Keepers of the flame

Since the 1990s, Zhao Ruming has often been invited to treat patients in other cities. The fact that he does not ask for money from the patients makes him a ridiculous figure to the doctors working there.

When he worked in the cities he always longed to return to the mountains. He was not accustomed to the air, noise and the people in the city, says Li.

"The religion of Yao people teaches us to add happiness to our future life by helping others as much as possible in this life. Money is irrelevant to real happiness."

Because of the lack of water and soil, the villagers live on corn, cedars, moso bamboo, teas and tung trees. They trade tea, bamboo products and tung oil with the outside world for their necessities. Most left-behind old people in Nadui still lead a hand-to-mouth existence.

Feng Jinding says: "Doctor Zhao is my teacher and model in terms of expertise and morality. He has never stopped pursuing new medical knowledge according to the changes of new illnesses. The Yao medicine and medical skills are not dead traditions but a live and evolving skill."

Over hundreds of years of evolution, the Yao people have mastered more than 1,000 kinds of clinical medicines from 104 basic raw materials of herbal medicines, animals and insects, which are classified into two categories of the strong for small injuries or illnesses and the soft for some serious illnesses such as hepatitis, nephritis, lupus erythematosus, rheumatism and even cancer.

Each Yao doctor has his or her own recipes from the 104 basic raw materials. They pick and process herbal medicines themselves and treat patients independently.

Feng believes Yao medicine does not conflict with Western medicine. "Contrarily, different medical schools should draw lessons from each other to benefit the people," he says. "We live on the mountains and the mountains help to keep us healthy. The doctors' job is not to solve troubles but to teach people how to prevent troubles and live with nature."

Huo Yan contributed to the story.

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