Ding Yijiang

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Ding Yijiang, Male, Han, from Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods (Ⅸ-2). The tradition is documented in Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu. Within the regional tradition and school record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu: In the past, Ding family practitioners were mostly spread across the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in Hankou, Wuhu, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Jintan, Changzhou, Wujin, Taizhou, Taixing, Qingjiang, Wuxi, Suzhou and Shanghai. The Ding school of hemorrhoid medicine has a long and distant history. Beginning in the Qing dynasty, it has passed through ten generations of transmission and has a history of more than three hundred years to this day. In 1956, the eighth-generation inheritor donated free of charge to the Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine the Ding family's hereditary Chinese medical secret formulas, medicines, instruments and techniques accumulated over a century, and the hospital's anorectal department was founded on this basis.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Ding Yijiang is anchored in the documented technical standards of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu. Within the documented technical tradition of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu: Among these techniques, the Ding family's necrotizing therapy for hemorrhoids improved the ancient dosage forms and treatment methods, raising therapeutic efficacy; the traditional thread-ligation therapy was improved so that, while preserving the anus's original functions, it avoids or greatly reduces the trauma caused by high complex anal fistulas and improves patients' quality of life; the traditional ligation therapy for hemorrhoids was improved into the segmented serrated ligation therapy, which has largely resolved postoperative complications of circumferential hemorrhoids such as anal stenosis, anal defects and mucosal prolapse; and the technique of Chinese medicinal enema and drip infusion was improved, so that through directional pressurization the medicine disperses more effectively into lesions in the right half of the colon. The Ding school of hemorrhoid medicine possesses more than ten Chinese medicinal formulas and preparations for internal and external use, which have been in use for several hundred years, with good efficacy and few side effects; using the traditional non-surgical methods of Chinese medicine, it treats more than thirty kinds of anorectal and other diseases, benefiting nearly 60,000 anorectal patients every year. Members of the Ding family were trained in family instruction from childhood and have a deep scholarly heritage. Under the explicit guidance of the Ding Family Admonitions to Children and Grandchildren that “a great physician must be both consummate in skill and sincere in heart”, the sons of the Ding family succeeded their fathers in the profession and carried forward the art of benevolence; after much tempering they won renown throughout the land and finally became an eminent family in the medical world. Through the dedicated efforts of several generations, the National Anorectal Medical Center of Chinese Medicine at the Nanjing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine has been established as a national construction unit for advantaged specialties of Chinese medicine, and the inheritors of the Ding school of hemorrhoid medicine have become known to their peers both in China and abroad. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The Ding withering-haemorrhoid method": An improved version of the classical withering agent dries and sheds the haemorrhoid without damaging surrounding tissue. "Segmented dentate ligation": Ligatures are placed in a segmented dentate line, preserving skin bridges and avoiding stenosis, defect and mucosal prolapse after circumferential cases. "Improved thread-drawing for fistula": High and complex anal fistulas are treated by a revised threading technique that spares continence and cuts trauma. "Directed herbal instillation": Pressure directs the decoction to lesions in the right colon, treating deep bowel disease without operation.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Ding Yijiang was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods, with Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2014 (batch 4), with Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu as its declared area, and Nanjing Zhong Hospital 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. Dingyijiang (Nanjingshiqinhuai, Jiangsu) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Dingyijiang · China ICH Official Archive