Dear Brother Michael,

Your letter has already been received, but I have been busy with teaching affairs and must not have time to reply. I wish you the best of my heart when I know that you plan to return to the Holy See, and may the Lord of Heaven bless you on your journey.

As your faithful friend, I propose that you come to Dalian once in the Holy See and let Dr. Li Shizhen Dongbi give you a proper examination to ensure that you can complete this long journey. Although I have not been able to deeply understand the Chinese medical skills until now, my body has been able to experience the magic of Chinese medical skills.

Dr. Li was previously the personal physician of the Ming Emperor, and his medical skills had reached the point of superbness. In my last letter, I described the miracle of a female medical officer in Liaoning Province who treated a drowning child who had stopped breathing. Later, I learned that the medical officers in Liaoning were basically students of Dr. Li Shizhen Dongbi.

I had a fever the last month, and I didn't get better for several days, so Brother Schumacher sent me to a public hospital, the Welfare Bureau. As the top official of the official medical institution in Liaoning, Dr. Li happened to be here to make rounds. According to Dr. Lee's later statement, he was going to diagnose me personally to determine if we Westerners were physically different from those of the locals.

As a result, Dr. Li only used two treatment methods, "acupuncture" and "moxibustion", that is, using needles and smoking wormwood, and I soon broke out and my body temperature returned to normal. Dr. Li prescribed me some herbs and told me to eat more fruits and vegetables and drink more water. He also deduced that much of my illness was due to eating fruits and vegetables and drinking too little water. His reasoning is correct, but I don't understand the logic yet.

When Dr. Li knew that I knew a little bit about Western medicine, he made a special visit to my home after I recovered. Dr. Li is a "five-grade medical officer" in Liaoning, and he is also a very high-ranking official in Liaoning, and his visit is very solemn and courteous.

Dr. Li and I had a long discussion, which gave me a preliminary understanding of Chinese medicine. Dr. Li and I had the experience of "acupuncture" and "acupuncture points" on the spot, using a metal needle to prick different parts of the body, and the body reacted differently. I pricked the needle myself under the guidance of Dr. Lee, and Dr. Lee did not touch my body. It's amazing.

Dr. Li also introduced some of the surgical procedures in Liaoning that are now rigorously verified to ensure safety. Among them, when a pregnant woman has a difficult birth, the pregnant woman's belly is dissected, the baby is removed, and the baby is sutured with needles and threads. The success rate is more than 80 percent, and pregnant women can still have normal pregnancy and childbirth in the future. Oh my God, it's incredible!

Dr. Lee also took out his treasure, the "microscope"! Under Dr. Lee's guidance, I saw enlarged hair, skin, bugs, and samples of parasites that Dr. Lee had obtained from the patient's body during his treatment. He told me that he had found the eggs of the worms in the feces of patients with parasites, and had also bred the parasites with rabbits. He judged that people would "infect" the worms if they ate food or water contaminated with the eggs of the parasites. Therefore, the Liaoning government is now widely publicizing: food must be cooked before eating, water must be boiled before drinking, and contact with patients must be washed repeatedly to eliminate some diseases. It is said to be very effective, and the many plagues in the nearby area have not been able to reach Liaoning.

I also knew that Dr. Li was already 70 years old, and his body was still as good as that of a 50-year-old, and he even climbed the mountain to find suitable herbs. The year before last, Dr. Li's two 18-year-old "concubines" also gave birth to two children, one of whom became pregnant again this year, which Dr. Li said was the result of his use of traditional Chinese medicine to maintain himself. Although I did not agree with this system of polygamy, I blessed him. However, Dr. Li explained: In fact, it is also monogamous in Huaxia, because the "concubine" is not an official wife. This situation is similar to that of our nobles who have multiple mistresses.

Dr. Li is compiling an encyclopedia of Chinese medicine called the Compendium of Materia Medica. He said that he also has a headache now, whether to change the name of the book, because "Compendium of Materia Medica" means "book about herbal medicine", and there is still a lot of surgical information in the book.

He also told me that Liaoning has established a formal medical training school, the Liaoning Medical College, but there are no formal teaching materials, and there are a large number of errors in the medical books used now. Therefore, his book will become an official textbook in the school, and it must be rigorous!

I am ashamed that my medical knowledge is so poor that I can only act as a listener most of the time in my discussions. If Brother Michael and you return to the Holy See this time, you can ask the Holy See to send more brothers who understand medicine to Mingguo, and you will certainly be able to speed up the pace of mission.

Speaking of which, I have good news for you. Last month, a brother named "teague_sparrow" settled in Dalian with his Dongying wife and her clansmen, bringing with them a letter from Brother Bafanji.

Dongying's government surrendered to the Ming state, and Liaoning's religious policy would also be extended to Dongying. This is very beneficial for our mission, but we have too few people. I hope that when you pass through Goa, you will communicate with Alessandro (alessandro_valignano, Fan Lien, Jesuit Far East Observer) and increase the number of missionaries to Liaoning and Dongying.

Sparrow prepares to convert and baptize his wife "Hana*ko_sparrow" (Hanako Sparrow) and her people, as well as himself and Hanako's son "jack_sparrow" and his sons. After the conversion, he and Hanako officially held a religious wedding. In this way, the church in Liaoning will be greatly developed.

In particular, it is emphasized that Sparrow has obtained the military rank of Liaoning, the position is to teach, and the military rank is "Seven Rank General", which is approximately equivalent to our major; And Hanako also got the position of official translator of Dalian Port, and was a "Jiupin Civil Official", an official official; What surprised me the most was that their son Jack, who was also a soldier in Liaoning, had the rank of "Liupin Qianzong", which was equivalent to a lieutenant colonel; And their adopted son, "jiro_sparrow" (Jiro Sparrow), is also the "Seven Rank General". Oh, my God! When I found out, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep all night.

The story of their family is simply a legend. Their family was separated in the war, and it was because of Teague and Hanako's faith that their family was finally reunited! To do this, we can only serve the Almighty Lord! I'm getting ready to write the story of their family.

However, the fly in the ointment is that Jack and his siblings now live in the northwest of the "Nenjiang Plain", where Jack and his siblings' fiefdom is said to be more than one square kilometer (no Italian unit of measurement has been found). The Liaoning government rejected my request to build a chapel in Bedoune, the capital of Nenjiang Province, on the grounds that Nenjiang Province was still on the front line of the war with the Mongols.

This decision is clearly restrictive and discriminatory, because shamanism, Buddhism, Taoism, Lamaism, and Shinto have all established missionary branches in Nenjiang Province. However, the official explanation of the "Li Fan Yuan" is that these sects are all local religions, or they were brought by the new immigrants themselves, and my protest is invalid. But it's good to be able to do that now.

Okay, that's all for now. I hope you can come to Dalian.

Your Faithful matteo_ri (Matteo Ricci)

August xx, 1588