30-second overview: Born in Sanzhih, Tamsui in 1893, Du Congming became Taiwan's first medical doctorate holder in 1922, breaking onto the front page of Taiwan's newspapers that year. Using his "gradual cessation method," he helped over 11,498 opium addicts quit in 17 years, solving Taiwan's three-hundred-year opium problem. The urine morphine detection method he invented remains the foundation of global drug testing today. He was also the founder of Kaohsiung Medical College, Taiwan's first private university. His lifetime spanned three eras—the Qing dynasty, Japanese rule, and the Republic of China under martial law—and he lived through them all.
In 1930, in the office of the director of Taipei Rehabilitation Institute, Du Congming, then 37 years old, was reviewing data that kept him awake at night: Taiwan still had tens of thousands of opium addicts. This problem had existed since the Dutch colonial period, was addressed during Qing rule, and managed by the Japanese, but no one had truly solved it.
He wrote out a system on blank paper: substitute morphine for opium paste, reducing the dose each day at a pace that would not trigger severe withdrawal symptoms, supplemented by his own invented urine morphine quantitative detection method to track therapeutic effectiveness. He called this method "gradual cessation therapy," or "progressive prohibition therapy."
For the next 17 years, Taipei Rehabilitation Institute reformed 11,498 opium addicts.
This was not just a medical technique—it was the story of a scientist in a colonial context using research to change the lives of over ten thousand real people.
A Tea Farmer's Son from Sanzhih, Stepping into the Hardest Era
Born on August 25, 1893, in Sanzhih, Tamsui, Taipei Prefecture, Du Congming bore the courtesy name Si-mu. His father died early, and his mother raised him alone. His older brother, who ran a private school at home, became his earliest mentor, instilling in him a seriousness about learning beyond his peers.
In late Qing Taiwan, the social environment posed structural obstacles to how far a child from an ordinary tea-farming family could go. But the era was changing. In 1895, Japan took control of Taiwan, and the new colonial system brought new educational institutions, though designed not to let Taiwanese people reach the top.
In 1914, Du Congming was admitted to the Taiwan Governor-General's Medical School (predecessor to today's Taiwan University College of Medicine) as one of the first-year students.
📝 Studying medicine in a Japanese colonial territory itself was a paradox: you accept the colonizer's educational system and learn knowledge that can benefit Taiwanese people, yet within this system, you are perpetually designed not to be first-rate. This contradiction always existed in Du Congming, forever pushing him forward.
Attempted Assassination of Yuan Shikai: Another Side of a Medical Student
During his medical school years, Du Congming did something that nearly destroyed everything.
Around 1913, influenced by revolutionary ideology, he traveled to Beijing, China, attempting to assassinate Yuan Shikai, who had usurped power of the Republic of China. The plan failed; he escaped and returned to Taiwan to continue his studies.
This incident is merely a few cursory lines in his memoirs, but placed in historical context, a Taiwanese student in his early twenties, studying in a colonial territory, willing to risk his life traveling to Beijing to attempt to assassinate a warlord, reveals that his thoughts on politics, ethnic destiny, and justice were far more complex than those of a student simply seeking a diploma.
After returning, he devoted all his energy to medical research. The fervor of revolution transformed into the perseverance of scholarship.
Taiwan's First Medical Doctorate Holder: 1922 Front-Page News
After graduating from medical school, Du Congming received the opportunity to study in Japan, entering Kyoto Imperial University's medical department to pursue a doctoral degree under Professor Ozaki Entaro, a renowned pharmacologist.
During the Japanese colonial period, it was extraordinarily rare for a Taiwanese person to enter an imperial university to study for a doctorate. The entire system was designed to discourage this—you had to perform at a level no one could refuse at every single level to squeeze into a pathway never designed for you in the first place.
His doctoral research focus: the pharmacological mechanisms of opiate drugs. Starting from animal experiments, he systematically studied morphine's effects on the nervous system, a remarkably forward-thinking research topic for the time.
In 1922, he completed his doctoral dissertation and officially received his medical doctorate.
Taiwan's newspapers reported on the front page: "Taiwan's First Doctorate Holder Is Born." That was 1922. Only 27 years after the Qing ceded Taiwan, the children of that generation of Taiwanese could begin to imagine they might reach the highest level within the Western scientific system. Du Congming was the first to do it.
That year, he married Lin Shuangsui, whom he had courted for years—he had promised in his letters, "I will marry you only after obtaining my doctorate," and he kept his word.
17 Years, 11,498 People: The True Scale of Gradual Cessation Therapy
The history of opium in Taiwan began almost simultaneously with settlement. It flowed in during Dutch rule; during Qing governance, the prevailing belief that "settlers with poor adaptation to local conditions use opium to prevent malaria" led to widespread use. By the early Japanese period, the opium problem had accumulated over two to three hundred years.
