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Wang Jingzhi

GuilinggaopeizhijiyiTraditional CraftsmanshipWuzhou, GuangxiBatch 6 (2025)

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Wang Jingzhi, Male, Han, from Wuzhou, Guangxi, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of Guilinggaopeizhijiyi (Ⅷ-278). The tradition is documented in Wuzhou, Guangxi. Within the regional tradition and school record of Guilinggaopeizhijiyi in Wuzhou, Guangxi: Wuzhou City lies in eastern Guangxi, where the climate is warm and damp; people who have long lived there are very liable to contract heat toxins and damp toxins, and through repeated experimentation the early inhabitants of the area gradually formed the custom of using Guiling gao as a dietary therapy to nourish yin and beautify the complexion, clear heat and remove toxins. The craft of preparing Guiling gao has a distinct regional character and is an important component of local culture; it is of considerable historical value for the study of Lingnan culture and food culture. The craft of preparing Guiling gao has a long history of more than two thousand years and is much loved by the people of Guangdong and Guangxi as well as of Southeast Asia.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Wang Jingzhi is anchored in the documented technical standards of Guilinggaopeizhijiyi in Wuzhou, Guangxi. Within the documented technical tradition of Guilinggaopeizhijiyi in Wuzhou, Guangxi: The craft of preparing Guiling gao is a traditional technique in which home-raised turtles and Smilax glabra (tufuling) are used as the main ingredients, combined with a number of Chinese medicinal herbs in a certain proportion and processed through more than 20 process steps into Guiling gao. The core distribution area of this craft is Wuzhou City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from which it radiates to many provinces and cities across the country. Guiling gao is a traditional medicinal food of long standing in the Lingnan region; it has the effects of clearing heat and removing toxins, eliminating dampness and freeing the collaterals, nourishing yin and tonifying the kidney, beautifying the complexion and promoting metabolism, and it is a typical representative of "medicine and food from the same source". It uses the big-headed turtle and Smilax glabra as its main ingredients, together with a number of Chinese medicinal herbs such as rehmannia, Mesona chinensis (liangfen grass), monk fruit, glossy ganoderma, notoginseng, sophora flower buds, dandelion, gardenia, honeysuckle, liquorice and chrysanthemum, and is made through 21 processes including selecting the materials, treating them, washing the herbs, grinding, extracting, concentrating, filtering, blending, boiling the jelly and cooling it. The turtle has the effects of nourishing yin and tonifying the kidney and of strengthening the spleen and eliminating dampness, and it is the essence of Guiling gao. To guarantee the medicinal effect, each turtle should weigh no less than 250 grams. Some of the herbs among the ingredients need to be cut short or crushed so that their active components can be drawn out by simmering. The Mesona chinensis is washed and then simmered, dissolved plant-ash alkali is added, and the liquid is filtered to obtain a Mesona chinensis extract. The Mesona chinensis liquid and the medicinal liquid of Guiling gao are then blended in proportion and rice slurry is added, so that the mixture sets into a black, slightly translucent jelly with a faintly sweet taste and the aroma of Chinese medicinal herbs. Wuzhou Guiling gao is precise in its choice of materials, particular in its formula and authentic in its use of herbs; it is translucent in colour with a distinctive mouthfeel, can be eaten as soon as it is made and keeps well, and comes in more than ten flavours that meet the needs of people of different ages. According to the Gazetteer of Wuzhou City, in the late Ming and early Qing there were already shops selling Guiling gao on the market. After several hundred years of development it has moved on from hawking along the streets and producing in a workshop behind the shop to today's specialized production and sales. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Archival Records of Process Steps": The craft of preparing Guiling gao is a traditional technique in which home-raised turtles and Smilax glabra are used as the main ingredients, combined with a number of Chinese medicinal herbs in a certain proportion and processed through more than 20 process steps into Guiling gao.

Archival Records of Process Steps

The craft of preparing Guiling gao is a traditional technique in which home-raised turtles and Smilax glabra are used as the main ingredients, combined with a number of Chinese medicinal herbs in a certain proportion and processed through more than 20 process steps into Guiling gao.

Core Technique I

The craft of preparing Guiling gao is a traditional technique in which home-raised turtles and Smilax glabra (tufuling) are used as the main ingredients, combined with a number of Chinese medicinal herbs in a certain proportion and processed through more than 20 process steps into Guiling gao.

Core Technique II

The core distribution area of this craft is Wuzhou City in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, from which it radiates to many provinces and cities across the country.

Core Technique III

Guiling gao is a traditional medicinal food of long standing in the Lingnan region;

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Wang Jingzhi was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for Guilinggaopeizhijiyi, with Wuzhou, Guangxi as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of Guilinggaopeizhijiyi in Wuzhou, Guangxi: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Wuzhou, Guangxi as its declared area, and Guangxi Wuzhou Shuangqianshiye Co., Ltd. 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

Historical origin

The craft of preparing Guiling gao has a long history of more than two thousand years and is much loved by the people of Guangdong and Guangxi as well as of Southeast Asia.

Declared area
Wuzhou, Guangxi
Safeguarding unit
Guangxi Wuzhou Shuangqianshiye Co., Ltd.
Inscription batch
Batch 5 (2021)
Item code
Ⅷ-278
Category
Traditional Craftsmanship

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.

BearerDeclared areaRoster codeRelation
Wang JingzhiWuzhou, Guangxi—This page

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

  1. Wangjingzhi (Wuzhou, Guangxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Wangjingzhi · China ICH Official Archive

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。