Wang Xingzhi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In his youth he studied the treatment of spinal and cerebral diseases with his grandfather Wang Zezhen and his father Wang Guangtai. He has fairly comprehensively inherited the family's imperial-court therapy, the core of which consists of the original palace prescriptions. Within the regional tradition and school record of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics in Xicheng, Beijing: The Wang-style spinal therapy flowed from the palace into the wider population; after its late-Qing dispersal it was practiced mainly in the Beijing area, and it has since been carried on by a single line of the Wang family's descendants, now reaching the thirteenth generation. Wang Xingzhi has devoted himself since 1977 to the research, practice, teaching, and transmission of this therapy, completing two texts - a treatment protocol and a disinfection protocol - turning an orally transmitted craft into procedures that can be followed on record. Within the same city of Beijing, external-treatment techniques such as pedicure foot care and tendon-kneading coexist; their emphases differ, but their approaches to point selection are similar. The Wang-style spinal therapy is a traditional Chinese medicine health therapy used by imperial physicians of the Qing dynasty palace to treat spinal and brain disorders. The Wang-style spinal therapy originated during the Shunzhi reign (1644-1661) of the Qing dynasty. In the late Qing dynasty, the therapy dispersed among the common people.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Wang Xingzhi was born in June 1953 in Beijing; he is of Han ethnicity. Since 1977 he has worked professionally on the research, practice, teaching and transmission of the therapy. He treats conditions of the cervical and lumbar spine and cerebral thrombosis by selecting acupoints along the meridians, drug penetration and tuina massage, achieving the effects of invigorating the blood and resolving stasis, softening hardness and dispersing nodules, and unblocking the collaterals to relieve pain. He has completed the Treatment Standards for the Wang Spinal Therapy and the Disinfection Standards for the Wang Spinal Therapy, combining traditional collateral pricking, cupping and drug administration with modern medical standards of disinfection and safety. Since 2008 he has transmitted the technique to Wang Xu. Within the documented technical tradition of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics in Xicheng, Beijing: It integrates the traditional Chinese medicine approaches of treating internal diseases by external means and of dispelling pathogens while supporting healthy qi, mobilizing the body's own reparative capacity; it is a Chinese medicine health therapy that combines prevention and treatment. At the time, the folk practitioner Wang Ruqing joined the army to treat arrow wounds; because of his high curative results he remained in the palace and became an imperial physician. During the Qianlong reign, Wang Ruqing's descendant Wang Zhao'en was again summoned into the palace to serve as an imperial physician. The therapeutic principle of the Wang-style spinal therapy consists mainly of point selection along the meridians, drug permeation, and tuina massage. Following the Chinese medicine principle that "where a meridian reaches is what it treats," the therapy focuses on the body's yang meridians, with the yin meridians in a supporting role, and applies treatment based on pattern differentiation. Through elastic needling of the acupoints, it achieves the aim of "medicine entering and pathogens exiting." The therapy makes bamboo into jars as a drug-delivery tool, taking advantage of bamboo's own effects of clearing heat and toxins and dispersing wind and dampness, which combine with the formula's medicinals to achieve the best curative results. High temperature and pressure are then used to fully drive the medicinal liquid into and store it within the bamboo jar; the negative pressure generated during cupping allows the liquid to effectively permeate into the body. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Selecting points along the channels": Points are chosen chiefly along the yang channels with the yin as adjunct, following the principle that where a channel runs it governs. "Springing needling": A quick springing thrust and withdrawal at the chosen point lets the medicine in and the pathogen out. "Herbal infusion in bamboo cups": Bamboo supplies its own cooling and drying action while pressure and heat load the drug, then suction drives it through the skin. "Massage and spinal alignment": Manual alignment of neck and lumbar segments is combined with drug infiltration to move blood and relieve pain.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics (the Wang Spinal Therapy), a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. Wang Xingzhi · National Representative Bearer Archive