The Japanese colonial government's "gradual prohibition strategy" was: issue special licenses allowing existing addicts to continue use, prohibit newcomers, and wait for the addict population to naturally decline. The problem was the pace was too slow, and helping addicts quit was never part of this strategy's calculations.
In 1928, Du Congming proposed his method: substitute morphine for opium paste (morphine is opium's main active ingredient, but the dosage can be precisely quantified), reducing it each day by an amount insufficient to trigger severe withdrawal symptoms, supplemented by his own invented "urine morphine qualitative and quantitative detection method" (urine testing) to track therapeutic progress.
The key innovation in this method lay in urine testing. By testing the patient's urine for morphine residue daily, Du Congming could objectively judge whether the treatment proceeded as planned, rather than relying solely on the patient's self-report. This logic of "letting scientific data guide the therapeutic process" was ahead of its time.
In 1930, with Taiwan Governor-General's support, Du Congming became director of Taipei Rehabilitation Institute and began large-scale promotion of this therapy.
By 1947, over 17 years, Taipei Rehabilitation Institute had reformed 11,498 opium addicts.
The urine testing principle he invented remains a foundational method for international drug testing today. A technique proposed in Taiwan in 1928 remains at the core of global drug screening logic nearly a century later.
Snake Venom and Herbal Remedies: Scientizing Taiwan's Indigenous Medicine
Beyond opium research, Du Congming's other major research direction was Taiwan's indigenous snake venom.
He systematically collected venom from Taiwan's various venomous snakes, analyzed their chemical composition, and sought to extract painkillers from them—an extremely pragmatic research direction in an environment with limited modern medical resources. He also studied the active components of Taiwan's traditional Chinese herbal remedies, for instance creating a dysentery-specific cure from papaya leaves, attempting to provide scientific basis for verifying and transmitting plant remedies that common people had used for centuries.
This research orientation of "combining traditional knowledge with modern scientific methods" was not popular in mainstream academic circles at the time, but in his view, Taiwan's indigenous knowledge systems were themselves research resources—discarding them would be waste.
Kaohsiung Medical University's institutional records document that Director Du "devoted himself wholeheartedly to three deeply Taiwan-distinctive and competitive topics—snake venom, opium, and Chinese medicine research, achieving exceptionally high pharmacological accomplishments."
Kaohsiung Medical College: Taiwan's First Private University
After the war, Du Congming continued teaching at Taiwan University's College of Medicine, becoming the first Taiwanese professor at NTU. But he had bigger ambitions: Taiwan's southern region lacked medical talent, and Pingtung-Kaohsiung, outlying islands, and indigenous mountain settlements were all waiting for doctors.
In 1954, he founded Kaohsiung Medical College (now Kaohsiung Medical University), becoming Taiwan's first private university. This was a risky move: private universities had no precedent in Taiwan, the education ministry's approval procedures were complex, and funding was an issue.
The school motto he proposed was "Sincerity and Simplicity," emphasizing that medical education must cultivate both character and technique. He specifically established a "Mountain Medicine Class," recruiting indigenous students, hoping they would return to serve their communities after graduation, solving the problem of doctor-less villages in remote areas.
This step was concrete practice of his educational philosophy: medical knowledge should not only serve cities or the wealthy. The founding of Kaohsiung Medical College gave Taiwan's south its first base for cultivating medical talent.
A Lifetime Spanning Three Eras
Du Congming passed away in February 1986 at age 93. He was born in the late Qing, lived through fifty years of Japanese rule, and continued working and building during the martial law era of Republic of China governance. He lived through almost the entirety of Taiwan's modern history, and in each era he chose the same thing: using scientific research to improve human lives.
His autobiography Du Congming's Memoirs is crucial primary source material for Taiwan's medical history, documenting how intellectuals spanning three political regimes maintained academic independence amid political change.
In Kaohsiung Medical University's historical archive, there is a photograph of him in his later years: an old man sitting by a window, his expression serene, as if he had seen through everything. That university he left behind continues to cultivate doctors. That urine testing principle remains the foundation of drug screening today.
A three-hundred-year-old opium problem, in his hands, using science and patience, was solved.
References
- Du Congming - Wikipedia (Chinese) (chronology of life; compiled primary sources)
- Pioneering Opium, Snake Venom, and Chinese Medicine Research, Taiwan's First Medical Doctorate Holder—Du Congming - PanSci
- Taiwan's First Doctorate Holder, Opium Terminator—Du Congming - New Century Weekly
- August 25, 1893: Taiwan's First Medical Doctorate Holder Du Congming's Birth Anniversary - Gathering Taiwan
- Du Congming and Early Civil Anti-Smoking Movement and Opium Addiction Treatment - Airiti Library (academic paper; primary source)
- Kaohsiung Medical University - Director Du Congming Brief Biography (Primary Source)