Gong Tingxian, the Ming-Dynasty Imperial Physician Who Lived to 97: The Great Doctor Honored with the Plaque “Number One of the Medical World” by the Prince of Lu

Opening: The man we meet today was himself a man of longevity

After telling the stories of several physicians in a row, today Doctor Luo Dalun introduces a new ancient Chinese doctor — Gong Tingxian of the Ming dynasty.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Gong Tingxian is a physician I particularly admire. This man was extraordinary. He was born in the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty and passed away in the Chongzhen reign — how old did he live to? 97 years old! Folks, in the Ming dynasty, anyone who could live to 97 was a person who had attained the Way. So this man was truly remarkable, and the books he wrote are wonderfully rich — I sincerely admire his learning.

Following in his father’s footsteps: his father was already an imperial physician

Gong Tingxian, courtesy name Zicai, literary name Yunlin, was a native of Jinxi, Jiangxi — there is still a Jinxi County in Jiangxi today. Who was his father? An imperial physician of the Imperial Medical Academy (Tai Yi Yuan).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: You see — it ran in the family; his father had already reached the level of imperial physician. As a child, Gong Tingxian also wanted to sit the civil-service examinations, but the fate of famous doctors is always the same: Heaven does not let you pass — you fail. So there was no choice; he went home and studied medicine with his father. And he studied it extremely well — everyone praised him, and he cured many illnesses.

Learning was not enough: decades of wandering, deliberately seeking out masters

After completing his studies, Gong Tingxian did one very important thing — he went out wandering to seek out masters. This journey lasted several decades. He traveled everywhere, made friends, and the physicians exchanged ideas and swapped secret formulas with one another.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Some doctors just sit at their own front door, know only the people nearby, and their thinking is limited. In ancient times books were hard to come by — if I obtained one or two books, I would only have insights from those one or two books. But Gong Tingxian was different — rather like Miao Xiyong, he traveled everywhere; I would say his achievements were even greater. He met many famous and worthy people, they exchanged ideas and secret formulas freely, so the material in Gong Tingxian’s hands was extremely rich, and his formulas were exceptionally numerous. When you open his books — ah, they are magnificent, truly extraordinary.

The great plague of Bianliang: one intervention and he shook the Central Plains

On his travels, Gong Tingxian saved many people. The most famous occasion was when he arrived in Bianliang (today’s Kaifeng) just as plague had broken out.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: At that time everyone treated the plague according to the old formulas, and no one could cure it. Gong Tingxian assessed the local conditions, discriminated patterns himself and prescribed accordingly, saving a great many people — and his fame exploded: he shook the Central Plains! The whole of the central region knew his name. This man was no charlatan; he had genuinely fought plague and had real experience. That is why his books contain formula after formula after formula.

The Prince of Lu’s consort fell ill, and no famous doctor in the realm could help

Gong Tingxian’s reputation truly soared when he cured the illness of the consort of the Prince of Lu. The Prince himself recorded this clearly in the preface to Lu Fu Jin Fang (Forbidden Formulas of the Lu Mansion) — Doctor Luo reads that preface for everyone.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The Prince of Lu who wrote that preface was Zhu Yitan, a descendant of Zhu Yuanzhang, courtesy name Sanwei — a notably virtuous prince. He was nothing like his father, who was a prince given to wine and women with a terrible reputation; this Prince Zhu Yitan was extremely virtuous. In his own preface he said: since I inherited the princedom, I have sympathized with the suffering of the common people and always wanted to save lives, so for a very long time I kept collecting medicines and treating the sick; yet I always had a regret — my collection of formulas was not large enough, and famous physicians were too few. How could I help the people of the realm fall ill less often? Over the years I have gathered secret formulas — not a huge number, but respectable.

That year, the Prince’s consort, Lady Zhang, fell ill — with what? Drum distension (gu zhang): her belly swelled up enormous, like a spider’s, while her arms and legs grew thin — a miserable condition.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: This illness was truly pitiful. The Prince first had the physicians of his own household treat her — no success; then he sought famous doctors throughout the realm — with a prince’s standing, the physicians he summoned were all celebrated names, right? Yet “a hundred remedies from a thousand physicians brought not the slightest effect” — not a trace of improvement, and her condition grew critical, the whole family panicking in confusion. At that point someone recommended the famous doctor from Jinxi, Gong Tingxian.

