Zhang Yanyou

01 · Lineage & Regional School

In his youth he studied medicine under Zhang Xianfa. He has worked in orthopaedics and traumatology for more than forty years, trained more than fifty transmitters of the Zhang family bone-setting therapy, and received more than one million patient visits. Within the regional tradition and school record of TCM Bone-setting Therapy in Taizhou, Zhejiang: The Zhang's bone-setting therapy originated in Taizhou in southeastern Zhejiang, a mountainous coastal region with heavy dampness; Zhang's Chinese herbal medicines, taken internally and applied externally, have the effects of removing blood stasis and relieving pain, warming the meridians and unblocking the collaterals, and promoting the healing of fractures, and they have unique efficacy against the damp-evil prevalent along the coast. The Zhang's bone-setting specialty was founded in the third year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty (1823). In the early Daoguang years, Zhang Zhengchuan learned the art of treating injuries from a wandering martial monk, with an emphasis on external treatment; at the end of the Daoguang reign his son Zhang Rukui opened the Baochuntang injury clinic in Huangyan; and by the third-generation inheritor Zhang Yutang, a complete set of principles, methods, prescriptions, and medicinals for combined internal and external treatment had been summarized. To this day the lineage has been transmitted for seven generations, and the institutions of practice include the Taizhou Zhang's Bone Injury Hospital and clinical departments in Huangyan and around Taizhou. 4. The Zhang's bone-setting therapy originated in southeastern Zhejiang, a mountainous coastal region with heavy dampness. Zhang's Chinese herbal medicines, taken internally and applied externally, have the effects of removing blood stasis and relieving pain, warming the meridians and unblocking the collaterals, and promoting the healing of fractures, and they have unique efficacy against the damp-evil prevalent along the coast.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1950 in Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province. Chief physician of traditional Chinese medicine. In the 1980s he was transferred to the Third People's Hospital of Huangyan County, now Huangyan District of Taizhou City, where he established an orthopaedics and traumatology department. In 1997 he founded Taizhou Shuguang Hospital on his own. Over long years of orthopaedic and traumatology work he has formed a distinctive injury-treatment system in the areas of principle, method, formula, and medicament, and has summarized the 'ten methods of bone-setting', in which the manipulative technique is light, accurate, and quick. He was the first in Taizhou to apply integrated Chinese and Western medicine to the treatment of orthopaedic and traumatic diseases. Within the documented technical tradition of TCM Bone-setting Therapy in Taizhou, Zhejiang: The Zhang's bone-setting specialty was founded in the third year of the Daoguang reign of the Qing dynasty (1823), and has a history of more than 180 years. The Zhang lineage has been transmitted for seven generations, and it has developed a distinctive school in manual bone setting, internal and external application of Chinese herbal medicine, and the use of fir-bark splints to treat rheumatic pain, fractures, and soft-tissue injuries. In the early years of the Daoguang reign, Zhang Zhengchuan learned the art of treating injuries from a wandering martial monk, with an emphasis on external treatment. At the end of the Daoguang reign, his son Zhang Rukui opened the Baochuntang injury clinic in Huangyan. By the third-generation inheritor Zhang Yutang, a complete set of principles, methods, prescriptions, and medicinals for combined internal and external treatment had been summarized; soft-tissue injuries were treated by combining Chinese herbal medicine with the family finger technique of acupoint pressure, and for trauma patients, catechu was decocted into a wash to rinse and clean the wounds, and pearl powder was used to promote tissue regeneration and close the wound. The fifth-generation inheritor Zhang Xianfa integrated modern science and technology, giving the traditional bone-setting therapy a leap forward. The characteristics of the Zhang's bone-setting therapy are as follows: 1. Emphasis on a holistic view, on the relationship between the internal organs and qi and blood, and on palpation diagnosis, with stress on "the hand perceives and the mind comprehends" (shou mo xin hui). 2. Equal attention to sinews and bones. Applying the unique finger-pointing and sinew-manipulating technique, the school summarized the "ten methods of bone setting", namely "palpation and mental comprehension, traction and pulling, rotation and flexion-extension, lifting and pressing, swaying and touching, squeezing and separating the bone fragments, bending and rotating back, massage and manipulation, and acupoint-pointing and sinew-manipulating". The manipulations are gentle, light, steady, and accurate, reaching the state in which "where the method is applied, the patient feels the pain and the bone is already set". 3. The fir-bark splint is subject to strict requirements from the selection of material to fixation, the manufacturing process has been refined, and it has the features of convenience, simplicity, lightness, low allergenicity, strong plasticity, and X-ray permeability, facilitating early functional exercise; used together with the family medicated plaster to reduce swelling and provide fixation, it promotes the healing of fractures. Saving the traditional Zhang's bone-setting therapy is a matter of utmost urgency. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The ten bone-setting methods": Ten manipulations from palpation to sinew work, gentle and steady, aiming that the patient feels only that the bone has come together. "Feeling the injury through the hands": Palpation from light to heavy locates and grades the injury, and takes up roughly a third of the whole procedure. "Making the fir-bark splints": Fir bark splints are light, mouldable, non-allergenic and X-ray transparent, and are combined with the clinic's own paste. "Catechu decoction and pearl powder": Trauma wounds were washed with catechu decoction and closed with pearl powder, cleaning first and healing second.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

National representative bearer of TCM Bone-setting Therapy (Zhang Family Bone-Setting Therapy), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project.

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. Zhang Yanyou · National Representative Bearer Archive