People with power and influence may seem able to control almost anything, but traditional Chinese culture has long held that no one can escape the laws of life, illness, aging, death, and moral consequence. Money and status may solve many problems in the human world, yet they cannot erase the results of one’s actions. A strange account from the Tang Dynasty tells of a powerful military governor whose suffering could not be cured by any physician because the true cause of his illness did not lie in the body at all.
An illness no doctor could cure
During the Huichang era of the Tang Dynasty, a man named Wang Yao passed down an unusual story he had heard from an ancestor. This ancestor, identified simply as Wang, was from Qingzhou and once served under the military governor of Pinglu. In Tang times, a military governor, or jiedushi, was a high-ranking regional authority who held both military and administrative power.
The governor Wang served was surnamed Li. His personal name had been forgotten over time, but one detail remained unforgettable: he suffered terribly from recurring sores on his back. The wounds caused him constant pain, and the condition would not heal.
Because of Li’s rank, he had access to the best doctors available. Yet none of them could cure him. No treatment brought lasting relief, and the illness continued to torment him.
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