“He is so amazing, it is hard to believe”
By Xu Hengjin
(The North Wind)
I am truly fortunate, there are countless people who care about my bumbling eyes.
“You ought to do eye exercises.”
“You should look at greenery more.”
“You should …”
One night, a friend ran to my home all panting heavily.
“Good news.”
“What good news?” I poured him some water.
“I have found you a miraculous doctor.”
“A miraculous doctor?” I laughed.
“You do not believe me?” He glared at me, and took a newspaper out from his bag.
“Miraculous Doctor Zhao Xue Zhong” was printed in big, bold, black letters on the newspaper.
I smiled.
“You know him?”
“I know him.”
“You have asked him to treat you before?”
“Yes.”
“How are your eyes?”
“…” Before I had a chance to reply my wife interrupted and said, “Him! He even knocked over a thermos yesterday”.
My friend looked like a deflated balloon, and dropped onto a chair.
“Newspapers these days lie all the time, do you agree?”
I gave the tea cup in front of him a little push.
———-
The hall was packed with people, speaking with many different accents. Some were sitting, others lying down. Also a few standing up. Roll calling was slow. Whenever a number is announced, there was a little commotion. People were continuously crowding around young Zhou, the person calling out the numbers, asking questions and beseeching. Young Zhou could only shake his head, with an embarrassed smile on his face.
I wanted to find a place to sit down. But whenever a person stood up, someone would immediately take the open seat.
I yawned. I came yesterday in the middle of the night and waited in front of the door for the entire evening. First, the numbers were handed out. A girl from Inner Mongolia spontaneously became the leader of the tens of people in line. She had accompanied her mother here to seek medical help, and they lived in the hotel next door. So she came every day and got familiar with the place. She became an authority. People continually tried to find out things from her.
“Is it really that miraculous?”
“How should I put it,” she smiled, “Just see for yourself.”
“My daughter has optic atrophy, both of her eyes are blind …” a forty something middle-aged women recited, as if from a book.
“Last year my daughter had a serious illness. But after recovering from the illness she could no longer speak ……”
“I ……”
The girl from Inner Mongolia was surrounded by layers of people.
Number 68, I held in a hand a piece of paper the width of a finger.
I had my reporter’s credentials and association of writers’ membership card in my pocket. I had played around with them for quite a while. It was time I put them back.
The weather was a bit cold. The night wind was making people sneeze. I found a leeward corner where several people were already crowded together.
“Will it be a waste of money?”
“Who knows?”
“When he emitted qi, did you feel it?”
” How should I put it? He said yes, and I thought I felt it. But if he had not said it, I probably would say that I did not feel it.”
A mosquito bit me, I felt very itchy. “It is already May, where did that mosquito come from?” I wondered.
I looked at my watch, it was only four o’clock. I was very hungry. The door would not open for another four hours. Number 68. If things were slow, I might have to wait until the afternoon. That was what the girl from Inner Mongolia told me.
I was getting impatient. I wanted to yell at someone. I was wondering if I was one of those people that get deceived easily just like those described in the newspaper. I hear the wind, and would blindly think it would rain, pure naivety.
Just wait. What else could I do? Who can I blame for my bad eyes, my tunnel vision. In the old days no one had heard of this term. Someone has to lead me to cross the street. With my eyes wide open, I would still bump into people. When there were two people standing in front of me, and I thought I was shaking the hand of one of them, I would discover that the hand actually belonged to the other person. … And I am only 40 years old.
“You will go blind.” Some doctors say.
“Poor prognosis.” They mean the same.
I read through several thick medical dictionaries, in Chinese, English, French, German …… The explanations are basically the same. The conclusions are identical: incurable. Such bad luck. Is there anyone on earth that is more unfortunate than I? I am only 40-year-old …
I did not believe that miracles happened in this world, but I was hoping for a miracle.
A meteor crossed the sky. I did not know what kind of sign it was. Was it a harbinger of a bright coming dawn, or was it warning me that the light that I would see would be fleeting?
———-
He touched my head with one hand. He waved his the other hand back and forth, to and fro, in front of my eyes. I was very calm, maybe because I was not holding out too much hope. Fate had not been kind to me.
“What do you do?” His voice was very strong, that I noticed once I entered the room. He was constantly talking to the patients.
I wanted to lie, to say that I was a political section chief or a fitter. “Don’t people say that you have extraordinary abilities? Let me give you a test.” Those words were about to leave my lips, but I changed my mind.
“Editor.”
“Then you have to use your eyes.”
“Yes.”
He walked one meter away from me, then charted my whole body in the air with one of his fingers.
“Comfortable? Answer me.” He said.
“Well ……” I was a little confused. I did not think that I felt anything.
He covered my eyes with his palms. I felt warmth, not too hot, very comfortable, like standing close to a oven in the winter.
“You two eyes are already relaxed.”
“Really?”
“Aren’t they? Absolutely correct.”
“Ah, ah.”
I really felt that it was a little brighter in front of my eyes. He raised his hands to both sides of my head to check my field of vision. I could see some vague figures on each side. I was so excited, I was so excited that I stood up and started jabbering at him and all those patients lying on beds who I did not know.
“No hospital has ever said that my illness can be cured. I have tried all kinds of home remedies, alternative treatments. They were all useless. Doctor Zhao, I entrust my eyes to you.”
He laughed out loudly.
“You were right to look for me. I can give you sight. I am better than everyone else.”
“I am better than everyone else.” I kept repeating his words to myself. “Why couldn’t he say it more humbly? Like, I will give it a try, I am not perfect, etc. etc.”
He had left me and walked to another bed. I did not know if my treatment had been finished. I kept sitting there and dared not move.
———-
Lying on that bed was a husky man from the northeast. His height was over 1.85 meters. He weighed at least 80, 90 kilograms. He was wearing a brand-new police uniform. He groaned endlessly.
“…… doctor,” the man raised his head and said.
