Chunyu Yi

Also known as Taicang Gong · Cang Gong

Chunyu Yi came from Linzi in Qi and served as director of the Qi state granary, which is why he was called Master Cang, the Granary Lord. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) says he loved medicine from youth, and in 180 BCE he became a pupil of Yang Qing of his own commandery, who passed on the pulse writings and drug lore attributed to the Yellow Emperor and Bian Que; afterwards he treated patients and could foretell whether they would live. He travelled among the princes' courts and sometimes refused to treat people, which made enemies. Under Emperor Wen he was accused and sent to Chang'an to suffer mutilating punishment; his youngest daughter Tiying went with him and petitioned to become a government slave in his place, and the emperor pardoned him and abolished mutilation that year. Questioned later by imperial edict about his practice, he answered with twenty-five case records giving each patient's name, symptoms, pulse and outcome, preserved in full in his Shiji biography.