Makers › Physician / Medical Master
Huangfu Mi
Recluse scholar of the Wei–Jin transition who refused office, wrote the Annals of Emperors and Kings, and compiled the acupuncture classic known as the Jiayi jing
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 Zi Shian · Hao Xuanyan Xiansheng
Huangfu Mi, courtesy name Shi'an and childhood name Jing, came from Chaona in Anding and was a great-grandson of the Eastern Han grand commandant Huangfu Song; adopted by an uncle, he grew up in Xin'an. The History of the Jin (Jinshu) says he was still an idle youth at twenty until his aunt of the Ren family wept over him, after which he studied under a local teacher, Xi Tan, and worked the fields with a classic in hand. He made writing his life's work under the name Master Xuanyan, kept reading after a paralysing illness struck him, and turned down repeated summonses from Emperor Wu of Jin, though he did ask to borrow books and was sent a cartload. His works include the Annals of Emperors and Kings (Diwang shiji) and Biographies of Lofty Men (Gaoshi zhuan), and he rearranged three medical texts into the systematic acupuncture manual Zhenjiu jiayi jing. He died in 282 aged sixty-eight, and his sons buried him plainly as his essay on funerals directed.
Life and times
Dates 215 CE–282 CE