Meet: Zhu Jingxiu

From time to time, I’ll post an introductory post about a member of my family. The first one, aptly, is my grandfather, Zhu Jingxiu. He was a well-known Chinese medicine doctor in his hometown of Shilong and later in Guangzhou. I’ve been kind of surprised by the little tidbits I’ve found about him on the Internet just by googling his name: a mention by someone who used to go over to his house to play with one of my aunts as kids, a copy of his professional practice license, an entry in a who’s who of Shilong Web site.

From what my uncle and my father have told me, when my grandfather was practicing in Shilong, patients came from near and far to see him and there are legends about his healing touch. In fact, he was dubbed by some as “Shilong’s Reincarnation of Hua Tuo,” comparing him to the legendary ancient Chinese healer. Later, when he moved to Guangzhou, he treated his share of government officials and foreign dignitaries.

My father’s strongest impression of my grandfather was that he was rarely seen without a book in hand. Grandfather loved literature and spent much of his free time composing poetry, practicing calligraphy, and writing collections of medicine-related books. His calligraphy, which my relatives have said bears a striking resemblance to my father’s, was so good that some of his patients kept his prescriptions as works of art.