The Medicine King: Performative Gestures and the Art of Storytelling

I will begin with a critique of a storytelling session that vividly captures how an

experienced speaker weaves together a narrative through embodied interactions with the

many visual cues in a nianhua painting as well as the live audience. In particular, I will

draw attention to the use of performative gestures as a key element of the corpothetics or

“bodily praxis” of nianhua storytelling, where the speaker’s embodied movements

activate and animate an image while shaping the social relations in the room.

Comparative literature scholar Carrie Noland has theorized performative gestures as a

“technique of the body,” whether conscious or not, that involves “any use of the body

135

that can become a source of kinesthetic feedback, and thus agency.” Noland argues that

all gestures are performative in the sense that they shape and transform everyday

experiences, be it “communicative, instrumental, or aesthetic.” Relying on both learned

routines and direct engagement with what Martin Heidegger calls “everyday being in the

world,” performative gestures may indicate and instantiate requests, refusals, pleas,

invitations, and other powerful social actions.226

The interview session detailed below was recorded during a visit to Wang

Xingru’s home studio in 2007, after we had developed a degree of familiarity from

previous visits, as documented in the last chapter. There was an established

understanding that I was only loosely connected to the official revival movement and that

I would be recording our conversation for a graduate research project in Canada.227 On

this day, graduate art history student Han Gang accompanied me and translated some of

the local dialect terms into Mandarin when they came up in conversation. He had also

met Wang on previous visits. Ning and Liu, the two scholars who introduced me to Wang

also joined us on this visit, as they were interested in Wang’s stories for their own

nianhua research. At first, I was not sure how their official status would affect the

interview process. However, I soon observed that they had formed a long-standing

friendship with Wang, who spoke openly and intimately on many potentially taboo

subjects in their presence, including the Cultural Revolution, popular religion, and ritual

nianhua practices. I also learned that Wang only agreed to share his stories with me

because Ning and Liu ardently supported my research and prepared him for my visit.

226 Carrie Noland, Agency and Embodiment: Performing Gestures/Producing Culture (Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 2009), 15-16.

227 While Chen and Li were accustomed to visits from the media and the presence of a video camera, Wang

claims to have had few encounters with cameras, researchers, and journalists. However, he seemed to

ignore the camera completely and looked directly at his audience when speaking.

136

During our informal group interview, which was conducted in the local dialect,

Wang recounted much of his life story to us and then invited us into his studio to view his

works (figs. 45, 46). The only work that he chose to narrate at length is a mounted

vertical scroll painting of the “Medicine King” (yaowang 􁀰􀺦 or yiwang 􁁄􀺦) (fig. 47).

The Medicine King figure, also translated as the “Medicine Deity” or the “God of

Medicine and Healing,” has a long and complex legacy in the history of the healing and

medicinal trades, popular religion, and in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and temple

building.228 Scholars have traced the origins of the Medicine King figure to the Buddhist

canon, where the term first appears in translations of Buddhist writings concerning the

Medicine Buddha.229 While the nature and identity of the Medicine King has evolved

over time, during the Ming and Qing periods he was most widely identified with the Tang

dynasty physician and Daoist adept Sun Simiao 􀷤􀶱􁝟 (581-682), who is still honored

today in most Medicine King temples across China.230 In Sichuan, many Medicine King

temples were recuperated after the Cultural Revolution, a development that was closely

tied to the resurgence of Sichuan’s lucrative medicinal herb industry and the rise of

temple tourism in the region.231

When I asked Wang Xingru to tell us about his painting of the Medicine King,

Wang explained that traditional Chinese doctors often carried pictures of the Medicine

228 Susan Naquin provides an analysis of Beijing’s many Medicine King temples during the Ming and Qing

dynasties, providing accounts of their diverse origins and how these temples have evolved. See Susan

Naquin, Peking: Temples and City Life, 1400-1900 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). For a

discussion of Medicine King lore and reproductions of Medicine King prints, paintings, and sculptures, see

Paul Unschuld, Medicine in China: Historical Artifacts and Images (Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2000).

229 The Medicine King has been identified with many physicians and Daoist adepts over the dynasties,

including Bianque 􀑋􀲐􀀁(ca. 500 BCE), Wei Shanjun 􀺳􀳿􀤮 (595-694), and Sun Simiao 􀷤􀶱􁝟 (581-682).

230 Yuan-ling Chao, Medicine and Society in Late Imperial China: A Study of Physicians in Suzhou, 1600-

1850 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2009), 71.

231 Cha Qing 􀒰􀱩 and Lei Xiaopeng 􀧂􀽫􀮵, “The modern development of Sun Simiao worship and

Medicine King Festival practices in Western Sichuan” 􀔫􀼆􀷤􀶱􁝟􀔌􀏨􀄑􁀰􀺦􀟶􀼝􀷌􀠣􀰃􀽃􀕽􀤷􀘿, Sichuan

jiaoyu xueyuan xuebao 􀶹􀔫􀢝􁃢􀿐􁃽􀿐􀐑􀀁[Journal of Sichuan’s College of Education] 12 (2007): 23.

137

King, especially the traveling doctors in the countryside. He then signaled to us that he

would share an orally transmitted narrative by standing straight, taking a step forward,

and reciting a line of verse. He also held his pointing stick out to his right side as if

marking out a performance space. In taking this stance, he appeared to assume the

position of authority in the room, to physically assert his role as the narrator of the story

that is to come (fig. 48). In the following excerpt of Wang’s entire story, I have included

descriptions of shifts in gesture and intonations that indicate a co-creative interaction

between his performed narrative and the painting:

There is a pair of antithetical phrases for the Medicine King that goes: “Due to

lack of pain, the dragon embarks on the open ocean. Due to a toothache, the tiger

emerges from the apricot forest.” [Here, “lack of pain” also means good health

and “apricot forest” refers to the profession of traditional Chinese medicine.] The

tiger was eating people and he happened to eat a woman who had a silver hairpin