★ Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。
Rain hammered the roof in hard, uneven bursts. “Hold him still!” Baosheng pressed one hand against the stranger’s brow as the man twisted on the wooden bed. His left eye was swollen shut. The right one burned red like a coal.
“It feels like fire,” the man gasped. “Like something is clawing inside.” Thunder rolled across the mountain. Baosheng leaned closer. The man’s skin was cold, but heat rose from his face. A strange smell hung in the air.
Photo: AI I 照片：人工智慧
He began the four methods of diagnosis: looking, listening/smelling, asking, and pulse taking. He looked. The eye was red and wet, the veins swollen. He listened. The man’s breath came in deep, shaking waves. He smelled it. Beneath the sour heat of illness was a strange damp scent, like river water before a storm. He asked. The pain had begun after flying through storm clouds, the stranger said, then quickly bit his lip. “Flying?”
At last, Baosheng took his pulse. His fingers paused. The pulse pattern was wiry and rapid, surging under the skin like water against stone. This was no ordinary fever. “Your vital energy is in disorder,” Baosheng said softly. “There is wind-heat in the eye, but the root is deeper. Too much heat is rising. This is liver fire blazing upward.”
At that, the man turned away. “Then let me go.” Baosheng refused. He ground herbs into a cool paste, mixed drops for the eye, and laid two fingers gently beneath the lid. At once the bed shook. A cry filled the room, too deep for any human throat.
Then the rain stopped. Slowly, the swollen eye opened. In a single breath, Baosheng saw not a man on the bed, but a dragon. The stranger bowed his head. “Doctor,” he said, “you truly see.” And then he flew off into the clouds.
雨勢一陣陣地猛砸在屋頂上，時急時緩，毫無規律。「把他固定住！」當那名陌生男子在木床上扭動掙扎時，保生大帝一手按在了男人的額頭上。男子的左眼腫脹得無法睜開，右眼則猶如燒紅的木炭。
「感覺像火在燒，」那個男人喘著氣說道，「就像有東西在裡面抓。」隆隆的雷聲低沉地在山間迴盪，保生大帝傾身靠近。男人的皮膚冰冷，但是臉上卻散發著熱氣。空氣中瀰漫著一股奇特的氣味。
保生大帝開始進行四診（中醫稱之為「望、聞、問、切」的四種診斷方式）。他觀察：那隻眼睛濕潤且發紅，血管充血腫脹。他聆聽：那個男人的呼吸深沉而顫抖著。他嗅聞：在那股酸熱病氣下，藏著一種奇特的潮濕味，宛如暴風雨前的河水。陌生人說，那股疼痛是在飛過暴風雲後才開始的，話音剛落他隨即咬住嘴唇，閉口不言。「飛過？」
最後，保生大帝為他把了把脈。他的手指停止了動作。脈象弦急且快，在皮膚下劇烈跳動，就像水流衝擊著石頭。這不是普通的發燒。「你的『氣』亂了。」保生大帝輕聲說道。「眼中雖有風熱，但病根在更深處。體內的熱氣過盛，這是肝火上炎。」
聽到那句話，男子轉過身。「那就讓我走吧。」保生大帝拒絕了。他將草藥磨成了清涼的藥膏，又調了幾滴眼藥，接著以兩根手指輕輕撐起眼皮。床鋪立刻震動起來。一聲低沉到不像人類能發出的嘶吼充斥著整個房間。
接著，雨停了。腫脹的眼睛慢慢張開。瞬息之間，保生大帝看到的已不是躺在床上的男人，而是一條龍。陌生人低下頭行禮。「大夫，」他說，「您果然洞察病機。」隨即騰雲而去，消失在雲海之中。
Epilogue 故事討論
In Taiwan, Baosheng Dadi, or the Baosheng Emperor, is famous as the “god of medicine,” a healer people pray to for health, recovery, and protection from illness. One well-known legend says he met a woodcutter in the mountains who was actually a dragon in disguise, suffering from an eye disease. The legend also reflects key ideas in traditional Chinese medicine, where a doctor looks beyond the painful body part and searches for the deeper cause through the four methods of diagnosis: observation, listening and smelling, questioning, and pulse-taking.
Dalongdong Bao’an Temple in Taipei is one of Taiwan’s most important temples dedicated to Baosheng Dadi, and its Baosheng Cultural Festival has developed into a major late-spring celebration. Because Baosheng Dadi’s birthday fell on May 1 in 2026, the festival is especially timely this month. Events linked to the celebration include a neighborhood parade, folk opera performances, the formal Three Offerings rite for the deity’s birthday, Fire Lion fireworks, fire-walking, and even free traditional Chinese medicine clinics. These activities show why Baosheng is still deeply present in Taiwanese life today. He is not only a god in legend, but also a symbol of healing, ritual, performance, and community in modern Taiwan.
在台灣，保生大帝（又稱保生帝君）以醫神之名聞名，人們向這位醫者祈求健康、康復與避開疾病。最廣為流傳的傳說之一，講述祂在山中遇見一位樵夫——其實是化身為人的龍，正受眼疾所苦。這則故事也反映了中醫的核心觀念：醫者不只著眼於疼痛的部位，而是透過「望、聞、問、切」四診法，探尋更深層的病因。
位於台北的大龍峒保安宮，是台灣最重要的保生大帝廟宇之一，而「保生文化祭」也逐漸發展成春末的重要慶典。由於2026年的保生大帝聖誕落在國曆的5月1日，本月的祭典顯得格外應景。相關活動包括遶境、家姓戲表演、聖誕祭祀的「三獻禮」、放火獅、過火，甚至還有免費的中醫義診。這些活動展現了保生大帝至今仍深植於台灣人的生活中。祂不僅是傳說中的神明，更是現代台灣治癒、儀式、表演與社群的象徵。
Vocabulary 單字片語
1. legend 傳說
2. diagnosis 診斷
3. pulse pattern 脈象
4. swollen 腫脹的
5 vital energy 元氣、精力、生命力
6. herbs 草藥、香草、草本植物
7. healer 醫者
8. recovery 康復、恢復、找回
9. festival 節慶、祭典、祭
10. ritual 儀式
Idioms 相關成語
1. in a single breath 瞬息之間
2. four methods of diagnosis: looking, listening/smelling, asking, and pulse taking 望、聞、問、切
3. take/feel sb.’s pulse 把脈（切脈）
4. in disguise 偽裝的、化裝的、化身的
Nigel P. Daly is a writer with a language learning newsletter called Chin-glish bilingual lab (https://ndaly.substack.com).
Cynthia Chen is a translator and writer specializing in blogs, scripts and articles.
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