“You don’t have to say anything, let me see.” Zhao Xue Zhong said with a smile and a look of self-confidence. “You overworked your lumbar muscles and you have sciatica. This has troubled you for seven, eight years. This is the fourth big flare up, correct? Answer me. “
The man from the northeast was a little dumbfounded. He looked at Zhao Xue Zhong for a long time, unable to speak. “Yes, yes, you are totally correct, one time in 1979, then 1981, then 1985, so this is the fourth time. You are amazing.”
“I even know your wife’s illness.” He had already stretched out one finger, and was emitting qi towards the big policeman. “Your wife has a bad liver, answer me, is that correct?”
“Yes, yes, hepatitis”. Northeast guy nodded and said,” This is weird. You have never seen her. How can you know her illness?”
“Well, I will be honest with you. Even if you are in the United States, I can see what your problem is.”
“The United States?” The northeast man wondered if his ears were having problems.
“Not just the United States. Any other country applies as well, as long as it is on this earth.”
The northeast guy stopped talking. From the expression on his face, I knew that he stopped believing. But he did not want to upset the doctor.
“Baloney.” This word suddenly surfaced in my mind. I tried very hard to get rid of it, but could not.
I looked at Zhao Xue Zhong with a little sympathy. “Just treat the patient. Why say these impertinent things,” I thought.
“It went down, went down.” Zhao Xue Zhong stood more than two meters away from the northeast man, held out two fingers, and emitted qi to him. “Answer me, what do you feel?”
“My two legs __, moving from high down to low.”
“Right, correct.” Zhao Xue Zhong nodded. “Up, up.” Following his voice, the northeast guy’s two long legs lifted high up. Then he started lowering and raising them one at a time, striking the bed. All the people in the building were dumbfounded.
“That is good.” As Zhao Xue Zhong spoke, he pressed his hands on the patient’s waist, and massaged it.
“You get up.” After half a minute, Zhao Xue Zhong retreated to one side and said.
The northeast guy kind of doubted himself. He slowly got up, using his two hands to support his lower back.
“Stand up straight, it is alright.”
The northeast guy straightened up, with a big grin on his face.
“You try walking around, everyone please give him room.”
The northeast guy lifted his heels and walked towards the hall. The first few steps were very tentative. Then he started walking naturally, his heavy leather shoes pounding loudly on the concrete floor.
The northeast guy laughed, grinning from ear to ear. Everyone in the building applauded.
“Miraculous doctor, miraculous doctor.” The northeast guy stood in front of Zhao Xue Zhong and bowed his head. Zhao Xue Zhong, who is 1.67 meters tall, appeared to be very short in front of him.
“Tonight you will still be a little sore. You should come again tomorrow.”
“Thank you, thank you.” The northeast guy was excited to the point of incoherence. “I am passing by Beijing from Shenyang to the northwest on duty. I was going to send a telegram home, asking them to send another person to the northwest. Now that is not necessary.”
“You can book an airplane ticket for the day after tomorrow. You will be fine by then.”
The man from the northeast left. Everyone’s eyes followed his broad silhouette out, and did not know what to say. Half an hour before, he was almost crawling, grimacing in pain. And then, not that long afterwards, he marched out proudly.
So Zhao Xue Zhong was really as miraculous as people say, right? I looked at Zhao Xue Zhong again. He was standing in front of another patient. “Answer me, is that correct?” His voice was always so full of confidence.
———-
He came back to me, putting his palms close to my eyes. The feeling was still like walking into a big oven in the winter time.
“Eyes getting brighter,” he said.
“Yes.” I stared at the pair of deceivingly magical hands.
“The field of vision is also broader.”
“Yes.” I believed him, even though I did not notice that the field was getting any wider.
Just like the northeast guy I marched proudly out of the treatment room, across the hall, and arrived at the curb. The road looked brighter. The surrounding buildings and trees were brighter. A girl, holding a popsicles in her hand, walked by me. I intentionally walked next to her. Without turning my head, I could clearly see her every move. “Did my field of vision really expand? Has my peripheral vision returned? ” I asked myself.
I deliberately walked in very in big steps. “Why did I always have to walk so timidly?” I wanted to sing. I know a lot of songs. I can even sing Fei Xiang’s and Yu Jun Jian’s songs. It seemed that I had returned to my youth. Why should I consider myself old? I am only 40 …
My steps were light and brisk. Several times I was almost bouncing across the street. Why did I have to hold onto other people’s clothes? Why did I have to look this way and that like a thief? Wasn’t it true that I did not bump into anyone?
I thought my vision was just like a normal person’s. “Bam”, I fell down. The front wheel of a bicycle ran over my feet. I sat on the ground. Stars appeared in front of my eyes.
The rider got down from the bicycle. He stood in front of me apologetically.
“You may go, my eyes are not good.” I came back to reality, a bit disheartened.
It was at the eastern crossroads. I had left Zhao Xue Zhong’s Hua Yi clinic less than a half hour before.
I started crossing the street more carefully. As before I looked around in all directions. For a while I even closely followed a woman who was carrying a child.
I came to a stop of the number 10 bus. The bus came. The door opened. I ran two steps, just two steps. “Ouch” I knocked down an old lady.
I sighed. I was depressed. What magical qi gong! Zhao Xue Zhong, who? Miraculous doctor! It was all illusory. Useless.
“Did it work?” My wife asked me when I got home.
“Do not know.”
“Going again tomorrow?”
“No.”
———-
But only a few days later, I appeared again in the crowded line.
The little girl from Inner Mongolia was still in charge. She seemed to still remember me, and nodded at me.
“Where is that policeman from Harbin?” I did not know why, but I was concerned about him.
“He flew to Xinjiang already, good as new. He had been completely cured.”
“How about that girl from Tianjin with optic atrophy?”
“She came every day. At the beginning she could not see anything. Now she is able to see the sun.
That little boy in the front is who they hired to wait in line for them, 80 cents a night.”
“How about that lady driver with the breast tumor?”
