Makers › Physician / Medical Master
Sun Simiao
Physician from Huayuan who turned down office under the Sui and Tang and compiled the Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold and its supplement
In a dispensary, a tall wooden cabinet of many small drawers stands behind a stone mortar and pestle, with herbs hanging from the beams; a copper scale, a clay pot on a small lit stove and baskets of leaves sit in front, and one person with a basket walks in the herb garden.
Also known as Yao Wang · Miaoying Zhenren · Sun Zhenren
Sun Simiao came from Huayuan near the capital. By twenty he could discourse on Laozi, Zhuangzi and Buddhist texts, and, according to the Old History of the Tang, was called a prodigy by the Northern Zhou general Dugu Xin. Withdrawing to Mount Taibai under the Zhou, he declined a post as erudite when Yang Jian took power, refused titles when Emperor Taizong summoned him, and in 659 turned down Emperor Gaozong's offer of a remonstrance post, finally asking leave to go home in 674. He compiled the Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Gold (Qianjin fang) in thirty juan, later called the Qianjin yaofang, and in old age a supplement, the Qianjin yifang; Song Lingwen, Meng Shen and Lu Zhaolin treated him as their teacher. He died in 682, ordering a simple burial without grave goods. The Song court later gave him the title Perfected Man of Wondrous Response, and popular religion honours him as the King of Medicine.
Life and times
Dates 581 CE–682 CE (birth by another account 541)