Sun Simiao

(c. 581 - c. 682)

Venerated as Yaowang (Medicine King) after his death, Sun Simao “was attacked by wind-cold” as a child, an experience that led him to study medicine. Besides elaborating on the system of Taoist medicine developed in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, Sun composed a code of medical ethics often compared to the Hippocratic Oath. “The wealth of others should not be the reason to prescribe precious and expensive drugs,” he instructs. “The object is to help.”