“She does not come any more. The tumor disappeared after two treatments. Doctor Zhao just pointed at it, and you can see it shrink.”
“All so miraculous, why didn’t it work for me? Just wait, my plight will also touch the gods.” I thought to myself.
The annoying wait again. The toilet was very far away. I was afraid that I would not be able to hear when my number was called. So I had to ask my neighbor in line to listen out for me.
Five hours had passed by, in this crowded and not very clean hall. Zhao Xue Zhong was still talking endlessly with patients in the treatment room. Always that phrase “Correct? Answer me.”
Was he really worth my waiting around for like that?
Sudden there was a commotion. All the doctors were flocking to the backyard. Zhao Xue Zhong went also, leaving seven, eight patients lying in the treatment room.
All the patients stretched their necks to look towards the backyard. There was a door. Although the door was open, no one dared to go out to the back yard. “Diao Li is coming!” someone said.
“Which Diao Li?”
“The Beijing Opera singer Diao Li”
Diao Li emerged with assistance. Some people recognized that the person supporting her was her husband, Li Yan. Li Yan was carrying a blue helmet.
Diao Li. I recognized her. I also liked her performances. Our publication used her on the cover for one of the issues. Diao Li’s head was tightly wrapped in a white head scarf.
“She fell, fell off a motorcycle. “
“Serious brain concussion, there is a lump on the left side the size of a duck egg.”
“She has a performance at the great hall the day after tomorrow, in honor of some heads of state from Africa.”
“What performance? She will be lucky to stay alive.”
“Why doesn’t she go to the hospital? This kind of injury, if not treated well …”
Zhao Xue Zhong was really something. He solemnly asked all the patients in the clinic to leave. The clinic door was closed. The only ones remaining inside were Diao Li, Li Yan, Zhao Xue Zhong, and his top student Guo Gui Qing.
Many people crowded around the crack in the door to look inside. I did not know if they wanted to see the beautiful actress, or would like to watch Zhao Xue Zhong.
20 minutes passed. Half an hour passed. One hour passed. The door finally opened. Diao Li was the first to come out, dragging a milky orange petal bag, stepping in a pair of milky white high heels, with a slight smile on the corner of her lips, the very image of a star. The head scarf had disappeared. Her hair was ruffled, but natural. The duck egg sized lump was also gone.
“Almost lost her!”
Li Yan was still a little fearful.
“Alright now. Anyone who comes here will be fine. Go back and rest. She can perform as usual in the evening.” Zhao Xue Zhong said cheerfully.
“I have to go back and find the motorcycle.”
“Look for it tomorrow. I will call a taxi to take you home. I will pay for the taxi.” Zhao Xue Zhong said.
“That’s not right.” Diao Li laughed.
“Just making friends. You can invite me to a performance some time.”
Diao Li and her husband left in the taxi called by Zhao Xue Zhong’s staff. Zhao Xue Zhong walked them all the way to the car door.
All the people who witnessed this magical scene were stunned. Their eyes stared at Diao Li coming in, and followed Diao Li out as she departed.
“If I had not seen it with my own eyes, even if you tried to convince me until your lips broke, I would not have believed you,” someone with a Henan accent said.
“Magic, simply incredible.” I too became restless. I suddenly thought that I must write a newspaper an article to record this amazing scene.
That night when I told my wife what happened, she was still skeptical at the end of the story.
“Did he work hard on you? Do you need to give him something?” My wife said to me when we woke up the next morning.
When I later talked to Zhao Xue Zhong about this incident, he was so happy tears flowed down his face.
After a few days, I called one of my friends at the China Beijing Opera House and asked him who was performing for the foreign guests at the great hall that night. He said, “Diao Li.”
———-
I like to make friends. All my friends know that I know Qi Gong Master Zhao Xue Zhong. I tell them about what I saw and heard at Zhao Xue Zhong’s clinic. So I also became half a qi gong practitioner.
“Can he treat my stomach problem?”
“My wife has a fibroma on her face.”
“A relative of one of my friends has a daughter. She is 24 years old. Last spring a tractor fell on her. Now she cannot speak, cannot walk, just lie there all day in a vegetative state. Her boyfriend left. They have spent a lot of money, all to no avail. She is just waiting to die, the family is so sad.”
I told Zhao Xue Zhong about this girl’s condition. He did not speak for a long time. Not until I was about to say goodbye did he hesitantly say to me: “Why don’t you bring her here. I will give it a try.”
The girl came, lying on a flatbed pull cart. She had fine features, with a light complexion. But she was very thin. Her eyes were tightly closed. Her whole body was without feeling as people put her on the bed like a stack of firewood.
“Blood stasis in the brain and other organs.” Zhao Xue Zhong said to the mother as he looked at the girl. “I will give it a try, but I cannot say whether I will be able to cure her.”
This is the first time Zhao Xue Zhong took so much care to make sure that his words were measured.
He started emitting qi to the girl. First he gently stroked the girl’s whole body with both hands. Then he pressed several acupuncture points in her head and waist with his fingers, for a long time.
Zhao Xue Zhong started sweating. His forehead sparkled. It was the first time I saw him sweat while emitting qi. His student Guo Gui Qing took out a silk handkerchief and wiped his forehead.
Ten minutes passed. The girl began to move. First her eyes opened slightly. Then her head started to shake gently.
Her mother’s eyes filled with tears.
After another little while Zhao Xue Zhong said to the girl, “You sit up.”
Her mother eagerly wanted to help her. Zhao Xue Zhong blocked her way.
“She cannot hear,” her mother said.
“Don’t be anxious,” Zhao Xue Zhong said.
Another miracle?
The girl really slowly sat up!
No one helped her. She did not lean on anything. She sat up straight, motionless, like a marble statue.
The whole building was extremely quiet. All the people held their breath, for fear that any sound or movement would make the girl fall down again.
Zhao Xue Zhong did not pay attention to the sentiment of the people surrounding him. He calmly, steadily observed the girl in front of him, as if the two of them were the only ones in the world at that moment.
