Hu Changjiang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He graduated from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and studied under Professor Xu Chujiang, an expert in TCM processing. Within the regional tradition and school record of Traditional Herbal Processing Techniques in Chengdu, Sichuan: From ancient times to the present, the Chinese medicine profession has accumulated extensive experience in medicinal processing, summarized complete sets of theory, invented numerous techniques, formed many schools, and compiled a large body of works; Chinese medicinal processing technique has become one of the important components of Chinese materia medica. Chinese medicinals derive from plants, animals, and minerals of the natural world.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1952 in Da County, Sichuan Province. National representative bearer of Zhongyao Herbal Processing Craftsmanship, a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. A professor, doctoral supervisor, and expert receiving the special government allowance of the State Council. Engaged in pharmacy and clinical work for more than forty years, he has accumulated extensive clinical experience, uses medicines in a distinctive way with marked therapeutic effects, and is skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of common and frequently occurring diseases. He serves as director of the Key Research Office for Quality and Efficacy Evaluation of TCM Formula Granules of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has presided over more than twenty national, provincial, and ministerial projects, published more than one hundred academic papers, authored Zhongyao Paozhi yu Linchuang Yingyong (TCM Processing and Clinical Application), and served as chief editor of three textbooks including Zhongyao Paozhixue and Linchuang Zhongyao Paozhixue, while contributing to more than ten others. He actively carries out transmission activities and has trained more than thirty doctoral and master's students. Within the documented technical tradition of Traditional Herbal Processing Techniques in Chengdu, Sichuan: China's traditional medicinal-material resources reach 12,807 kinds, but in the clinical application of Chinese medicine and the manufacture of prepared medicines, raw drugs are generally not used; instead, the processed and prepared products - prepared slices (yinpian) - are used. Chinese medicinal processing is a special technique of processing raw drugs according to the theory of Chinese medicine and the different requirements of medical treatment, compounding, and storage, as well as the properties of the materials themselves, using methods such as trimming and purifying, water processing, fire processing, and the addition of auxiliary materials. Its origins can be traced back to the cultivation, collection, or rearing of the medicinal materials, among which stir-frying, dry-frying with liquid adjuvant, scalding, calcining, and roasting, along with fire-based methods, are the most commonly used - hence the name "processing" (paozhi). The purpose of Chinese medicinal processing is to reduce or eliminate the toxicity and side effects of drugs and to moderate or change their nature, thereby improving efficacy and facilitating compounding, storage, and administration; its core is reducing toxicity and enhancing effect. Sichuan enjoys the laudatory titles of "Land of Abundance" and "home of Chinese medicine, storehouse of Chinese medicinals"; the province holds more than 5,000 kinds of Chinese medicinal resources, accounting for about 75 percent of China's Chinese herbal varieties, of which more than thirty are famous genuine regional or principal medicinal materials. The use of Chinese medicinals and prepared Chinese medicines is the principal means by which the people of Sichuan prevent and treat disease. Chinese medicinal processing is a pharmaceutical technique adopted in accordance with the theory of Chinese medicine, in line with the need for pattern-based (syndrome-differentiated) medication, the properties of the drugs themselves, and the different requirements of compounding and preparation; it is a major characteristic of Chinese medicine and pharmacology. There are a great many processing methods, such as steaming, stir-frying, dry-frying with liquid adjuvant, calcining, explosive roasting, refining, boiling, boiling down over fire, burning, cutting into pieces, grinding, filing, pounding into paste, washing with wine, decocting with wine, boiling with wine, water soaking, washing with hot decoction, scraping the skin, removing the core, removing wings and feet, and removing hair. Chinese medicinal processing plays a considerable role in the theory and practice of Chinese medicine. First, it can improve the effect of clinical treatment: physicians can, according to the different causes, pathogenesis, syndromes, and health conditions of patients, select appropriate processed products in a targeted way, enhancing the accuracy, reliability, and practical efficacy of formulas. Second, Chinese medicinal processing can fully ensure the safety of clinical medication: it can reduce or eliminate the toxicity and side effects of drugs, thereby safeguarding patients' lives. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Wine washing, wine decocting and wine stewing": One idea, three methods: light washing to lift the herb, decocting to draw the wine into the juice, stewing to cook the herb soft in the wine. "Soaking and washing in water": Rhizome drugs are soaked or washed in hot water and scraped before they reach the pot, so mud and water-soluble impurities stay behind. "Calcining, roasting, refining, boiling, simmering": This family of fire methods answers different drug natures: some make the material brittle for grinding, some soften toxicity, some insist the qi must be retained. "Trimming away non-medicinal parts": Cutting, filing, pounding and the removal of pips, wings, legs or hair belong to trimming: what is not medicinal is removed before the formula is assembled.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2018, Hu Changjiang was announced in the fifth batch of national representative bearers for Traditional Herbal Processing Techniques, with Chengdu, Sichuan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Traditional Herbal Processing Techniques in Chengdu, Sichuan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2008 (batch 2), with Chengdu, Sichuan as its declared area, and Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine University 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. Hu Changjiang · National Representative Bearer Archive