Supernormal Abilities in Chinese History: Legendary Doctor Bian Que

In Chinese history, there are many instances of supernormal phenomena, from sightings of real dragons to mystical Taoists who could levitate to superhuman levels of balance and agility. And one field where supernormal abilities were common to virtually all the major figures involved is Chinese medicine. Yep, that's right. All the famous doctors in Chinese history supposedly had supernormal abilities, and these skills are well documented in the historical texts. You may know about the methods in Chinese medicine to diagnose illnesses such as taking pulses or examining the tongue, but these were just pretenses to cover up the real secrets of the ancient Chinese medical arts. From being able to literally see inside the human body, to being able to diagnose an illness in a patient thousands of miles away, to secret concoctions of medical herbs, to mapping the energy channels of the human body, creating the acupuncture methods that doctors still use today. There are many things in the medical texts that are unexplainable from a modern scientific standpoint, and in this video, I'm going to delve into them using the example of one man who possessed multiple strange and exotic skills. This is... Supernormal Abilities in Chinese History The Legendary Doctor, Bian Que So, Bian Que was born in 407 BC. He lived during the Warring States period, and his real name was Qin Yueren, but he would later take on the name Bian Que, which had been the name of the Yellow Emperor's legendary doctor. Now, in the West, superhero origin stories are really important, okay? Spider-Man is bitten by a spider, Superman comes from another planet, and when he's exposed to the Yellow Sun of Earth, he becomes superhuman. But in China, it's a little different. Often, someone will find a secret martial arts manual and learn all the secrets from a book, or meet a master in the mountains who will personally impart the essence of a practice to them. And in this case, Bian Que gets his abilities from someone he meets randomly in a bar who persuades him to take some magic pills. Yeah, it sounds sketchy. Sounds like the kind of thing parents tell their kids not to do. But anyway, check out the official account from the Shi Ji, or Records of the Grand Historian. When he was young, Bian Que served as the manager of an inn. A guest called Chang Sangjun would pass through the inn, and Bian Que alone found there to be something extraordinary about this man, and he took extra care in serving him. Chang Sangjun also knew that Bian Que was no ordinary guy. He came and went for 10 years. Then one time, he called Bian Que to sit with him in private and chatted with him, saying, I have secret prescriptions, but I'm getting old. I would like to pass them on to you. Do not reveal them to anyone. Bian Que replied, I respectfully promise to do what you ask. Then from inside the breast section of his clothing, he took out some medicine. Take this with some water. After 30 days, you will know things. And kids, if you're at the school gates and some older kid says, here, take these pills and you'll know things, don't do it, okay? All right, back to the story. Then he took out his secret prescriptions and shared them all with Bian Que. Then suddenly, he disappeared. He perhaps wasn't even a human being to begin with. Bian Que did what the man asked, and he took the medicine for 30 days. After that, he had the ability to see a person on the other side of a wall. He used this ability to view illnesses in the body. He could see issues in the five internal organs. He used the method of taking pulses as a pretense. So from that account, you can see that the method of taking pulses that Chinese medicine doctors use today, or Mai Zhen, was actually something Bian Que invented to cover up the fact that his actual diagnosis came through supernormal abilities. Now, he had obviously observed a correlation between the pulse and certain conditions. So it is a method that works, but not how he was actually diagnosing people. There is a record in the Shi Ji of Bian Que stating that he could even diagnose illnesses in people thousands of miles away. Then there is a story about Bian Que passing through the state of Guo, where the crown prince was thought to be dead. However, it seems that he was just in a coma or on the verge of death. Bian Que used his acupuncture needles to revive him, and people really think he brought the prince back from the dead, but Bian Que is actually very humble about it. Thus, everyone under heaven thought Bian Que could revive dead people. But Bian Que said, I cannot bring the dead back to life. This person was alive. I just made him regain consciousness. There is one more miraculous story about Bian Que that indicates he used anesthesia and carried out an organ transplant over 300 years BC. Now, this story is recorded in the Taoist text, the Lie Zi, or the writings of Master Lie, written around the same time that Bian Que was alive. Duke Hu of the state of Lu and Zhao Qiying both had illnesses, so together they invited Bian Que to treat them, and he came and treated them. Now, he cures the sickness that they were suffering from acutely, but he then goes on to tell them that they both have a long-term chronic illness, and they actually both have opposite disorders. Bian Que tells Duke Hu, Your will is strong, but your qi is weak. Thus, you have ample plans, but lack decisiveness. Qiying has a weak will, but strong qi. Thus, he doesn't exercise careful planning and is reckless. If we switch your hearts, it would balance you both out. So somehow, crazily, the two guys agree to this plan. Bian Que gives them both some poisoned wine, and they fall into a deep coma for three days. He cuts open their chests to find their hearts, transplants the hearts, and sets them in place in the new body. He then gives them some divine medicine, and they wake up and they were back to normal. They both return home, but Duke Hu goes to Qiying's house, his wife is there, and his kids also, who don't recognize who he is. Qiying goes to Duke Hu's house, his wife and his kids don't recognize the man entering their home either. Thus, the two households were conflicted, and they sought out Bian Que for a resolution. Bian Que explained the reason, and it was resolved. This passage is kind of mysterious in that, on the surface, they swapped hearts, but in Chinese thought, the word heart, xin, also means mind, okay? In modern Chinese, you would have to say xin zang to actually differentiate that you meant the actual organ, the heart. So in the classical text, yes, he cuts them open, and they physically exchange hearts, but it seems that their mind is transferred into the other's body too, and the family members are like, what? This isn't my husband. But then when he explains what happened, they're just like totally okay with it. They're like, oh yes, I'll just accept that my husband has a new body. This is a theme that we've seen in numerous sci-fi shows over the years. If I am to remain in this body, I must shave my head. Tilk, you will not shave my head. So it's funny that we actually see this in Chinese historical texts, or perhaps it wasn't that absolute, and maybe they still were themselves, but they just got some of the subconscious memories from the other person, and that's why they returned to the wrong homes, and then when Bian Que came and sorted it out, they returned back to their own homes, and it was all all right. I don't know. The Liezi, anyway, is not an official history. It's more of a philosophical book, so I would give more weight to what is in the Shi Ji than this story. But you know, maybe it did happen. So what ultimately happened to Bian Que in the end? Well, the Shi Ji records that Bian Que didn't really have a home, and instead wandered around the country developing different medical practices as he went. Eventually, though, in the state of Qin, he would meet his demise due to one official's jealousy. The head imperial doctor in the state of Qin, Li Xi, heard that his own skill was no match for Bian Que, and thus he dispatched an assassin to kill him. Yeah, it sounds about right for the state of Qin. I mean, they were the state that would conquer all of China through military force later on anyway, so yeah, they were kind of guys who you didn't want to mess with. Bian Que died in 307 BC, but he left behind a legacy. Basically, anyone who practices Chinese medicine now uses a four-step diagnosis of looking at a patient's tongue and general appearance, listening to their breathing, asking about their symptoms, and taking their pulse. These are the methods that Bian Que created to mask the fact that he was really doing it all through supernormal abilities, or maybe not. Whatever you believe is okay. But the point is, these methods do work, and the pulse, the breathing, tongue, etc. correspond to different imbalances in the body and can be used to provide accurate diagnosis. The theories he founded have produced generations of Chinese doctors for over 2,000 years. All right, guys, that's the video for today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you want to support our work, do consider joining the channel as a member for $4.99 per month. 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