“You say China.” That was the command from Zhao Xue Zhong. His voice was not as strong and crisp as usual. Actually, a little hoarse. “You say China, say China.”
Everyone waited.
The girl took a look at Zhao Xue Zhong. A light flashed across her beautiful eyes. It was as if she had known him for a long time.
She smiled. The corner of her mouth twitched a little. It was barely visible.
“Chi – na.” Such was the voice of the girl. It was also a bit hoarse, even a little pained. The sound was very light, but it knocked at the people’s hearts like drum beat.
“Beijing.”
“Bei – jing.”
“Tiananmen.”
“Tian – an – men.”
Zhao Xue Zhong laughed, laughed very loud. The whole room echoed with his laughter.
No one noticed when it was that her poor mother fell on her knees in front of Zhao Xue Zhong.
“Madam, please don’t do this. I am a doctor. Healing the sick and the injured is my responsibility.” Zhao Xue Zhong raised her up with his two hands.
“You saved my daughter. It is the same as saving my whole family. If she dies, I will not be able to live.” The old woman’s tears welled up as if from a spring as she hugged her daughter.
No one asked her to stop. Let her cry. She needed to release her feelings.
“Madam, this cannot be considered a full recovery yet. When she goes back tonight, she needs to excrete out the stagnant blood. If she cannot do it, even I will not be able to do anything.” Zhao Xue Zhong said.
Who says Zhao Xue Zhong is just hype? “I am the best.” “You will definitely recover.” These are Zhao Xue Zhong’s mantra.
“The psychological effect on the people is very important. I must first help them build confidence. If I do not have confidence, how can they have confidence?” Zhao Xue Zhong said to me one day afterwards.
Zhao Xue Zhong became more important in my mind. I dare say that I liked him, even loved him. In my eyes, he was not just a mysterious qi gong master. More importantly, he was a good person, a doctor, someone who could alleviate other people’s sufferings, a doctor who had extraordinary abilities.
The girl had been pulled away on the flatbed cart. Zhao Xue Zhong came over to treat my eyes. I still had the feeling of a roasting oven. I looked at Zhao Xue Zhong. He looked at me. He was quite handsome, a little under 1.7 meters, thin, even skinny. But his eyes shone, his face was bright. Some say he was 50. After my precise research, he was only 48, just three years older than me. But the first time I saw him, I thought he was at most 40. There was always a black mustache. I thought he never shaved, deliberately letting it grow. Later I discovered that sometimes he would shave it. One Sunday afternoon, he was clean shaven. I asked him if he was going home that night. He nodded (he usually lived at the clinic). I understood. He shaved his beard to spend time with his wife. On this point he was like many of us, nothing mysterious.
He finished treating me. I respectfully bowed and said “thank you” three times. This made him uneasy. I dare say at that moment I felt sublime. I no longer only thought about myself, dwelling on the eye ailment that still did not have any significant improvement after several treatments. My bow was on behalf of the big policeman from Harbin, on behalf of the female star Diao Li, on behalf of the girl from Tianjin who had been cured of the same eye illness that I had, and on behalf of girl who just left, the one who had been crushed by the tractor.
I said to Zhao Xue Zhong, “I am so happy watching you heal them.”
“Then you are like me, a really nice person,” patting my shoulder, Zhao Xue Zhong said with a smile.
Not long ago, at the night market in Xidan, I ran into that pretty girl. Standing next her was a handsome young man. Evidently she had completely recovered. She was selecting a modern style skirt.
———-
One day, I made a mistake. The clinic was closed. I travelled a long distance to get there. I had to transfer to a different bus twice, took an hour and a half. When I arrived, the iron gate was closed. I banged on the gate loudly. Nothing stirred inside. I went to knock on the back door. The girl in charge of cooking peeked through the crack in the doorway and saw me (they all knew me as the one who came often and was a little” foggy”). She grinned and opened the door. Zhao Xue Zhong was playing mahjong. Next to him was young Zhau, who worked in the registration office. There were also two old men who I did not know well. His top student, female qigong master, Guo Gui Qing was leaning against the bed reading a Jin Yong novel. She was not wearing her usual white clinic overcoat. Instead she was wearing a quite stylish dress, looking so gentle, yet graceful. Anyone who saw how demure she looked, would never have realized that if she had pointed her finger at certain acupuncture points on your body, you would collapse onto the ground as if someone had knocked you over.
I had a cup of tea in front of me. He also had a cup of tea in front of him. We sat face to face at the two ends of the tea table. A few days before, I had asked him for an interview, and he readily agreed.
“What would you like me to talk about?” He looked at me smilingly, a little shy.
The tape recorder had been turned on. The magnetic tape was spinning with a hissing sound. “That’s right, what should I ask him to talk about?”
“Well … well …” I did not know what I should ask. “Why are you so amazing? Can you show me a little of what is behind the scenes? I can keep a secret.” My face must have been red. I knew that I had raised a presumptuous question. Was I doing an interview? Or was I probing into people’s secrets?
He laughed. “I knew you had to ask this,” he said.
“Is this top secret?” I anxiously asked.
“Nothing is top secret. Everything of mine can be made public.”
“You are not afraid that I will publish your words in the newspaper”
“What am I afraid of? Qi gong is a science. Science is not for anyone to hide or conceal.”
“How can you clearly see the internal organs of people through their clothing and skin?” My eyes must have looked very cunning. I tried to put it very lightly. However, I had personally seen him say to a male patient that he had three stab wounds in the back, two of them started from the top downwards, one from left to right. When the patient took off several layers of clothing in front of us, we all saw that what was described was absolutely correct. Another time, a girl accompanied her relatives to come for treatment. He casually glanced at her, and said: “Both sides of your breast have tumors, they are the size of large egg yolks, and are shaped like dates.” The girl was petrified and immediately pulled out the diagnostic X-ray reports from Tiantan Hospital. It was exactly like he said.
I could see that he was uneasy. He raised his cup and took sip after sip.
