Lu Deming

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He studied under Gu Bohua and has practised medicine for more than fifty years, accumulating rich clinical experience in the treatment of breast diseases, thyroid diseases, sores and ulcers, skin diseases and snakebite. Within the regional tradition and school record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Shanghai: The Gu school's surgical therapy is a traditional therapeutic method of Chinese medicine renowned throughout Jiangnan and the nation; it has a history of more than a century, with Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang as its main areas of distribution, centered on Xuhui District of Shanghai, influencing Jiangnan and radiating across the whole country. The Gu school's surgical therapy has perfected the system of TCM surgery and raised its academic content, giving it high historical and cultural value; renowned throughout the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region, it has relieved the pain of many patients, and its relatively low cost and relatively safe use of medicines have won it the respect, affection, and recognition of the public. The Gu school's surgical therapy originated with Gu Yunyan in the late Qing dynasty. Grounded in the theoretical tradition of Chinese medicine and drawing broadly on and integrating the strengths of surgical physicians across the ages, it formed an academic system integrating the Gu school's distinctive theory, distinctive diagnosis and treatment, distinctive external therapeutic methods, and distinctive formulas.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

A man of Han ethnicity, he was born in July 1935 in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. He is a professor, a doctoral supervisor and a chief physician. Since the 1980s he has led the construction and development of the discipline of Chinese medicine surgery at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, playing a foundational and pioneering role in its becoming a national key discipline in the field of Chinese medicine surgery. Within the documented technical tradition of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Shanghai: In theory, it advocates a holistic conception and attaches importance to holistic treatment; it emphasizes that in the treatment of sores and ulcers the first task is to differentiate yin from yang; it pays attention to pattern differentiation by location, by meridian, and locally; it values the role of the spleen and stomach and of dietary regulation in the treatment of sores; and it stresses the combination of internal and external treatment of surgical diseases. In diagnosis and treatment, it emphasizes the integration of disease identification and pattern differentiation — first identifying the disease, then differentiating the pattern. It uses the method of supporting the healthy and harmonizing ying to draw out toxins in treating headed carbuncles; the method of regulating the chong and ren meridians in treating mammary hyperplasia; the method of boosting qi, nourishing yin, regulating the chong and ren meridians, detoxifying, and dissipating masses in treating post-operative breast cancer; and the method of nourishing yin in treating bone tuberculosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and other surgical and skin diseases, and treats the transformed patterns of acute appendicitis through "unblocking, moistening, differentiation, and change." In its distinctive external therapeutic methods, it has created many new treatments, including the rubber-band thread-draining method, the thread-dragging method, medicated-thread therapy, hot-baking therapy, perfusion therapy, and the cotton-padding method. The thread-dragging method in particular is used to treat refractory sinus fistulae, plasma cell mastitis, and complex anal fistulae, with the advantages of small trauma, rapid healing, and no functional impairment; it has been introduced and promoted by numerous hospitals throughout China. In its use of formulas and drugs, long practice and accumulation have produced a series of famous and empirical formulas, including Qingdai Ointment, Hongyou (Red Oil) Ointment, Shengji Baiyu (Flesh-Growing White Jade) Ointment, Xiaozhi (Hemorrhoid-Removing) Ointment, Shengji (Flesh-Growing) Powder, Qingchuikou Powder, Diandao Powder Lotion, Sanhuang (Three-Yellow) Lotion, Qinlian Xiaodu Drink, Yiqi Tuoduo Decoction, Modified Gualou Niubang Decoction, Saisan Xiaosan Formula, Liangqing Xuefei Drink, Changyong Formula, the Internal Formula for Hydrocele, Jinhong Tablets, Qingjie Tablets, and Fuhuang Tablets. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Identifying the disease before the pattern": Surgery first names the disease, then reads the pattern, so that an external method is chosen for a defined condition. "Sorting yin from yang first": Yin and yang govern the rest — local, channel and site-level reading all proceed from this. "The thread-drawing method": A medicated thread is passed through a sinus to draw out necrotic tissue slowly, healing fast and sparing sphincter function. "Rubber-band ligation of fistula": A rubber band exerts slow continuous pressure to open a deeper fistula by the same principle as thread drawing.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He is a national representative bearer of traditional Chinese medical diagnostic and treatment methods (the Gu school surgical therapy), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has led more than twenty research projects, including projects of the national Seventh Five-Year Plan, the National Natural Science Foundation and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and his research results have repeatedly won the Science and Technology Progress Award of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Progress Award. In 1995 he was named one of the first Shanghai Famous Chinese Medicine Physicians by the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau.

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. Lu Deming · National Representative Bearer Archive