Chen Weichuan
01 · Lineage & Regional School
From childhood he studied medical techniques under his grandfather, Chen Jinxiao, and later pursued further training at institutions of higher education and in various research seminars. Within the regional tradition and school record of Hui Medicine in Wuzhong, Ningxia: The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques are simple and easy to carry out, with marked therapeutic effects; the medicinals they use are commonly available, economical and affordable, and low in medical cost. They are little affected by environmental or regional factors and are therefore easy to disseminate. This method is the product of combining ancient Arab medical culture with traditional Chinese medical culture; it has absorbed effective folk medical techniques, been passed down from generation to generation within the Chen family, been deepened at the theoretical level, and integrated modern sonic, optical, and electromagnetic medical technologies, forming a distinctive medical technique with clearly national, regional, and contemporary characteristics. The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques took shape in the early 19th century and have a history of more than two hundred years. The first-generation inheritor, Chen Jinxiao (1871–1954), of the Hui ethnicity, lived in Kaifeng City, Henan Province. In his youth he practised martial arts and mastered medical techniques for treating injuries from falls and blows; he later studied Hui medical techniques such as "Huifang medicine" and "Gongbei medicine", summarised and applied the Hui folk medical techniques for treating internal diseases by external means — fumigation, application, blowing, and smearing — and thereby formed the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques, treating injuries and illnesses for the people. In 1935 the Chen family moved to Bazhazi Village, Jinji County, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (present-day Bazhazi Village, Xiakou Town, Qingtongxia City, Wuzhong City), and applied and promoted the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques throughout Ningxia and its surrounding areas, including Dingbian County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province; Huan County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province; and Otog Banner, Ordos City, and Alxa Left Banner, Alxa League, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques arose among the people. Drawing on the theories of channels and collaterals, yin and yang, and qi and blood of Chinese medical culture, and on the doctrines of "the True One and the Seven Manifestations" (zhenyi qixing) and "the Four Elements and Three Essences" (siyuan sanzi) of Arab medical culture, they follow the principle that "the rationale of external treatment is the rationale of internal treatment, and the drugs used externally are the drugs used internally; the only difference lies in the method of application."
02 · Mastery & Signature Works
He was a chief physician. Over more than fifty years he repeatedly visited renowned physicians of his field, drawing widely on their strengths, enriching and refining the Ten Techniques of Chen-style Hui Medicine, and applying the medical skills handed down in his family to clinical practice. He edited and published numerous works, including Huiyao Huicui (A Compendium of Hui Medicines), A History of Hui Medicine in Wuzhong, Chen Weichuan's Collection of Proven Medical Techniques and Formulae, Chen Weichuan's Explorations in Hui Medicine, Chen Weichuan's Medical Records and Chen Weichuan's Clinical Records of Chinese and Hui Medicine. For several decades he trained medical personnel through teaching, clinical instruction and other means, instructing nearly one hundred students. Within the documented technical tradition of Hui Medicine in Wuzhong, Ningxia: In practice the techniques are used singly, in combination, or together with internally administered folk and proven prescriptions such as Tongguan San, Beiji Wan, the Ayalazhi prescription, and Zhihong San. The ten techniques are: fumigation therapy (vinegar fumigation, medicinal fumigation, and smoke fumigation), application therapy, smearing therapy, pulling therapy, pricking-picking therapy, throat-pointing, nose-dropping and eye-washing therapy, blowing therapy, pinching therapy, acupuncture therapy, and cutting therapy. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Acetous, medicinal and smoke fumigation": Fumigation takes three forms, vinegar vapour, medicinal steam and smoke from burning drugs, each entering through the skin. "Poultices and topical application": Poultices and ointments are applied directly, alone or together with oral formulas such as Tongguan powder and Beiji pills. "Cupping and picking": Cupping draws pathogens out while needling lifts stagnation under the skin; both are invasive external measures. "Touching the throat, nasal instillation and eye washing": Remedies are applied directly to the throat, nose and eyes for complaints of those organs.
Pulling, reducing and repositioning
Reduction follows three moves: traction to unlock, reposition of the displaced bone, then bringing the ends back together.
Family-made bone and wound remedies
Alongside the manual work go family formulas for setting bones and treating wounds, adjusted to each case.
Self-made splints for external fixation
Splints of self-made material hold the reduction: no operation, no plaster cast, no metal traction.
The surviving text of the Hui medical formulary
Of thirty-six volumes of the Hui medical formulary only four survive, printed in a critical edition that underpins current practice.
03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status
Male, of Hui ethnicity, born in May 1939 and deceased in August 2019, a native of Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. He is a national representative bearer of Hui Medicine (the Ten Techniques of Chen-style Hui Medical Practice), a fifth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. He was successively designated by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine as an instructor for the second batch of the national programme for inheriting the academic experience of veteran Chinese medicine experts, and was conferred the titles of Famous Chinese Medicine Practitioner and Outstanding Instructor by the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier
Historical origin
Hui medicine is the crystallisation of the mutual blending of ancient Arabic medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, and the medical systems of the various peoples of the Western Regions. The Huihui Yaofang (Prescriptions of the Hui), a representative work of Hui medicine from the Yuan and Ming eras, originally comprised 36 volumes, of which only 4 survive; it has bequeathed to Hui orthopedics the underlying knowledge of medicinals and manual techniques. The secret in-house preparations used by the Zhang family's bone-setting therapy — such as the "Huihui jiegu" (bone-joining) and "jinchuang" (incised-wound) formulas — together with the manual techniques of pulling, reduction, and coaptation, can all be traced to this kind of Hui medical writing and to the traditional medical skills of the Hui communities.
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.
| Bearer | Declared area | Roster code | Relation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhang Baoyu | Wuzhong, Ningxia | 04-1951 | Same declared area |
| Yang Huaxiang | Yinchuan, Ningxia | 04-1952 | Other regional school |
| Chen Weichuan | Wuzhong, Ningxia | 05-2965 | This page |
| Chen Kun | Wuzhong, Ningxia | — | Same declared area |
06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript. Compiled from official national representative bearer archival records and the associated project dossier, organized by topic and translated into English. 阅读中文版。