Chapter Ninety: Astonishing Everyone at the First Try!

The conference opened with performances of Tai Chi and the Tai Chi fan. It was chaired by Dr. Liu Zhendong, secretary-general of the Chinese Medicine Society, and Ms. Ming Yu, vice president of the association. Executive Vice President Fan Lei introduced the honored guests and attendees.

The state clearly attached considerable importance to this annual symposium on traditional Chinese medicine.

Not only had eminent experts and scholars from across the country and around the world been invited, along with celebrated folk physicians of considerable renown, but Jiang Shanshui, the president of the Chinese Medicine Association, and Cai Gongmin, a deputy minister from the Ministry of Health, were also present.

Jiang Shanshui was a tall, thin, middle-aged man in a suit with a dark tie, giving off a stern and exacting air. Cai Gongmin, like Qin Luo, wore a dark navy robe, though his style was a little old-fashioned. He had short hair and a face full of vigor, the kind that inspired awe without a word.

In addition to Jiang Shanshui and Cai Gongmin, who were seated in the front row on the dais, the famous acupuncturist Wang Xiushen, the famed bone-setter Lao Zhuo, and the master diagnostician Gu Baixian, all highly respected in Jing City, were also granted seats on the platform. This made Qin Luo once again reassess the standing of these old men in the world of traditional medicine.

He Jitian, editor-in-chief of Chinese Medicine in China, was also seated on the dais, along with several representatives from medical colleges. Most of them were strangers to Qin Luo.

After the moderator declared the conference open, Deputy Minister Cai Gongmin delivered the opening remarks. His speech was brief, sharp, and distinctive, leaving a very favorable impression on Qin Luo. This was a pragmatic leader, someone he might well have the chance to deal with in the future.

Jiang Shanshui’s speech, by contrast, was long-winded and dull. He bent over and read from the prepared manuscript, completely ignoring the audience’s growing impatience.

He Jitian also spoke on behalf of the press, offering his best wishes for the complete success of the conference.

Then came the speeches from the delegates.

The first to take the stage was an elderly professor from a college of traditional medicine and pharmacy, who presented a talk titled The Dialectical Relationship Between Traditional Chinese Medicine and Philosophy.

The professor clearly regarded the conference with great seriousness, and his prepared remarks were quite substantial. He read through more than a dozen pages without pause, and when he finally finished, twenty minutes had passed.

This left the organizers somewhat vexed. The rules had clearly allotted only five minutes per speaker, so why had this old man spoken for so long?

The next speaker was also a teacher of traditional medicine. His topic was The Close Relationship Between the Five Phases, the Eight Trigrams, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. Though his ideas were fresh and interesting, the theme still failed to stir the slightest interest in Qin Luo.

Then came the elder Qin Luo had just met, Luo Yangwuchong. His topic was On the Holistic View and Dialectical Treatment in Clinical Acupuncture. In clear, accessible language, he discussed several major issues: the holistic view in clinical acupuncture, dialectics in acupuncture practice, and treatment based on differentiation.

He spoke with substance, combining theory with practice, and was rewarded with bursts of applause. For Qin Luo, a self-taught practitioner, it proved highly instructive as well.

The following speeches grew increasingly theoretical and abstract. One old professor even wrote his remarks in classical prose: Human beings receive the mandate of heaven above and are entrusted to the earth below, with yin assisting them. When heaven and earth are in harmony, human qi is tranquil; when heaven and earth are in conflict, human qi is obstructed...

Qin Luo did not know how others felt, but after hearing that, he was reduced to a pitiful kind of self-abasement.

It made him realize how tragic it was never to have pursued advanced study at a prestigious institution. He could no longer even understand ordinary human speech.

By the time Teacher Zhu, the delegate from the College of Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy and a colleague Qin Luo found unfriendly, took the stage, Qin Luo had already been worn down into a drowsy haze by this pack of formidable men.

Last night, because of Lin Huanxi’s humiliating incident, he had not slept well. Today, these noisy and tedious speeches were lulling him to sleep. His mind simply could not hold out any longer.

“Honored Minister Cai, President Jiang, distinguished leaders, respected colleagues, good afternoon. I am Zhu Zixu from the College of Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy at Capital Medical University. My topic today is The Close Connection Between the Inner Canon and Our Daily Lives—”

“Let me die,” Qin Luo muttered in agony, closing his eyes.

He had no idea when Teacher Zhu’s speech ended, nor how many people had already spoken after that. Qin Luo had truly fallen into a deep sleep.

“Now, please welcome to the stage Mr. Qin Luo, successor of the Taiyi Divine Needle, as a representative of the expert panel—”

The moderator announced the next speaker in a numb, half-asleep voice. He too was growing drowsy.

Although he worked in the traditional medicine field, that did not mean he liked traditional medicine.

So after hearing too many dry and tedious speeches, he too had lost some of his patience.

He had originally assumed this would proceed like the previous speeches: he would announce the name, the speaker would come up and read from a prepared script, long or short, and then the next person would follow.

But this time, after he announced Qin Luo’s name, a buzz of commotion rose from below.

“The successor of the Taiyi Divine Needle? Is that for real?”

“I only read in the papers a few days ago that a successor of the Taiyi Divine Needle had entered the world. I was just thinking of paying a visit. I never expected to have such a chance to meet him today.”

“Nonsense. Impossible. Is the Taiyi Divine Needle something just anyone can learn? It must be some ignorant fraud who has picked up a trick or two and is now using the name to deceive people. You’re all veterans in the field. How can you not understand such a simple truth?”

