Today I received a long-overdue paycheck. It happens to coincide with the university’s centennial celebration, and it also marks my twenty-fourth month on the job. So I thought I’d write a few words.

Many people wonder why I ultimately chose to work at Hebei University. Honestly, I wonder the same thing myself. For the first twenty-eight years of my life, I had no idea that Hebei University even had a Chinese medicine program — the name barely registered. My knowledge of higher education in Hebei Province was limited to Hebei University of Technology (located far away in Tianjin), the on-again-off-again relationship between Hebei University of Chinese Medicine and Hebei Medical University, and the brief media sensation surrounding Han Chunyu of Hebei University of Science and Technology. Truth be told, joining Hebei University was pure serendipity.

As a Chinese medicine PhD, finding work in Beijing wasn’t particularly difficult. Landing a faculty position at a Beijing university was harder, but one could opt for a postdoctoral teaching fellowship. My supervisor once wanted me to stay at the research institute, but I found various ways to decline — I genuinely felt the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences wasn’t the right environment for my early-career development. Getting into a hospital wouldn’t have been a problem either, though an academic PhD might find it challenging to join a top-tier TCM hospital; lesser hospitals or those in distant suburbs like Changping and Huairou would have welcomed me with open arms. But I wasn’t keen on hospital work — my dreams lay elsewhere. The reason I switched from engineering to medicine in the first place was to develop and revitalize Chinese medicine, and without strong backing, hospital work would make that nearly impossible. After weighing all the options, a university seemed like the best fit.

My alma mater, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, once extended an olive branch, and I was genuinely tempted. Their Medical Informatics program was a key discipline under the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and ranked first nationwide in program competitiveness — a perfect match for my background. But for various reasons, it didn’t work out. Guizhou University of Chinese Medicine was also an excellent option at the time, with impressive recruitment efforts and a palpable eagerness for talent. My only condition was a direct appointment at the associate senior level. It wasn’t until the Dragon Boat Festival that Dean Chen called to say the university had agreed to appoint me directly as a senior engineer per policy — but by then, I had already signed my three-way agreement with Hebei University. A shame it was one step too late.

Learning about Hebei University was entirely accidental. I had originally gone to the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine job fair to see what other universities were hiring, when I noticed this remarkably short school name. Every time I wrote an address, I used to think: why are our university names so absurdly long? Look at other schools — a few characters and you’re done. Then it occurred to me that a university named after the province couldn’t be half bad, so I walked over for a chat. Everything after that fell into place.

The real reasons I ended up here are remarkably simple. First, I don’t like clinging to powerful patrons. Many PhDs are very strategic about their career platforms and future prospects, where “prospects” often means finding someone who can directly mentor and elevate them. Everyone weighs their options carefully and prefers to stay under someone else’s tree. For most people, this is indeed a wise choice. But given the choice between following someone else’s lead or rolling up my sleeves and building something from scratch like the pioneers of Nanniwan, I prefer the latter. Second, I noticed that while the university was large enough, the college itself was quite small — which meant room for sustainable growth. The brand recognition may be modest and funding limited — those are real disadvantages — but ample undergraduate and graduate resources could, to some extent, offset these challenges. I compared admission scores: over the past three years, the average score of Chinese medicine undergraduates admitted to Hebei University was higher than that of Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, with an overall provincial ranking around ten thousand. Hebei is a major province for the college entrance exam, so the quality of students recruited here ison par with any provincial-level university of Chinese medicine. Where there is talent, there is a future.

Overall, after two years on the job, I’m satisfied. As a comprehensive university, I have many opportunities to interact directly with faculty and students from other disciplines — a tremendous advantage in an era that demands interdisciplinary integration. Our Chinese medicine education currently lacks both humanities-philosophy-history and mathematics-physics-chemistry foundations, and Hebei University can fill that gap beautifully. Among comprehensive universities in China, only we, Xiamen University, and Jinan University currently offer Chinese medicine programs, and the challenges we face are likely the same: how to position medical disciplines within a comprehensive university. Had I not joined Hebei University, these questions would never have crossed my mind. I remain grateful, and I cherish every step of this journey.

今天收到了久违的工资，恰逢学校建校一百周年之际，又是我入职的第24个月，就写一些东西吧。

许多人都非常不解我为啥最后选择去河北大学工作，其实我也很不解，起码在我有限的前二十八年岁月中，我压根就不知道河北大学还有中医中药专业，甚至对这个校名都很模糊。我对整个河北省的高等教育认知，除了远在天津的河北工业大学，就是河北中医学院与河北医科大学的分分合合，还有曾经火了一把的河北科大韩春雨。说实话，加盟河大真的是机缘巧合。

其实作为中医博士而言，北京的工作并不是特别难找，在北京的高校当老师比较有难度，但可以选择做师资博士后；领导曾经想让我留所，但是我用各种方法拒绝了，真心觉得中研院不适合我的早期成长；去医院问题也不大，学术型博士去知名中医三甲医院有些难度，但是其他二级医院或者昌平怀柔之类的远郊区医院却是很欢迎的，但我不太愿意去医院，我的梦可能不在那里，当年之所以弃工从医，主要原因是想发展中医药，是想振兴中医，没有强大的后台就去医院基本上很难实现这些，思来想去，应该还是大学最合适。

我的母校浙江中医药大学曾经抛出过橄榄枝，我也很是心动，浙中医的医学信息工程专业是国家中医药管理局重点建设学科，在中国大学专业竞争力排行榜中位居榜首，与我非常对口，但因种种原因未能遂愿。贵州中医药大学在当时也是个非常不错的选择，引进力度非常之大，也感受到了求贤若渴，我给贵中医提出的唯一条件是直接聘任副高级，但直到端午节那天陈院长才给我打电话说学校同意按文件直接聘任高级工程师，当时我已经把三方协议给了河大，只可惜晚了一步。而得知河北大学的消息完全是机缘巧合，我本想去北中医的招聘会上看看还有哪家大学缺人，没想到看到了如此简短的校名，其实我每次写信写地址的时候都想，为啥我们的校名那么长，要写好大一长串，看看别人家的学校，几个字就解决问题了，转念一想以省为名的学校应该也不会太差，就上前聊了聊，后面的事情就顺理成章了。

其实我最终能去的原因非常非得简单，第一是我不爱抱大腿，许多博士同志在找工作的时候特别注意平台，特别关心今后的发展，他这个发展往往关注的是有没有人能直接提携他，所以大家都瞻前顾后，愿意留在树荫下，对于大部分人而言这确实是非常明智的选择，在到底是跟着别人干，还是去南泥湾撸起袖子加油干，我偏爱后者；第二是我发现这个学校体量足够大，但学院非常小，具有可持续发展的资源，牌子不硬、经费不足，这些是现有的劣势，但充足的本科生资源和研究生教育资源能够在一定程度上化解难题。我大概比较了一下录取分数，近三年内河北大学录取的中医专业本科生平均成绩都高于河北中医学院，整体排名在全省一万名左右，河北是高考大省，这里招收的学生素质不会低于任何一个省属中医药大学水平，只要有人，就有未来。

总体来说，干了两年了，还是满意的。作为综合性大学，我有很多机会直接接触其他专业的老师和同学，这点非常方便，现在是必须交叉融合的年代，而我们的中医教育既缺文史哲，又缺数理化，河北大学能很好地弥补这个问题。国内综合性院校中目前只有我们和厦门大学、暨南大学开设了中医专业，大家面临的问题应该都是一样的，那就是综合性院校中的医学学科定位，如果没有加入河大，这些问题我压根就不会思考，常怀感恩，且行且珍惜。