Sun Simiao

Sun Simiao, a native of Hua Yuan in Jingzhao during the Tang dynasty, suffered frequent illness in childhood and resolved to study medicine. Throughout his life, he remained detached from fame and wealth, repeatedly declining imperial summons to serve at court, and instead chose seclusion in Zhongnan Mountain to treat patients and compile medical texts. He authored the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces and its sequel, the Supplement to the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold Pieces—comprehensive compendia synthesising all major medical knowledge preceding the Tang era. In them, he established the ethical principle of 'the great physician’s refined sincerity', asserting that human life is of supreme value—'worth more than a thousand pieces of gold'. Folklore venerates him for the legendary tale of 'sitting upon a tiger while needling the dragon', and he is universally honoured as the Medicine King. Tradition holds that he lived over 140 years, earning him recognition as a patriarch of 养生 (yangsheng, health cultivation). Each year on the 28th day of the 4th lunar month—the Medicine King’s birthday—temple fairs are held at Yaowang temples nationwide: herbal merchants and physicians offer incense in reverence, while patients and their families pray for healing and longevity, drawing exceptionally vibrant and fervent devotional activity.