Ridding people of danger and suffering and enabling them to recover their health is the essential nature of medical treatment. It is also the noble aspiration or ideal of the physician, and it exemplifies the physician’s compassionate respect for human life and the humanistic spirit. This expression is now also used as an analogy in pointing out someone’s shortcomings or mistakes when criticizing or penalizing them, to enable them to overcome their shortcomings and correct their mistakes. Criticisms or penalties are merely measures taken to help someone; they target the behavior and not the person, and the goal is to bring someone with shortcomings or mistakes back onto the right path. This demonstrates the organic unity of firmly adhering to principles while showing leniency towards the person, and it is related to the concept “loving the people in accordance with rules of moral conduct.”

Shen Xi was a native of Wu Prefecture. Having learned Daoist practices in Sichuan, he could treat illnesses and save people, and had excellent medical ethics and reputation. (Imperial Reader for Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty)