Yu Baitang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He came from a Hangzhou family long established in traditional Chinese medicine; his grandfather Yu Xiuzhang once served as manager of Huqingyutang, and his father Yu Shuyan once worked in pharmaceutical production at Taishantang. Within the regional tradition and school record of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods in Hangzhoushishangcheng, Zhejiang: In Hangzhou, pastes divide into two routes — shop-prepared medicine and self-boiled paste — and Fanghuichun Hall belongs to the latter. It stands at No. 117 Hefang Street, drawing the neighborhood with an ancient well and a hundred-year-old copper stove; the names of its pastes — Shiquan Dabu Paste, Eryi Paste, Yimu Paste, Ejiao Paste and Guilu Erxian Paste — spread through the Jiangnan region, and the people of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong still recognize this house to this day. Yu Botang, born in Hangzhou in May 1949, learned medicinal processing from his father as a child; he entered Hangzhou People's Pharmacy in 1979, and after coming to Fanghuichun Hall in 2001 he set down the paste-boiling process and the quality-control records item by item; in 2008 Fanghuichun Hall once again used a master-led apprenticeship program to continue the staffing of paste boilers. In the late Qing and early Republican period, the Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique was already famous throughout Hangzhou for its numerous pastes — Shiquan Dabu Paste (All-inclusive Great Tonifying Paste), Eryi Paste, Yimu Paste (Motherwort Paste), Ejiao Paste (Donkey-hide Gelatin Paste) and Guilu Erxian Paste (Turtle and Deer Two Immortals Paste) — and it flourished in the Jiangnan region; today it is still practiced in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Guangdong.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Yu Baitang was born in May 1949 in Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and is of Han ethnicity. He is a representative bearer of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (the Fang Huichun Tang traditional herbal paste formula preparation craft), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. A celebrated veteran pharmaceutical worker in Hangzhou known for hand-made pills and for decocting herbal paste, he has worked in the trade for more than fifty years. He learned the processing of Chinese materia medica from his father from childhood. In 1979 he joined the Hangzhou People's Pharmacy. After joining Fang Huichun Tang in 2001, he established a complete production workflow and a quality-control record system for herbal paste, making quality control and review easier to carry out. At each herbal paste festival held by Fang Huichun Tang he explains and promotes herbal paste. Within the documented technical tradition of Traditional TCM Preparation Methods in Hangzhoushishangcheng, Zhejiang: The Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique is a traditional Chinese pharmaceutical method in which a physician, through pattern differentiation and treatment determination, writes a prescription, hands it to a paste-boiling master to boil down, and the paste is finally formed. Fanghuichun Hall was born in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, and stands at No. 117 Hefang Street, a famous historical and cultural street of China. The Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique involves many process steps: writing the prescription, proportioning ingredients, soaking, decocting, settling, straining off the residue, concentrating and finishing the paste. The pastes it produces are composed of five parts: prepared Chinese medicine slices, fine medicinal materials, glues (animal-gelatin materials), sugars and excipients; they have the health-preserving effects of replenishing deficiency and supporting weakness, preventing and curing disease, resisting aging and prolonging life, and are suitable for a wide range of people. Fanghuichun Hall selects authentic medicinal materials from across the country and uses the high-quality water of Fanghuichun Hall's ancient well to boil down the pastes. The craft is rigorous: an experienced physician of Chinese medicine writes a good prescription, and then a pharmacy attendant, taking a young assistant along and carrying a full set of copper pots and the medicinal materials, goes to the patient's home to boil the paste; the herbs are sliced and the ejiao blended in person, the heat is gauged accurately, and the paste forms only after boiling for the better part of a day. The tools are distinctive: ancient implements such as the iron medicine grinder and the pestle are still used to process the medicinal materials; a hundred-year-old copper pot is used to finish the paste, keeping the paste body from molding for a long period. Emphasis is placed on one prescription per person: because pastes are personalized, the ingredients of each batch differ markedly; tonifying medicines must be decocted longer, aromatic medicines must be added later, rare and precious medicines are stewed separately, and whether to add wine to the ejiao depends on the patient's condition; the procedure is complex. The packaging is refined, with specially made porcelain jars of various kinds used to hold the pastes. The inheritors of the Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique command the properties of medicines and the control of heat with exact precision; experience in such matters as the color and texture of the paste body, the proportion of sugar to be added and the "hanging flag" (paste dripping from a spatula like a little flag) is all passed down orally from master to apprentice. At the same time, as modern society pursues health preservation and the therapeutic effects of pastes gain recognition, some students of Chinese medicine universities have also joined the ranks of those learning paste-formula preparation. The Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique has a complex and rigorous process, and its experience in grasping the properties of medicines and controlling the heat carries considerable craft value; it condenses the wisdom and medical insight of generations of paste makers and physicians, and while bringing health to the world it also carries forward the profound culture of Chinese medicine, giving it historical, cultural and socioeconomic value. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "": "Archival record of process steps": The Fanghuichun Hall traditional paste-formula preparation technique involves many process steps: writing the prescription, proportioning ingredients, soaking, decocting, settling, straining off the residue, concentrating and finishing the paste. The pastes it produces are composed of five parts: prepared Chinese medicine slices, fine medicinal materials, glues (animal-gelatin materials), sugars and excipients; they have the health-preserving effects of replenishing deficiency and supporting weakness, preventing and curing disease, resisting aging and prolonging life, and are suitable for a wide range of people. "From prescribing to finishing the paste": The full run from diagnosis to paste, with the herbs cut and the donkey-hide gelatin blended on the spot while the heat is judged. "The flag test, sugar and late additions": The craft of the finish: tonics decocted long, aromatics added late, rare ingredients stewed apart, and gelatin either washed with wine or not.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

He has trained a group of specialists in the decoction of herbal paste.

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. Yu Baitang · National Representative Bearer Archive