I did not say anything. You could say that I did not want to disturb him. The only sound in the room was the “hissing” from the tape recorder.
“I cannot explain clearly. Anyway, I just know it. And every time I have been correct.” He said.
“Do you really see it? Is there an actual visual image? Or do you just feel it, just a kind of information message?” I narrowed into the specific.
He did not speak. For a moment he was in deep thought.
“It is a kind of information message,” he said.
“It is something that is felt, not seen. Correct?”
“Something like that,” he looked at me and said. He then appeared to be a very ordinary person, so honorable and honest. It was as if he had done something bad, and was being interrogated by me.
“Can you be more specific?
“For example, there is a person standing in the building, or standing outside the building. Even if there are several layers of walls between us, or he is tens of meters away, if I want to see him, within a few seconds, I will be able to see his entire body, including his blood flow, blood pressure, things that hospitals require instruments to find out about.”
“Do you actually see it? “
“No, I just know it.”
“No image?”
“Sometimes there is an image.”
“When would an image appear? When would there be no image?”
“It varies. Sometimes it appears, sometimes not.”
“What do you have to do to see it? Do you have to emit qi?”
“No. Just by concentrating. In our qi gong terms, it is called intention.”
“So when you intend to see it, the answer will come.”
“Yes”
“How about from a thousand miles away? Or even from overseas?”
“The sensation is the same. When the intention is there, the answer will come. The greater the distance, the slower it will arrive.”
“Do you have to know the person?”
“Not necessarily, knowing and not knowing is the same.”
“At least you have to know the name, right?”
“Also not necessarily.”
“Can you see an image? “
“Sometimes yes. Sometimes the image arrives even faster than the other information.”
I shook my head. I could not understand. I could only say that it was beyond my ability to understand, but I could not say that I did not believe.
I wanted him to see a person, right then. I did not tell him. I was afraid that in such a situation, to put him on the spot like that would antagonize him. What if he did not see correctly? Would he be embarrassed?
“You tell me.” He knew what I was thinking.
I told him about a friend who lived in a city at the southern border, an ordinary person who few people would know.
“Do I have to tell you the name?” I asked.
He looked very focused. His two eyes sparkled. It seemed that he did not hear my words. So I said it again.
“Up to you. You can tell me, or not tell me. Anyway, the image has already arrived,” he said.
I still told him the name of the person.
He then immediately described that person’s gender, age, height, fairness of the skin complexion, character, and the health status of all the organs in the body. At the end, he also said, “Did you know? Not long ago, she had to stay at a hospital because of some stomach problems? “.
I knew. I had just been informed the previous afternoon, when I received an airmail letter from her.
“Was what I said correct?” He asked me with a smile.
I was speechless. I could not say anything. Everyone else from the clinic had left. There were only the two of us in the huge yard. The cool evening breeze whizzed around us, giving me a creepy feeling. I looked at him, a strange feeling arose in my heart. After knowing him those many days I thought we had gotten quite close. But then his face and entire body became blurry again. He floated in front of me, far away for a while and then very close.
“When did you find out that you have this ability?” It took me a long time to regain my composure.
“Then I have to start from the very beginning.”
I changed the tape, and moved the recorder closer to him.
“I used to be in very poor health. Within twenty years I had to stay in the hospital fourteen times. I was hospitalized almost every year. I was as thin as a straw, very pale and skinny. In the factory, I had this not very flattering nickname of “archaeological find.”
“Archaeological find! Even at that time they already knew that you are a rare treasure.” I joked with him.
“They did not mean that. They meant coffin material,” he laughed. “I had hemiplegia. After 1976, my left leg was so stiff that I could hardly walk. One of my kidneys ruptured. The hospital wanted to transplant a dog kidney in me. I would rather die. I am a man. How can I have a dog kidney, it was ridiculous. The doctors could not do anything with me. They told my wife that at most I would live for another half a year.”
“Had the dog kidney been transplanted then, this Zhao Xue Zhong probably would not exist here today, right?” I said.
“Exactly. If something went wrong, I would have been dead. I also had heart disease, which flared up regularly. Every time it did, I would not be able to go to work for 10 to 15 days. The people at the factory could not even remember that I existed. One night two winters ago, I was waiting for a bus in front of the entrance to Zhongshan park. I saw one of our factory workers. We had not seen each other for five, six years. But I could still recognize her. I addressed her. She turned around and looked at me. She stared at me with wide opened eyes, and did not say anything for a long time. Then she asked, ‘Are you Zhao Xue Zhong?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘Aren’t you dead?’ ‘Who said that?’ ‘Many people said that you have been dead for several years’. You can imagine how I looked then. “
Zhao Xue Zhong took a look at the spinning tape and continued, “One year, probably in 1980, I was a little upset with my family. Suddenly my heart felt uncomfortable. I knew that it was flaring up again. I did not tell anyone, just put on a big cotton coat and bicycled to Beijing University Hospital. As soon as I arrived at the hospital, I fainted and become unconscious. I did not know how the doctors rescued me. I did not wake up until 9:00 am the next morning. My family was crying hysterically, thinking that I was gone. I stayed in the hospital for two months. After I came out I walked shakily, and needed assistance to cross the road.” He smiled, looked at me and said,” Just like how you cross the road. “
“Afterwards, I went with big brother Gu from our neighborhood to the North Sea Qi Gong station to learn qi gong. He came from Tangshan. After the Tangshan earthquake, a few people from his hometown came. I let them stay at the shed that I had built, and he kept thinking that he owed me. He had practiced qi gong for many years. He urged me to learn. I decided to give it a try. This last flare up scared me. If I had died and left my wife and kids to fend for themselves, it would have been terrible. I did not expect that the Qigong master would not accept me. When they saw how sick I was, they became afraid that I would die there and ruin their reputation. I immediately gave them three assurances: (1) I would pay the tuition, but I would not formally be one of their students; (2) during practice, I would take full responsibility for my health, it had nothing to do with the Qi Gong station; (3) I would practice for one week, if it did not work, I would withdraw. Big brother Gu also pleaded for me. Finally, they accepted me. “
“What form did you practice?” I asked.