—

Qin Luo went on stage precisely when the discussion below was at its liveliest. Because everyone was leaning together, talking so intently, many of them did not even notice when he had stepped up to the podium.

He swept his gaze over the hall, a wild and confident smile on his face, and said something so astonishing that it was almost fatal:

“Truthfully, I’m beginning to regret coming to this boring conference.”

Crash!

The entire hall exploded.

When the crowd heard those words through the speakers, nearly everyone could hardly believe their ears.

He Jitian tilted his head and whispered to Wang Xiushen beside him, “Old Wang, what exactly is your disciple playing at? I expected him to make a splash, but I never imagined it would be this way. This may turn troublesome.”

Wang Xiushen looked at Qin Luo with a wry smile, equally unable to fathom him. He did not know why Qin Luo would say such a thing. Could this possibly be the content of his prepared speech?

And yet, even now, he still felt an inexplicable confidence in Qin Luo. He knew full well that Qin Luo was not the sort of shallow man who sought attention through empty words.

This time, the delegates in the hall no longer bothered to hide their reactions. Excited, angry, contemptuous, expectant, sarcastic, and gleefully opportunistic voices all rose at once, discussing Qin Luo’s speech.

It was as though a swarm of bees had suddenly poured into the auditorium, filling the room with a droning roar.

Jiang Shanshui, president of the Chinese Medicine Association, set down his teacup with a heavy thud and said darkly, “Utterly reckless. If he does not want to attend, then he need never be invited again.”

Deputy Minister Cai Gongmin, however, looked at Qin Luo with thoughtful interest, his face unreadable as he waited for what would come next.

“Even if you held one such conference every day, three hundred and sixty-five a year, none of you could save traditional Chinese medicine,” Qin Luo said, taking his villainy to the end and speaking with even greater sharpness.

At last, he had offended everyone in the hall.

“We can’t save traditional Chinese medicine, and you can?”

“An ignorant brat spouting nonsense. I’m not even sure whether he’s some quack from the back alleys.”

“Get him off the stage. Throw him off.”

—

The security guards standing by the door looked troubled, unsure whether they should go up and drag Qin Luo down.

Since none of the important leaders on the dais had issued an order, they could only hold their positions and wait.

Qin Luo waved a hand and said, “No need for you to escort me. I’ll step down after I finish a few words.”

He turned his head to glance at the leaders on the dais and said with a smile, “Traditional Chinese medicine is in decline, hanging by a thread. We should all be working together, with one heart and one mind, to seek methods and solutions for saving it. And yet what are all of you doing?”

“Empty words and meaningless rhetoric. Seeking applause, plagiarizing the ancients. Holding conferences like this is a complete waste of time. That fellow who just spoke on the dialectical relationship between traditional Chinese medicine and philosophy—was there any need to study such a thing? Traditional Chinese medicine is already on the verge of extinction. What good does studying that do?”

“Someone else just said that traditional Chinese medicine is closely linked to yin and yang and the five phases. So what if it is? Traditional Chinese medicine is connected to the cosmos, to all living things, and to the origin of humanity. But can any of that actually help promote or save it? Even we practitioners can barely understand it. How are ordinary patients supposed to grasp it?”

“As for the Teacher Zhu from the College of Traditional Medicine and Pharmacy at Capital Medical University, who spoke of the close connection between the Inner Canon and our daily lives—some of what he said was copied from the textbook selected readings of the Inner Canon, and much of the rest was lifted from various works on the Inner Canon. Anyone who is curious may ask for his manuscript; you’ll certainly be able to trace the sources. And the old gentleman who spoke in classical prose—if I remember correctly, wasn’t a large part of that borrowed from the Huanghua Classic?”

“If we want to hear such things, we can read books ourselves. We can go to the library and look up the references. Was it really necessary to spend so much money and effort, to travel from every corner of the nation to come here? Taxpayers do not make money easily.”

“Originally, traditional Chinese medicine was something quite simple: one cold, one heat; one cause, one effect. Once its laws are understood, it is easy enough to learn. But what are you all doing? You are making it complicated, making it abstruse. In the end, even you no longer understand what you yourselves are saying. So how can you expect the public to understand? How can you ever popularize traditional Chinese medicine?”

With cold precision, with a blade-like sharpness, Qin Luo laid bare the darkness within the academic world and the misunderstandings into which the world of traditional medicine had fallen. The chatter and attacks from below at last subsided. Everyone stared in astonishment and disbelief, mouths agape, as they looked blankly at the young man speaking so calmly from the stage.

How dared he say all of this aloud?

“My original speech was titled The Twelve Essentials of Needling Technique. I’ve changed my mind. Today, the subject of my remarks will be Reflections on the Current State of the World of Traditional Chinese Medicine and What We Must Do for the Future—”

Deputy Minister Cai Gongmin turned to the president of the Chinese Medicine Association seated beside him and asked, “What is the name of this young speaker?”

“It seems to be Qin Luo. The successor of the Taiyi Divine Needle,” Jiang Shanshui replied, reading from the introduction on the program.

He felt a faint trace of awkwardness in his heart. After all, just moments ago, he had dismissed the young man as “reckless.” Yet now the deputy minister had taken the initiative to ask his name, clearly a sign that he thought very highly of him.

“Not bad. A young man with real ideas,” Cai Gongmin said with a nod.