asleep as soon as their heads touched the pillow. The atmosphere in Jingtang Village was one of peaceful contentment.

An Younian sent word through others, telling Madam Luo to collect the grain the next day. So, with her brother Luo Dongping and a few others, she brought back several cartloads. This time, An Younian provided fifty catties of white rice; the rest—six hundred and fifty catties—was millet, sorghum, and soybeans.

After the autumn sowing, the weather was kind, with two timely rains. The villagers were full of hope for the late rice harvest.

On June 21st, An Kang’s thirteenth birthday, Madam Luo sent Luo Chunli with ten coins for him to buy himself a treat.

Two days later, while An Yi was learning to identify herbs from Doctor Lu, Luo Wuqi rushed over, “Doctor Lu, my wife suddenly fainted—please come quickly!”

Doctor Lu set aside his herbs. “Xier, pack the medicine chest, we have a call.”

An Yi slung the medicine chest over her shoulder and followed him to Luo Wuqi’s house—where, as it turned out, there was good news: Wuqi’s wife was over a month pregnant.

“Xier, do you remember the verse about forbidden medicines during pregnancy?” Doctor Lu quizzed her on the way back.

“Earthworm, leech, and gadfly, aconite and monkshood with radix aconiti, wild kudzu, mercury, and croton, achyranthes, coix, and centipede, zedoary, gansui, hematite, musk, euphorbia, cicada slough, yellow male and female...” An Yi recited.

Doctor Lu nodded with a smile, then asked, “Who is eligible to take the Decoction for Calming Fetus with Angelica?”

An Yi hesitated. “Anyone who is pregnant can take it.”

“Wrong. Only those who, at five months of pregnancy, experience fright, restlessness of the fetus, pain in the lower abdomen radiating to the back and limbs, painful urination, or bleeding, should take the medicine. Without such symptoms, taking it is a grave mistake,” Doctor Lu intoned sternly.

“I understand. Thank you for your guidance, Master,” An Yi replied, somewhat guilty.

That day, the sky was clear. An Yi accompanied Madam Luo into town to sell herbs. Aunt Liu and Xinliu arrived late; the cart was already full and they couldn’t squeeze in, so they had to wait for Nini’s father’s ox-cart. An Yi felt a secret delight all the way.

Upon entering the city, An Yi said, “Mother, we have too much to carry. It’s inconvenient to take everything to Red Embroidery House. Let’s go to the pharmacy first.”

“But we still have to visit your eldest brother. Going back and forth will waste too much time,” Madam Luo replied.

“We can just walk faster, Mother. These things are so heavy—I can’t carry them anymore,” An Yi said pitifully, making a face.

Madam Luo held four cloth bags, while An Yi carried a small bundle with fan frames on her back and a smaller package in hand. It was indeed a lot. So Madam Luo agreed, and they went first to Jihuai Pharmacy.

At Jihuai Pharmacy, several people were already there picking up herbs. Madam Luo and An Yi waited patiently. When Uncle Chen had sent off his customer, An Yi stepped forward, “Uncle Chen.”

“Here comes the girl,” Uncle Chen said with a smile, checking the goods and weighing them. Three bundles of gold-haired ear grass, two of strongroot—he gave An Yi a tael of silver. “It’s been hot lately. It must be hard to dig up these herbs.”

“It is,” An Yi replied with a smile.

“Be careful of heatstroke, you hear? Here, this is some Huoxiang Zhengqi pills my master prepared,” Uncle Chen offered.

“No need, Uncle Chen. My master’s already given me medicine.”

“Master? You’ve taken on a master? Who is he?” Uncle Chen asked.

“There’s a Doctor Lu in my village, very skilled,” An Yi replied.

“It’s a good thing for a young girl to be ambitious. Next time, bring a few more varieties of herbs.”

“I will. Until next time, Uncle Chen.” An Yi bowed with a smile.

Uncle Chen smiled back, “Until next time.”