“‘Soaring Crane Stance’ Unexpectedly, as soon as the third day, I filled up qi. This first eruption was frightening. My whole body was hot like an oven. It was as if I was floating in the clouds, very comfortable, very pleasant. It was hard to describe. I seemed to be in fairyland. My head was very clear, but my feet were uncontrollable. Afterwards, they said that I was racing around like a tank. They did not know where the power came from, but I knocked down six, seven people. The Qi Gong Stations teacher said I might have extraordinary abilities.”‘
“I seemed to have been possessed. I practiced Qi Gong all day long.” Zhao Xue Zhong went on to say. “Sometimes I even skipped eating and sleeping. My wife thought that I became crazy. But I suddenly discovered that all my illnesses had disappeared. When I walked my legs bounced with a lot of energy. I could run a few hundred meters without panting. My complexion grew rosy, even my voice became stronger than before. “
“I also practiced Soaring Crane Stance, but it was nowhere so incredible,” I said.
“That is probably the difference between you and I,” he continued. “One night, I was in the factory workshop practicing. Other people had left already. I was alone by myself. While I was practicing, I heard a ‘bang’. I was startled. A lamp had exploded. I thought the lamp had a problem. After a while, another ‘bang’, another lamp exploded. By then I was a little scared. If I continued to practice, I did not know what would happen next. But I did not want to stop practicing. It was as if qi gong had taken control of my spirit. I ran to the wooded area next to the factory to practice. Every time I practiced it would take half a day. Those days, my wife and children had a lot to put up with me. Not only did I ignore the family, whenever I arrived home, they could not watch television. As soon as I stepped inside the house, the television screen would flicker like lightning, jump around, and after a while, the image would disappear. In the evening, I could not visit anyone’s home. Whoever’s house I entered, their television set would go bad. This was hard on me. I could not just stay out alone on the road all the time. Besides I really wanted to watch the television series like “Blood suspect”, “Huo Yuan Jia”, too. I still cannot wear a watch. Once I put a watch on, it would stop working. “
“Later, I found that I could diagnose people’s ailments. One day, several of us were walking along the shore of the North Sea. A dozen meters in front of us was a 60 something year old woman. I told the people around me, ‘That old woman has hepatitis.’ The people with me did not believe me, they thought it was baloney. One of them actually ran up and asked the old woman. Her answer confirmed what I said. They said that it was a coincidence, like a blind cat catching a dead rat. After a while, a middle-aged man walked towards us. They asked me what conditions he had. I said that the man had an injury, and the back of his head would often feel numb. They asked. That man in fact was hit on the head by a brick at work, and the feeling in his head was exactly as I said. “
“The news spread throughout the workshop. The guys came to bet with me. Some asked me to diagnose them, some asked me to check their relatives, some their fiances. And I would really bet with them. To tell the truth, at that time, I was not always absolutely sure. But no matter what, I did not lose even once. I won a lot of things, watermelons, beer, cigarettes. When the bets were settled, we would all go out to eat. I grew more and more confident. “
“One time, a foreman said to me jokingly, ‘Little Zhao, they all say that you are incredible. Can you tell what illness I have?’ This person was known for his health and strength. He ate and slept well. He was very strong, and had never been sick. I looked at him and said, ‘You have an egg in your stomach.’ ‘Are you kidding me? You think that I am a hen? How can I have an egg?’ ‘If you do not believe me, you can feel for it. Three fingers width to the right of the belly button.’ He decided to probe the area with his hand. As soon as he found it, his facial expression changed. There was indeed a lump the size of an egg. The next day, he did not come to work. He went to the hospital for an X-ray. I visited him at his home. He was in bed with a cover on his head. I could not have imagined that a husky man like him could have lost so much weight overnight. He said that the hospital wanted to perform surgery on him. He was afraid, afraid that he might die in the hospital. Then his wife and kids would not have anyone to take care of them. As he spoke he even began to cry. “
“I comforted him a while. I promised that I would try to use qi gong to treat him. This was my first time treating someone. I was quite nervous. Unexpectedly, after only one treatment, the tumor got smaller. After the fifth treatment, the tumor was gone, without a trace. I still did not believe it. I asked him to go to the hospital for an X-ray. The X-ray confirmed that the tumor had disappeared. “
“How did you cure him?” I asked.’
“I emitted qi to him, and massaged him with my hand along with the qi.”
“Oh.” I was not sure if I understood.
“I went home and told my mother. My mother had been paralyzed in bed for many years. She was very happy and said, ‘Why don’t you hurry and treat me too.’ Her words roused me. That night I started treating her. Even I could hardly believe it. A month later, my mother, who had been bedridden for many years, could get down from the bed and walk. Before, she had to lie in bed, and we had to wait on her. Now, she could cook for us, watch over the stove, pick vegetables. When we get home from work, the meal is ready. When you have time come to our home and see. The old lady is very strong. “
“These two incidents made me very happy. I felt that I, Zhao Xue Zhong, was not the Zhao Xue Zhong from before. I was a useful person now. I would constantly think about healing others. When I cured a person the feeling in my heart was hard to describe. I could be joyful for several days.”
“Did you charge money?” I asked a question that I probably should not have.
“Charge money? I would be happy enough if no one yelled at me. One time, I was sitting on the bus. Three or four female comrades got on. I said to a young one: ‘Comrade, you sit here,’ and I stood up. The women looked at me guardedly. I quickly said, ‘You have achilles tendinitis, standing is painful.’ That girl, still wary, said: ‘Yes, how did you know?’ I had to explain my background, ‘I am a qi gong master. If you agree, I can heal you. It is very fast.’ Those female comrades laughed heartily and got off the bus. One of the women said: ‘Look at him.’ All of the people on the bus stared at me, made my face bright red. “
“Another time, I was walking down Heping street. I saw several young people surrounding a flatbed cart. A middle-aged woman was lying on the cart, moaning. I could see that her sciatica was causing her limbs to be numb. She also had heart problems. I went up to the young people and said: ‘Let me help her.’ ‘Thank you, we have enough people.’ they said. ‘What I am saying is that she does not need to go to the hospital. Bring her home. I will treat her.’ I was practically begging them. ‘What do you do? ‘ I lied and said that I was a traditional Chinese doctor. They looked at me from top to bottom, assessing me.”
