Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism all have a long history of influence in the development in Chinese medicine, which is perhaps most apparent in the syncretic traditions of the Wen Bu Pai (School of Warming and Tonifying) doctors of the Ming Dynasty. In this episode we talk with Leslie De Vries about one of these doctors, Zhao Xian Ke, and his book the Yi Guan or "The Thread that Runs through All Medicine," and the theories expounded in this work such as those involving Ming Men or the Gate of life and the potential influence of internal alchemy practices. Later in the conversation there is also a discussion on the influence of these Chinese medical theories on Vietnamese medicine.