Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/161

RV 156 (LADY T'AI CHÊN) see within his body and operate upon that section where there was disorder. Wang Wei had made arrangements for such an operation to be performed in the presence of the Emperor.

Ming Huang decided this was far better procedure than the custom of making effigies of patients in order to put evil spirits to flight, or the even more absurd method of trying to drive demons into a large jar with a whip.

Medical science was advancing. Only that week in Changan, a doctor had performed a delicate operation to remove the disfigurement of a harelip, while another doctor was experimenting with pus inoculation in order to lessen the ravages of certain pustular diseases.

Ming Huang contributed generously to surgical experimentation, though when he was indisposed he invariably sent for a magician.

Small wonder then that magicians clung to the Imperial Court with leech-like tenacity. Many of them were nothing but charlatans, magnanimous with words but of frugal accomplishments. In this they resembled many of the eunuchs and a large majority of the underofficers of the Court. But a few of the magicians were men of interesting personality. They were dexterous in their performances. They understood human nature to as high a degree as they understood legerdemain. Their speech was eloquent, flexible, hypnotic. Spectators beheld what they wished them to see.

Such a man was the renowned Ch'i-ch'i. What his real name was nobody knew though he spoke vaguely RV 156 (156)