Yang Huaxiang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

From childhood he studied the Hui Tangping eight-diagnosis therapy under his father Yang Yaojun, its sixth-generation transmitter. Within the regional tradition and school record of Hui Medicine in Yinchuan, Ningxia: For thousands of years it has been transmitted among Muslims in the areas of Xi'an, Henan, and Ningxia by oral instruction and personal example. The Tangping bazhen (Eight Diagnostics of the Ewer) therapy originated in the Middle East and was introduced to China by Persian Muslims via the Silk Road.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Hui ethnicity, born in August 1952 in Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. In more than forty years of research and practice he has continually recovered and refined the theoretical system and operative techniques of the Hui Tangping eight-diagnosis therapy, forming a distinctive ethnic medical culture. Its techniques are varied, refined, delicate, plain and accurate, and diagnosis and treatment lay emphasis on a holistic grasp of the whole body. Within the documented technical tradition of Hui Medicine in Yinchuan, Ningxia: Hui medicine is an important component of China's traditional medicine. Hui medicine has a long history. It is the product of the mutual blending of ancient Arabic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and the medical systems of the various peoples of the Western Regions, while retaining the Hui people's medical experience, aromatic drugs, and cultural characteristics. The Huihui Yaofang is a representative work of Hui medicine from the Yuan and Ming eras. The original text comprised 36 volumes, of which only 4 survive. A comparatively good critical edition of the surviving volumes of the Huihui Yaofang has also been published. These works have laid the foundation for the inheritance and development of Hui medicine. After more than a thousand years of continuous practice, the eight-diagnosis therapy of China's Hui people developed into a relatively complete set of eight therapies with clear distinctions of priority, which later generations have called "Tangping bazhen". Hui Tangping bazhen therapy comprises eight diagnostic and therapeutic methods: head diagnosis, ear diagnosis, face diagnosis, hand diagnosis, foot diagnosis, bone diagnosis, pulse diagnosis, and qi diagnosis. The main manipulation techniques include pushing, pressing, pinching, plucking, dotting, stroking, and trembling, and the treatment process has a distinct ethnic style, as in the recitation of du'a (supplications) and water therapy with the ewer (tangping). The instruments used in Tangping bazhen therapy include the tangping ewer, ox-horn sticks, ear-diagnosis sticks, and goatshorn boards carved with du'a. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Head, ear and face diagnosis": Diagnosis of head, ear and face reads colour and form of the head surface, using pushing, pressing, pinching and other strokes. "Hand, foot and bone diagnosis": Hand, foot and bone diagnosis rely on palpation of form and warmth, the bone reading checking joints for displacement. "Pulse and breath diagnosis": Pulse reading uses the Hui positions and finger technique, while breath reading judges the strength, depth and length of respiration. "Reciting the Duai during treatment": Treatment is accompanied by the recitation of the Duai, fusing devotional speech with the manual technique.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of Hui Medicine, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project, in respect of the Hui Tangping eight-diagnosis therapy. He is the seventh-generation transmitter of the therapy and a recipient of the third China Intangible Cultural Heritage Bearer Transmission Award of the Chinese Academy of Arts, the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Centre. In 2003 he opened the Tangping Eight-Diagnosis Health Studio, and he has since compiled and published six books and obtained three national invention patents. He wrote a textbook, Tangping Eight-Diagnosis, led or took part in two national research projects, and trained representative bearers of intangible cultural heritage at autonomous-region and Yinchuan municipal level as well as a large number of practitioners of the therapy. He received the Ethnic Medicine Inheritance Contribution Award of the China Ethnic Medicine Science and Technology Award from the China Ethnic Medicine Association.

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 Huaxiang · National Representative Bearer Archive