The Prince wrote the preface himself: it was you who cured the consort

At that time Gong Tingxian happened to be in Shandong. When the Prince learned of his reputation, he wrote a letter in his own hand, sent silver, and dispatched an official to fetch him. Once he arrived, the Prince talked with him — and in conversation they felt like old friends at once; then they discussed the learning of pulse and formulas, and the Prince found his insight far beyond anyone else’s.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: So the Prince had him write a prescription — one or two doses produced miraculous results, immediate effect! The medicine was given steadily and the illness receded steadily; dose after dose, the disease gradually improved. From the winter solstice to spring, imperceptibly, she was cured. The Prince was overjoyed and sighed in his preface: the physicians of my own household could not cure her, nor could all the famous doctors I summoned from across the realm — yet Master Gong cured her the moment he arrived. Is Master Gong’s medical art not the foremost under heaven? (Isn’t he simply the number-one doctor in the country?!)

So the Prince personally inscribed a plaque with four large characters — “Number One of the Medical World” (Yi Lin Zhuang Yuan).

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Folks, this plaque is a big deal. Among all the doctors in history, ancient and modern, only Gong Tingxian received a plaque personally inscribed by a prince with such words! When an ordinary doctor cures you, a banner is about the most you get — something like “Relieving the World and Saving Lives” is already remarkable. “Number One of the Medical World” — there is no second one. The whole country admired it; everyone said: the great doctors of antiquity were no more than this, were they?

Publishing books to benefit the world: starting with the Lu Fu Jin Fang

The Prince of Lu also thought of something else: when common people fall ill, if they happen to meet Gong Tingxian they can be cured — but what if they don’t? So he proposed: can we combine the famous formulas collected in my household with Master Gong’s experience into one book? Then the people could consult the book when they had problems.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: The Prince said: when I give out medicines, I can only save one person at a time; but if these formulas are published to all under heaven, so that every sick person in the world can benefit and everyone can enter the realm of benevolence and longevity — live long and healthy lives — how wonderful that would be! So this prince’s vision was very high. He personally wrote the preface to Gong Tingxian’s book, signed “Prince of Lu, Sanwei, written at the Hall of Storing the Heart (Cun Xin Dian).”

That book recorded many famous formulas of the Lu princely household, combined with Gong Tingxian’s own formulas, and was called Lu Fu Jin Fang (Forbidden Formulas of the Lu Mansion).

The 97-year-old health cultivator: protect kidney qi, regulate the spleen and stomach, support upright qi first

After that, nobles and princes admired Gong Tingxian immensely and came to summon him one after another. His friends spanned every walk of life — from commoners at the bottom to princes and nobles at the top. Later, Gong Tingxian also entered the Imperial Medical Academy and became a clerk of the Imperial Medical Academy (Tai Yi Yuan Li Mu). In the end he returned to his hometown and devoted himself to writing, passing his learning on to later generations.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: Gong Tingxian is a physician deeply worthy of respect. His academic thinking is especially upright and steady: he made protecting kidney qi the essential point, built his theory on regulating the spleen and stomach, and supported upright qi first — he placed great weight on zheng qi. He had an enormous number of secret formulas and also many dietary remedy formulas. He inherited from the ancients and opened the way for later learners — a truly great doctor. His literary name was Wuzhenzi (Realizer of Truth), and he had a certain connection with Daoism; he was a cultivator, still writing books in his nineties — so you see, he himself lived to 97.

From tomorrow: the complete case record of how he treated the Prince of Lu’s consort

Gong Tingxian wrote so many books — Wan Bing Hui Chun (Myriad Diseases Return to Spring), Shou Shi Bao Yuan (Preserving Life and Nurturing the Root), Gu Jin Yi Jian (Mirror of Medicine Past and Present), Zhong Xing Xian Fang (Immortal Formulas of Planting Apricots), and more. Printed out, they are this thick — and in ancient times each page was written by hand with a brush; imagine the labor.

💬 Note from Doctor Luo: We won’t lecture through every one of these books — we couldn’t finish them all. We choose the finest parts, the ones with case records — for example Wan Bing Hui Chun. Starting tomorrow, we formally begin on Gong Tingxian’s cases, and the very first is how he treated the Prince of Lu’s consort — a long case that Gong Tingxian himself described in great detail, with the Prince adding his own commentary all along the way; the whole story rises and falls dramatically and is very entertaining. Afterward we will also cover his academic thinking, his formulas, and his writings on health preservation. Follow this great master, and experience the wonders of our bodies and the essential methods of healing.

Compiled from Doctor Luo Dalun’s lecture series on Gong Tingxian’s cases. The cases come from Wan Bing Hui Chun (《万病回春》), Lu Fu Jin Fang (《鲁府禁方》) and other works.