ＴＣＭ Ｍａｓｔｅｒ ｏｆ Ｇｒｅａｔ Ｖｉｒｔｕｅ

Ｈｅ　Ｙｉｆｅｎｇ　Ｈｅ　Ｊｕｎ　Ｈｅ　Ｒｕｏｐｉｎｇ

In April, 2009, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Ministry of Health, and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicines joined forces in evaluating the countrys candidates of TCM masters. It was the first time since the founding of the Peoples Republic of China that the government decided to honor TCM masters through a nationwide procedure. After a few rounds of voting, thirty most respected TCM doctors were officially crowned with the title of TCM masters. Professor He Ren is the only person in Zhejiang who was elected a TCM master by a heavy majority.

He Ren is a key founder of the Zhejiang TCM Institute (the predecessor of todays Zhejiang TCM University) and served as its president for a long while. He Ren is an emeritus professor and PhD student advisor. He is best known as a prominent scholar of “Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer” by Zhang Zhongjing (150-219), one of the finest TCM physicians in history of China.

The 90-year-old TCM master now still sees clinical patients every week, and writes every day. He has practiced TCM for more than 70 years. The books he has written on TCM are, if piled up one by one, as tall as he stands.

He Ren began to receive TCM lessons at home at a very early age. When he graduated from the Shanghai College of New Tradition China Medicine in the middle of World War II, acute and vicious epidemic diseases such as smallpox, plague and malaria could be seen everywhere. With solid foundation in TCM and clinical techniques of the He family, the young doctor worked successfully as a TCM doctor in Longquan, a rural county in southern Zhejiang.

TCM is a knowledge and practice that has been passed on from one generation to another for thousands of years. Teaching and learning from masters and experience always play a big part in TCM. He Ren started a correspondence TCM course in the 1940s and enrolled students from all over the country. He wrote textbooks, gave lectures and taught hands-on clinical techniques. After the founding of New China, he served as chairman of Hangzhou TCM Association, president of Zhejiang School of Continuation Education on TCM and president of Zhejiang TCM Institute. Many TCM talents grew up under his guidance. In 1993, the professor set up a foundation which has issued annual scholarships to TCM teachers and students. In recent years, he has given lectures at advanced TCM seminars sponsored by the Ministry of Health.

He Ren rose to international renown in 1982 when he spoke at the China-Japan forum, sponsored by the Ministry of Health, on specific subjects mentioned in the “Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases”, another important theoretical masterpiece by Zhang Zhongjing. In 1985, he was invited to Japan and gave lectures in medical colleges in Tokyo. He was recognized there as Chinas authority on “Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer”. In 2006, Professor He Ren was conferred upon with a special meritorious honor by China TCM Association for his contribution to the TCM education.

Professor He Ren made major contributions to the status improvement of TCM in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1982, he took the initiative to work with other nine TCM heavyweights and submitted a petition to the government, pointing out the serious systematic drawbacks that hampered the development of TCM and calling for the establishment of an independent state administration so that TCM undertakings could be better administered. In 1990, He Ren and seven other TCM heavyweights wrote another petition to the central government calling for strengthening the functions of the State Administration of TCM. The petition worked. The state TCM authorities were given more functions and local TCM administrations at provincial and city levels were also founded.

He Ren is a man of virtue. The mottos of the ancient TCM masters are deeply imprinted upon his mind. He often quotes these sages in his practice and in his guidance to his students. He has subscribed to the guiding principle of his career: “Learning TCM is for practicing TCM and practicing TCM is for helping the people”. In response to rocketing medical expenses, the professor emphasizes the TCM features such as simplicity, convenience, effectiveness and inexpensiveness.

Professor He Ren attaches priority to the virtue as a TCM doctor. In addition to imparting knowledge to young TCM doctors, he emphasizes the importance of virtue. He believes the value of TCM lies in both professional knowledge and moral integrity. A TCM doctor should have firm belief in TCM, master TCM in a down-to-earth spirit, balance book knowledge and practice, keep exploring TCM issues and keep hands in clinical work. He had diligently practiced what he says all these years.

He holds no grudge against those who ill-treated him during the years of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Some students who did him wrong before are now still working in some institutions. When asked on one occasion how he thought of these former students, the professor dismissed the issue, saying that they were just naïve more than 30 years ago and that they were following something blindly.

He donated more than 10,000 yuan last year to the relief work after the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province. Nowadays, He Ren lives a happy life with his family of four generations. All of his adult children and grandchildren are CPC members and many of them are model party members and model workers. □