“You are really something,” I said. “If you did not do a good job, and badly delayed the patient’s time for prompt treatment, what could you do? If the patient died, could they forgive you?”
“You are correct. When I thought about it later, I was also a little scared. But at that time, I did not think about anything else. I just wanted to treat her.”
“Not even a little bit of doubt?”
“No, not a trace at all. This I also got from practicing qi gong. The more I practiced, the more clear my mind became. Have nothing to fight over, nothing to pray for.” He said lightheartedly.
I quietly ingrained his words into my heart. Have a clear mind. Have nothing to fight over, nothing to pray for. I seemed to have realized something, about qi gong, about him.
“Was that person healed?”
“Cured. She could walk after half an hour. She was so grateful. Now she visits me every new year and other holidays.”
“If before the treatment he had any doubt about whether it would be successful, would the miracle still happen?” I thought to myself. To research Zhao Xue Zhong’s magic, this was a point not to overlooked.
The tape spun really quickly. In no time, three tapes were full.
“When you emit external qi during the treatment, does it do any harm to your body?” I asked after changing to a new tape.
“I never paid it that much thought,” he said.
“You are not afraid that it could shorten your life?” My questions were becoming very frank.
He looked at me in silence. He did not speak for a while, and seemed a little unhappy.
“How long do you think people should live?” he asked me back.
I was a little stressed.
He poured some water into my cup, to ease the slight tension in the room.
The question slipped past.
But the answer was clear to me.
“I heard that you have a lot of money, correct?” I was not one that gave up easily. I continued my questions after a pause.
“I spend most of the money on the patients.” Zhao Xue Zhong said dismissively.
” How many people do you see each day?”
“You have seen that here. Every day it is supposed to be 50 patients. But actually there are nearly a hundred people each day. Some are referred by friends. Others have come a long way.”
“Tired?”
“A little tired.”
“Ay complains from the family? Like from your wife?”
“Yes, there are complains. We used to fight over this all the time. Now at home, it is as though I do not exist. So we don’t fight anymore.”
“Why?”
“You can tell that I am a very stubborn person.”
“What makes you most happy?”
“When I cured a patient, and he says as he is leaving, ‘Doctor Zhao, thank you’.”
“What makes you most sad?”
“When I cannot cure the patient’s disease. For example, your eyes. You come here every day. I can sense your sincerity. I just feel that I owe you something.”
“I cannot blame you.”
“You do not blame me. But I feel bad.”
“There is no doctor in the world who can cure every disease. This applies to you too.”
“Yes. But when I see the patient leave disappointedly, I really wanted to smash those plaques on the wall that say miraculous doctor.” He was getting excited. He is a sentimental person. On this point he is also just like us.
“In the past, you did not think that you would become a doctor, correct?”
“No, I did think about it. It was my childhood dream to become a doctor. Now this dream has been realized. This is the most blessed thing in my life. You see the plaques and flags hanging in my hall. The ones that say ‘Miraculous doctor Hwa Tuo’, ‘Hands that restore youth’, ‘When his hands come, illnesses depart’, ‘Returns the dying to life’. You must think that I am the type that likes to show off. But no matter what people think, every time when we move our clinic, I let my staff hang these up first. “
“This does not count as showing off. These are your achievements. These are the facts.”
“I do not regard them as achievements, but as mirrors, reflecting on myself.” He got a bit emotional. His eyes were a little red. “When I was a child, life was very hard for my family. My father and mother divorced when I was five years old. My mother brought me up alone. She mended people’s clothes to support us. Some days we did not have food. We did not have adequate clothing. In the winter, my mother took me to the food bank at De Qing Men to get porridge. She took me to the Drum Tower to queue up for old clothes donated by the kind-hearted rich people. When I was seven years old I contracted an infectious intestinal disease. At that time, we were under the Japanese occupation. According to the law, I was to be quarantined and burned to death. They had already captured me. My mother took advantage of the moonless night to steal me back. I was really lucky, I actually survived. The following year, when I was eight, I developed a spleen problem. Day after day my mother watched my belly swell up. She thought I would die. She put some arsenic near the head of the bed. If I died, she would not live either. One day, she pawned the only cotton blanket in our house; and took me to a traditional Chinese doctor’s home in East Fourth Wei-ji alley. Even now I can remember it very clearly. When we entered the alley I was stunned. On both sides of the alley large and small plaques hung under the eaves. I could not see an end to it. They strung along over half of the length of the alley. I did not recognize all of the words on the plaques. Vaguely they were like ‘Miraculous doctor Hua Tuo’, ‘Hands that restore youth’, ‘Honorable and virtuous’, and so on. This made me very inspired. It was the first time I had ever seen such an impressive scene. That scene has lived in my mind for several decades. ‘
“That traditional Chinese doctor was called Wei Gong Yi. I still remember how he looked. He diagnosed me and gave me a prescription. My mother did not have enough money. While she was digging into her pockets, the pawn ticket accidently fell out. Doctor Wei promptly inquired. My mother cried and explained the situation at our home. Doctor Wei immediately stated that he would treat me for free. I went there for more than a month, and took several dozen doses of traditional Chinese medicine. Doctor Wei did not charge us a penny, and my illness was finally cured. “
Zhao Xue Zhong was then very close to me. I understood him.
“Whenever I look at these plaques in the hall, I remember the brilliant scene in that half of the alley. Then I feel that I am far from having done enough. If there was no Doctor Wei to save me then, there would not be a Zhao Xue Zhong now.”
