Here is the professional translation tailored for international readers, preserving all content with TCM terminology in standardized English + pinyin (without tones):
Li Lianfang, a Provincial Graduate (Xiucai), studied with me in his youth. After repeatedly failing the county-level imperial examinations (Tongshi), he turned to commerce in Hubei Province. Later, he returned home unemployed and recommitted to scholarly pursuits, eventually passing the prefectural examinations to become a county student.
Having lost three wives in his youth and remaining unmarried, he had no descendants. When I returned from the capital in 1856 (Bingchen year), he was already impoverished. Chronic melancholy gradually weakened his legs and clouded his vision. Though still mobile, I brought him to Shaanxi to assist with academy administration out of compassion for his poverty.
When I returned home for maternal mourning, I secured him a position as secretary to Feng Zi’an, Assistant Magistrate of Chaoyi County (Zhaoyi zhubu) – a fellow native holding minor office. Though inexperienced in governance, Lianfang managed affairs methodically, maintaining good rapport with his employer. However, his private lamentations about being childless at fifty exacerbated his melancholy.
The following autumn, he returned alone. Initially suspecting professional discord, I discovered upon visiting: his eyes showed external ocular opacity (wai yi), legs stiffened beyond flexion. As Feng had resigned due to poor post income, (used in traditional contexts) became urgent.
Pulse diagnosis revealed: taut and rapid pulse in the heart and liver channels (xin gan xian ji), while the kidney pulses (chi) were barely perceptible. Circumspectly advising emotional ease, I explained recovery required prolonged care. Though compliant, persistent poverty worsened his condition – total blindness and paralysis ensued.
A renowned ophthalmologist from Zhaocheng (Zhaocheng yan yi), celebrated for curing chronic eye conditions with golden needles (jin zhen liao fa), examined him twice. Declaring “the opacity remains immature for intervention,” he privately confided: “Pupil degeneration makes (used in traditional contexts) futile.” Lianfang died six months later.
My commemorative couplet read:
“What fault warranted this fate – Zuǒqiū’s blindness, Sūn Bìn’s lameness?
Heaven’s will stays inscrutable – Qián Lóu’s bereavement, Bó Dào’s heirless end.”
Leave a Reply