Dong Youqi

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Dong Youqi, Male, Han, from Ningboshihaishu, Zhejiang, is a fifth-batch national representative bearer of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods (Ⅸ-2). The tradition is documented in Ningboshihaishu, Zhejiang. Within the regional tradition and school record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Ningboshihaishu, Zhejiang: This branch of pediatric medicine today has Shanghai and Ningbo as its strongholds, where inheritance studios for renowned veteran physicians of Chinese medicine, Shanghai-school Chinese medicine inheritance bases and diagnosis and treatment research centers have been established one after another. Its students come not only from the counties, cities and districts of Ningbo but also from Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei, with students from the United States, Australia and other countries joining as well. Its channels of transmission fall into three: master-apprentice instruction, the training of graduate students and visiting scholars, and teaching in training courses. The Dong school of pediatrics originated in Dongjiatiao Village, Jiangshan Town, Yinzhou District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, and is the most influential branch of Shanghai-school pediatric Chinese medicine. Its source can be traced back to the families of hereditary physicians in the area of Yin County in the late Qing and early Republican period, and it has passed through seven generations over more than two hundred years. Early transmitters began with family learning and reference to classics such as the Inner Canon (Huangdi Neijing) and the Classic of Difficult Issues (Nanjing), practicing mostly in the countryside around Ningbo; by the time of the fifth generation, with Dong Youqi, the school's pediatric reputation spread beyond its home area, and Ningbo and Shanghai gradually became its two centers of gravity.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1953 in Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province. A professor and an expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. Guided by the principle of reasoning out illness and reasoning out treatment, he treats a wide range of common diseases and intractable conditions, and has attained considerable proficiency in the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric fever, convulsions, acute and chronic bronchitis, asthma, acute and chronic diarrhea, acute and chronic gastritis, mesenteric lymphadenitis, anorexia, tic disorders, allergic purpura, epilepsy, and Kawasaki disease. In forty-six years of medical practice he has diagnosed and treated more than one million patient visits. Within the documented technical tradition of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Ningboshihaishu, Zhejiang: Its students are found throughout the country, and its medical art is renowned both in China and abroad. The Dong school of pediatrics is based on family learning, with reference to the classics including the Inner Canon and the Classic of Difficult Issues; combining these with clinical practice, it established the academic thought of “reasoning about the disease, reasoning about the treatment”, and proposed the nine essentials of treatment — clarifying the principle, recognizing the disease, differentiating the pattern, seeking the cause, establishing the method, selecting the formula, composing the ingredients, moderating the dosage and knowing the changes — by which it guides and establishes the rules of pediatric diagnosis and treatment. The school advocates that in examining children's diseases inspection comes first, that in regulating and treating children's diseases attention should be paid to the spleen and stomach, and that in externally contracted heat diseases one should choose the route by which to expel the invader. In prescribing medicines it advocates meticulous medication, emphasizing the six-character essentials of light, ingenious, simple, flexible, inexpensive and effective; each prescription contains at most eight or nine ingredients, and the cost is low — for example, children with autumn diarrhea can often be treated for about ten yuan. It has also established the method of invigorating blood and regulating qi to treat recurrent intussusception, the method of supporting the healthy and expelling the pathogenic to treat recurrent high-fever convulsions, the method of raising the clear and moving the spleen to treat fungal enteritis, the method of clearing the nutrient level and venting the qi level to treat Kawasaki disease, and the method of courting and venting with regulation of the spleen to treat allergic purpura — achieving refined prescriptions with remarkable effects. In addition, upholding the Dong family's hereditary manipulations, the school uses the family's finger-pressure method to treat infant milk regurgitation; needling the Sifeng points to treat infantile malnutrition; the umbilical application method to treat intestinal paralysis; and the aromatic sachet method to treat anorexia — all with outstanding clinical efficacy. Its students come not only from counties, cities and districts around Ningbo but also from Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Jinhua, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong and Hebei, and there are also students from the United States, Australia and other countries. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Inspection first": In paediatrics inspection leads — complexion, superficial veins, vomit and stool are read before auscultation and palpation are brought in. "The nine steps of reasoning": Nine successive steps — grasp the principle, name the disease, read the pattern, trace the cause, set the method, choose the formula, combine, dose and adapt. "The spleen and stomach first": Because children are fragile, treatment centres on spleen and stomach, with light, ingenious, simple, flexible, cheap and effective drugs. "Digital pressure for infant vomiting": A family finger-pressure technique stops infants vomiting milk, without any medicine being given.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods (Dong Family Pediatric Medicine), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He has received twenty-five honors, including the Chinese Physician Award, the title of Advanced Worker of the National Health System, and second and third prizes of the Science and Technology Award of the China Association of Chinese Medicine together with a second prize for a scholarly work; he has authored ten monographs and more than fifty papers. He was conferred the title of instructor in the national program for inheriting the academic experience of veteran TCM experts by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He serves as vice chair of the Pediatrics Branch of the China Association of Chinese Medicine and president of the Ningbo Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection 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. Dong Youqi · National Representative Bearer Archive