杏林

xìnglín
noun #95,159

Meanings

  1. 1 the medical profession; the world of doctors
  2. 2 apricot grove

Examples

HSK 7-9
Tā chūshēn xìnglín shìjiā, jiālǐ sān dài dōu shì yīshēng.
She comes from a family of doctors; three generations of them have practised medicine.
HSK 7-9
Zhè wèi lǎo zhōngyī yīshù gāomíng, zài xìnglín zhōng hěn yǒu míngwàng.
This elderly doctor of Chinese medicine is highly skilled and greatly respected in the medical world.

Tips

culture
The name comes from 董奉, a third-century doctor on 庐山 who took no fees. Each patient he cured planted apricot trees instead, five for a serious illness and one for a minor one, until they grew into a grove. Plaques thanking a doctor still praise him as a master of the 杏林.

Stroke Order

杏 xìng
林 lín