A Letter to Young Friends Aspiring to Study Medicine

Dear young friends aspiring to study medicine:

It is again the season for filling out college entrance examination preferences. Every year at this time, some among my readers ask me whether they should study medicine, and if so, how they should fill out their preferences. Every year at this time, the internet is also flooded with discouraging remarks such as "whoever persuades someone to study medicine will be struck by lightning." Whenever this time comes, some young friends are left undecided, not knowing what to do. I write this letter to express my personal views, for your reference.

First, you should ask yourselves whether you truly love medicine and are willing to spend a lifetime in medical-related work. If so, then bravely go study medicine; the voices of others do not matter. I feel that any voice in society telling you which professional direction to choose is trash talk; the various voices are basically conclusions drawn from a one-sided understanding.

Life is a very long process; most of us will spend nearly a hundred years in this world. One should choose one's life path based on one's lifelong interests and aspirations, rather than making judgments expediently according to some current circumstances. The various assertions made on the basis of temporary phenomena of the moment are superficial and not worth our acceptance.

We must have our own independent thinking, and even more must make decisions according to our inner intuition. The love that springs from a person's intuition is often the most genuine and the most likely to last a lifetime, whereas much thinking swayed by reality is often overly utilitarian. In the short term, utilitarians seem to have the advantage; but over a lifetime, the long-termist grounded in love is the true winner in life.

More than twenty years ago, my revered teacher gave me eight characters: "deep accumulation, steady release; great instruments mature late." I still keep them firmly in mind and often use these eight characters to spur myself, reminding myself not to be expedient.

I am now nearly fifty, have lived in the capital for nearly thirty years, and once, working in foreign trade, dealt with people from more than a hundred countries worldwide; my life experience is rich. I have seen many people flourish, and I have also seen them fall from the peak. My feeling about life is that nothing in this world can be done well in a very short time; instant successes lack a firm foundation, and once they collapse, they fall apart very quickly—easy to "watch him build the tower, watch his tower collapse."

So among people, among jobs, and among careers, there is no need to compare. Each person chooses his own life's ambition according to his own talent and interest, and chooses a position suited to himself; this at least ensures that we do not live a twisted life.

In reality I have met too many people who have lived twisted lives: they submit to the arrangements of reality or their parents, doing work they do not love, dragging out each day as if it were a year, often sighing. I very much dislike staying with such friends, because not only are they unhappy, they always try to spread their unhappiness to us through complaining, making us feel their pain as if it were our own.

If you like medicine very much but, because those around you tell you other majors make money faster, you choose another major; or if you do not like medicine but, because those around you tell you the medical profession is stable, you choose medicine—then you have both fallen into a twisted state. You will not live very happily this life, and you will also like to spread your unhappiness to those around you, becoming those unpleasant, "Xianglin-sao"-like perpetual complainers.

I especially hope that young friends who like medicine will step through the door of medicine without hesitation, and I also especially hope that young friends who do not like medicine will decisively refuse the advice of relatives and friends and go choose the major they like. Now the national college entrance examination system is good: at any point in life, if we find that our interests and aspirations have changed, we can start over from scratch; it is no big deal, and there is no need to consider the influence of temporary disadvantages of various majors.

I personally have an expectation: I expect the most outstanding people to come study medicine, because you are the ones most likely to advance medicine. Joining the medical profession, you can not only achieve personal career success but also benefit humanity.

There is now an absurd view that the medical profession is suited only to people of ordinary intelligence. I do not know where the people who promote this view get the confidence to believe in such a shallow judgment of their own. Their understanding of medicine remains at a very superficial level; we still have too many medical problems unconquered, and these problems require the finest minds to solve them.

Historically, the scientists who made major contributions to the life sciences were, without exception, people of extraordinary intelligence and perseverance. Edward Jenner, who invented the smallpox vaccine and ended smallpox, a plague with extremely high fatality; Pasteur, the father of microbiology; Tu Youyou, who extracted artemisinin from Artemisia annua and ended malaria—the originality of their thinking was far beyond the reach of ordinary people.

The contributions they made saved countless lives, breaking one after another myths once regarded as impossible; their contributions rewrote human history. Therefore the topmost minds have great scope in the medical field, and people with ideals can realize their life's ambitions in medicine. Countless sages have made brilliant achievements in the cause of medicine, and their influence on humanity is profound.

At the very top of medical innovation, intelligence and talent play a decisive role; without a certain measure of intelligence and talent, it is difficult even to understand medicine in depth, let alone innovate. Those who think medicine does not require very smart people to study it are merely limited by the low ceiling of their own intelligence and talent, unable cognitively to reach the highest level of medicine.

I very much like making friends with people in medicine who dare to break through and innovate, and I am willing to join hands with you all to conquer some medical problems. Not long ago, a medical PhD from Fudan University said something in conversation with me that struck a strong chord. He said: we must promote the progress of medicine; the progress of medicine benefits not only patients but also ourselves and our loved ones; medical research is a great cause that is altruistic while also being self-interested.

My beloved mother died of illness, and this is a lifelong pain for me; this event kindled my motivation to dedicate myself to medicine. On the road of taking her to seek medical care, I experienced too much despair, and deeply realized the preciousness of innovative medical talent. I especially hope that the finest young friends will bravely take on this social responsibility, rather than shortsightedly fixating only on personal and immediate gains and losses—one should look to the long term; society is always changing, and society never treats poorly the person who shoulders a great responsibility.

The medical field can likewise accommodate a large number of hardworking people of ordinary intelligence, because medical institutions are tiered; some simple diseases will be treated at primary-level medical institutions. There, as long as one is technically skilled, people of average intelligence can also derive a sense of achievement from the work.

But if a person likes an easy life and is not diligent enough, then he really should not study medicine. Medical students, during their studies and after taking up work, need to be more diligent than ordinary people. Those who loathe diligence will find studying medicine and working in healthcare very painful. In fact, there are many self-disciplined and diligent people in the world who love medicine and enjoy striving; they are better suited to be doctors, and the position of doctor belongs to them.

In reality I have seen many lazy medical students; most of them did not enter medicine of their own free will. They are weary of study at school, not happy, and some even fall into depression. Therefore, I also advise some parents not to force their children—who dislike medicine or are not diligent enough—to study medicine just because the parents themselves think the medical profession has better prospects.

As for the sub-specialties within medicine, that even more should respect each person's own wishes. I only suggest to young friends who aspire to study both Chinese and Western medicine that they preferentially choose the clinical medicine major (commonly known as the Western medicine major).

Because, under national policy, after graduating from the clinical medicine major, one may participate in the "Western physician studying Chinese medicine" training (abbreviated as Xixuezhong training); upon completing the training and passing the assessment, one can have Chinese-medicine prescribing rights added to the medical practitioner qualification certificate—a TCM major does not have this advantage. Graduates of the clinical medicine major can also sit for the psychological therapist examination. Thus the clinical medicine major offers better extensibility, though the admission score for it is indeed relatively high; everyone should act according to their means.