Zhao Xue Zhong cried. This mysterious man also cried like the rest of us, weeping broken-heartedly. My tape recorder recorded the sound of his sorrow …
———-
Again that crowded hall, filled with noise. Many people were waiting for their numbers to be called. Patients were lying on beds in the treatment rooms. Zhao Xue Zhong, in his white coat, sprightly standing in front of the patients, was again saying “Is that correct? Answer me.” “I am the best, I will cure you.”
It sounded so heartening to me, so sweet, like a piece of music, a song. There was no “baloney” This was him calling out to his patients with his heart and soul.
A couple from Hebei came with a six or seven year old boy. Dressed in rags, they surrounded the registration window requesting for a number.
“Really, there is no more”, the young man at the registration office explained to them, almost in tears.
Unexpectedly, the man sat down on the floor and began to cry. As he was crying, he described the situation. His was a family of nine. His wife was gravely ill. They had gone to doctors everywhere. To do so, they had sold almost everything they owned. This time someone told them that in Beijing was this miraculous doctor Zhao Xue Zhong. So he sold his last donkey for 300 dollars, and brought his wife here for treatment. He could not imagine not being able to get in line. Many patients gathered around him looking.
Having heard the crying, Zhao Xue Zhong came out from the treatment room. Did he know about this family’s situation because he heard the man’s tale, or was it from his extraordinary abilities, we did not know.
Zhao Xue Zhong pulled the man up from the floor. I sat in a far corner. I decided to simply close my eyes. I knew what Zhao Xue Zhong was going to do.
“Do not touch the money from the sale of the donkey. Go back and buy another one. The treatment will be free.” said Zhao Xue Zhong.
He turned to his student Guo Gui Qing and whispered a few words. The kind-hearted Guo Gui Qing nodded. That night Guo Gui Qing returned home. The next morning, she brought back a large bag of clothes.
The Hebei woman was cured. The three family members went home. A small banner was added to the clinic hall that read: “Free healing, saved my whole family.” Someone told me that it was from the Hebei fellow.
I looked at the little banner, my eyes becoming a little foggy. Zhao Xue Zhong, what could I say?
Then two people from Shanxi came, terminally ill. They had heard about Zhao Xue Zhong’s reputation. Zhao Xue Zhong told them frankly that he could not cure their disease. The men thought that he was making some excuse, and beseeched him repeatedly. They said that if they were cured, they would pay him handsomely. Zhao Xue Zhong looked at the two men, with an apologetic expression. “I am really sorry. You have travelled so far for nothing. I will pay for your return trip.” He had Guo Gui Qing fetch 30 yuan from the office. The two Shanxi men refused to accept. Zhao Xue Zhong got upset, “Then you are disrespecting me.” The Shanxi people finally accepted.
Zhao Xue Zhong also treated countless foreigners – Americans, Britons, Germans, Canadians. They gave him U. S. dollars, pounds, marks …… Zhao Xue Zhong said “No, thanks” to all of them and told us, “I am not doing this for the money. I wanted them to see the ability of the Chinese people.” In the eyes of all the “money oriented” people, Zhao Xue Zhong was probably the most stupid person. But the famous American Chinese Professor Nu Man Jiang could not praise the healing abilities and character of Zhao Xue Zhong highly enough.
Zhao Xue Zhong also performed a demonstration for the Chinese women’s volleyball team, Zhang Rong Fang, Yang Xi Lan, Jiang Ying … and their coach Tang Yue Jang. He also treated baseball players and wrestlers. He never charged them. When they got good results in competition, they would report to him. Then Zhao Xue Zhong was as happy as a kid.
I once had a conversation with an old medical expert, Professor Wang, who had been performing research on Zhao Xue Zhong’s treatment methods. Professor Wang said, “Doctor Zhao’s ability to diagnose illnesses is supreme, far more advanced than many modern detection instruments. Equipment can only detect data, they have no logical thought process. Within a few seconds Doctor Zhao can completely diagnose conditions that some hospital cannot even perform in a week. In term of healing, for some illnesses the results are amazing, practically unbelievable. For other conditions the effect is average. There are also some where the method has no effect. “
“Is this scientific?” I asked.
“Of course it is scientific.” This old comrade, who had devoted his entire life to medical research, replied. “There is no doubt about it. It is only that we cannot explain it yet. This phenomenon has precedence in the history of the science.”
I admire the courage of the Fengtai District Health Bureau, Chaoyang District Health Bureau and vice mayor of Ah Hao Su city. Against a lot of criticism they dared to officially approve the application for medical practice license by the Zhao Xue Zhong Qi Gong Clinic. I heard that this type of approval is very rare in the entire country.
Renowned doctor and president of the Chinese Medical Association, old man Wu Jie Ping, has personally witnessed Zhao Xue Zhong perform demonstrations. He said two words, “I believe.” He encouraged Zhao Xue Zhong to continue to make discoveries and train students, the more the better.
Yesterday, I received a long distance telephone call, from a far away city on the border. The caller was the one I mentioned previously in this article, the comrade who I had requested Zhao Xue Zhong to diagnose remotely. A few days ago I had written her a letter, telling her about the incident.
“Is your qi gong master really that amazing?”
“Yes.”
“I simply do not believe.”
“At first I was like you. Now I have changed my perspective. I call it hard to believe.”
“How are your eyes then?”
I had nothing to say.
“Have they recovered? Has the field of vision expanded?” she asked.
“There has been improvement.” I said after a pause.
“Could it just be psychological!”
“No. Zhao Xue Zhong said that he will give me light, and I believe his words.”
“I hope you are right.” She took a breath.
” In the end what kind of person is Zhao Xue Zhong?” A friend that delivered my newspaper discussed with me.
“Zhao Xue Zhong is Zhao Xue Zhong, a doctor, a qi gong master. Someone we know, and do not know ……” I am proud of my philosophical phrases.
But I am absolutely sincere …