Yang Fuan

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Yang Fuan, Male, Han, from Pingyin, Shandong, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (Ⅸ-4). The tradition is documented in Pingyin, Shandong. Within the regional tradition and school record of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods in Pingyin, Shandong: The Pingyin branch took root at the Shandong Pingyin Ejiao Factory (the predecessor of today's Fujiao Group), sharing the same origin as Dong'e but in a different place. Yang Fu'an, born in Pingyin in September 1963, entered the factory in 1983, starting from the old process steps of boiling and drying the gelatin, and wrote down one by one — as post operating rules — the heat judgments and 'hanging the beads' assessments that his masters had passed on orally, turning the craft into standards that could be verified. He served as chief editor of 'Chinese Ejiao' and organized scattered experience into the first nationally applicable 'Code of Ejiao Production Process' and 'Operating Rules for Ejiao Production Posts,' which were incorporated into the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The quality standards of Pingyin's gelatin thus stood alongside Dong'e's advantage of well water, becoming another set of generally applicable rules for this craft. Dong'e County in Shandong Province is the place of origin and main producing area of ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin). Ejiao production there has a history of more than two thousand years, and in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty it reached its peak, when 'women and children alike knew how to boil gelatin.' The county has been named by the state the 'Hometown of Ejiao in China,' and is the protected area of origin and sole place of production of Fupai Ejiao.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1963 in Pingyin County, Shandong Province. He is a national representative bearer of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project, in respect of the Dong'e Ejiao crafting technique. He is a research professor, an expert receiving special government allowances from the State Council, and a National Model Worker. In 1983 he joined the Shandong Pingyin Ejiao Factory, the predecessor of the Fujiao Group. For nearly four decades he has devoted himself to the study of Ejiao culture and to production, technology, quality control, product research and development, and business management, leading the factory from a small traditional workshop to a modern national-level Chinese medicine enterprise. He currently serves as chairman and Party secretary of the Shandong Fujiao Group. He was editor-in-chief of Zhongguo Ejiao (Chinese Ejiao). He pioneered standardization research on Ejiao products, compiling the first nationally applicable Ejiao Production Process Specification and Ejiao Production Post Operating Procedures, which were incorporated into the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Within the documented technical tradition of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods in Pingyin, Shandong: Traditional Chinese medicine preparation refers mainly to pills, powders, ointments, and elixirs (dan); in addition, there are wine preparations, lozenges (dingji), gelatins (jiaoji), and so on. Each dosage form has its own set of traditional preparation techniques, and in combination with certain products there are also some special methods of production. With the development of the times, the production of ready-made Chinese medicines (patent medicines) has undergone many reforms and innovations, greatly raising production efficiency; yet traditional preparation methods have not all been eliminated, and some of them remain the best choice in the production of patent medicines — especially famous-brand patent medicines, patent medicines with secret formulas, and patent medicines containing precious and rare medicinal ingredients, which are often still produced by traditional preparation methods in time-honored brand enterprises. Traditional Chinese medicine preparation methods retain certain features of ancient workshop production: materials are selected with precision, ingredients are fed in an orderly sequence, and the techniques are distinctive; the packaging and instruction slips are imbued with a traditional cultural atmosphere, and are deeply trusted by physicians and patients. Dong'e County has the A Well (Ajing), whose groundwater system is an underground flow formed at the confluence of the Mount Tai and Taihang mountain ranges. On the yin side of Mount Tai and the yang side of the Taihang Mountains, yin and yang complement each other; the water has a relative density of 1.0038, is rich in minerals and trace elements, and easily removes impurities from the ejiao, making the gelatin pure and readily absorbed by the human body. The traditional process of Dong'e Ejiao includes more than fifty process steps — preparing the hides, dissolving the hides, boiling the extract, and so on — all carried out by hand. Among them, boiling the gelatin and drying the gelatin are the most complex, and the stages in between — 'hanging the beads' (guazhu), 'breaking the oil' (zayou), and 'lifting the monkey' (diaohou) — most reveal the craftsman's skill; it takes six or seven years of practice before one begins to grasp the knack. The process regulations of Dong'e Ejiao were included in the first batch of scientific and technological secrecy projects of the National Pharmaceutical Administration. Ejiao culture integrates Chinese medicine and pharmacy, historiography, philosophy, health preservation, tonic supplementation, paste-formula culture, and classical literature; it is a representative of Chinese medical culture. It has won such honors as the gold medal at the Panama International Exposition, the international 'Great Wall' gold medal for traditional medicines, the designation 'China Time-Honored Brand,' and the 'China Well-Known Trademark.' Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival record of the process steps": The traditional process of Dong'e Ejiao includes more than fifty process steps — preparing the hides, dissolving the hides, boiling the extract, and so on — all carried out by hand. Among them, boiling the gelatin and drying the gelatin are the most complex, and the stages in between — 'hanging the beads' (guazhu), 'breaking the oil' (zayou), and 'lifting the monkey' (diaohou) — most reveal the craftsman's skill; it takes six or seven years of practice before one begins to grasp the knack. "The codex of donkey-hide gelatin production": A generally applicable production codex that fixed the stages in writing, making quality comparable nationwide. "Operating rules for each production post": Post-specific written instructions that converted orally taught technique into checkable rules, later recorded in the pharmacopoeia. "From the boiling vat to written standards": Joining the Pingyin gelatin factory in 1983, he worked nearly forty years on production, technique and quality and edited China Ejiao.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2012, Yang Fuan was announced in the fourth batch of national representative bearers for Traditional TCM Preparation Methods, with Pingyin, Shandong as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods in Pingyin, Shandong: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Pingyin, Shandong as its declared area, and Shandong Fupaiajiao Co., Ltd. as its safeguarding unit. Since the project was inscribed in the national inventory, its declared area and safeguarding unit have carried out documentation, transmission and presentation within the national safeguarding framework. Together, the inventory record and the project archive form the public documentary basis for the bearer’s transmission practice.

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. Yang Fuan · National Representative Bearer Archive