Turning words into gold

[Photo provided to China Daily]

The Secret Pharmacist, recently released in Chinese by People's Literature Publishing House, features a young man who's the sixth-generation owner of the influential alchemist/pharmacist Ji family on the peninsula.

The novel tells about the master of ancient medical skills stepping into a new modern world, encountering the revolution that is to reshape the country, meeting and falling in love with a beautiful, self-reliant woman from the opposing side－the Western-style hospital.

"Among my works, this book has the most abundant points worthy of intercultural discussions with Western readers," Zhang tells China Daily after the book launch in Beijing.

Zhang was an archivist for a short period before being a writer, where he had access to rarely seen material and sources for his literary creation.

"The story was solid with historical characters and events, like Master Ji's brother, Xu Jing, is based on early revolutionary leader Xu Jingxin, who planned many uprisings with his friend Sun Yat-sen; and the Western hospital mentioned was real－and established 20 years earlier than Peking Union Medical College Hospital," Zhang says, noting some facts that aren't even available by internet search.

Zhang says he found that the focus of Xu's life was the revolution, for which he was ready to sacrifice everything at any time.

"But Xu also wrote a book on alchemy and philosophy of longevity," he says. "The contrast interested me."

Such conflicts underpin the novel. While the Ji family cures and saves the lives of the revolutionary heroes with traditional medical wisdom, and is resentful of the Western hospital for attracting customers away, Master Ji has to go to that hospital to treat a problem with his teeth, under disguises and a false name.