During the Warring States period, a physician named Qin Yueren was so skilled at reviving the dying that people revered him as the legendary divine healer Bian Que from the Yellow Emperor's era, and they called him Bian Que.
That year, Bian Que was practicing medicine in the state of Guo. One morning, he and his two disciples passed by the royal palace and heard that the crown prince had died earlier that day from a sudden illness caused by an imbalance of blood and qi. After inquiring, Bian Que believed the prince could still be saved and requested an audience to examine him. The palace steward, after reporting to the king, quickly led him to the prince's bedside.
Bian Que leaned down to listen at the crown prince's nose for a moment and found that the prince occasionally had extremely faint breaths. He felt his legs and discovered the inner sides were still slightly warm; taking his pulse, he also found a faint beat within. So he said:
"The Crown Prince is not truly dead, but has suffered a severe fainting illness. There is still hope for him to revive. I will treat him immediately!"
Bian Que then instructed an apprentice to prepare the golden needles and inserted them into the crown prince's head, chest, hands, and feet. Within moments, the prince began to breathe again. Bian Que ordered another apprentice to apply hot compresses under the prince's armpits. Soon after, the prince regained consciousness. The king of Guo and his ministers, witnessing this miracle, were overjoyed and repeatedly thanked Bian Que.
Bian Que said to the monarch, "To help the prince recover, I will prescribe another course of medicine for him to take for twenty days, and the effects will be evident by then."
After taking the medicine for twenty days, the crown prince fully recovered. The ruler and others thanked him again, and Bian Que humbly said:
“It is not that I, Qin Yueren, can bring the dead back to life, but that the crown prince was not truly dead, so I was able to cure him.” Later, the idiom “Bring the Dead Back to Life” came to describe exceptional medical skill, and also to mean turning a hopeless situation around.
Source: *Records of the Grand Historian*, "Biographies of Bian Que and the Duke of Cang"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "起死回生" came to describe exceptional medical skill, and also to mean turning a hopeless situation around.