Abstract: In the middle and early Qing Dynasty, there were many itinerant empirics from Jianchang County, Jiangxi Province, who were mostly forced into this occupation by economic exigency. Thanks to convenient transportation and ancestral prescriptions, these individuals could make a living outside of Jianchang. Their medical behavior and special features of their everyday life reveals the multiple facets of the folk medical world. Because of their complex interpersonal relationships, notoriety for cheating others out of money, and especially their frequent travels, their peculiar way of life was considered a potential threat to the ruling order and it occasionally got them in trouble. The complexity and conflicts of the itinerant empirics reflected the contradiction between the common people’s struggle for survival and the offi cial prejudice against them.