Persistent

(My discussion with Vivian continued.)

“What are you talking about?” My wife was obviously at a lost.

“Alas, let’s begin with a simple observation,” I explained, “It is plain obvious that Zhao Mengfu had obsessive personality disorder. What I mean is, when you thumb through the pages of this Sutra, the construction of each word appears exactly the same each time when it is written. For example, the first tick of the word Si (師) was missing under Zhao’s hand, and, every time when he wrote this word, there’s no such a tick. It was, therefore, not by accident, but a deliberate move after careful planning – I suppose that’s because Zhao found that the word Si appeared more artistic when the tick is not there. More importantly, in the aggregate, all these bits of slight modifications and unique handling of individual words become what we know as Zhao’s characteristic font!”

“Well, I can understand your argument,” Vivian remained puzzled, “But what’s that got to do with medical practice?”

“It goes like this: A modern doctor should treat his patients exactly the same as how Zhao did for his writing, with every management protocol being a word in a book. It is necessary not only to carefully conceive well ahead what should be done under a specific scenario – that’s what a protocol is all about. But, more importantly, just like each word would appear exactly the same every time under Zhao’s hand, a modern doctor should – or, I would rather say, is expected to – handle a clinical scenario in exactly the same manner no matter how many time he encounters it.”

PS. You may wonder: Wouldn’t that mean giving up all flexibility?

Very true. That’s why I am never very fond of Zhao’s calligraphy.