Zhong Lei

01 · Lineage & Regional School

Zhong Lei, Male, Han, from Sichuan, is a sixth-batch national representative bearer of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods (Ⅸ-2). The tradition is documented in Sichuan. Within the regional tradition and school record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Sichuan: Li Zhongyu's Pestle-Needle Therapy originated in Chengdu, Sichuan, and is now transmitted and practiced with the Teaching Hospital of Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine (Sichuan Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine) as its center. Practitioners within the hospital include more than 160 medical, teaching, and nursing personnel, and ten second-level work stations have been established in various locations to bring the pestle needle down to the grassroots level. In earlier years it was a secret family transmission; in modern times it shifted to transmission mainly through master-apprentice teaching, when the veteran Chengdu physician Li Zhongyu publicly taught the art after inheriting it from his family. The transmission team has held successive domestic and international training classes, each with more than 200 students, many of them from grassroots hospitals; after studying, they can carry out non-invasive pestle-needle treatment locally, reducing the financial burden on patients in their areas. When applying the pestle needle, a special set of pestle-needle instruments is used. Its academic thought derives from the ancient Yi (Changes) learning of Xi (Fuxi) and Huang (the Yellow Emperor); its pattern differentiation, establishment of method, selection of acupoints, and arrangement of arrays are largely imbued with the meanings of the Zhouyi, the Yinfu jing, principle, qi, image, and number.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

The bearer record for Zhong Lei is anchored in the documented technical standards of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Sichuan. Within the documented technical tradition of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Sichuan: Li Zhongyu's Pestle-Needle Therapy is a method of treatment that uses a special instrument called the pestle needle (the Qiyao Hunyuan Chu, the Wuxing Santai Chu, the Jingang Chu, and the Kuixing Bi), applying different hand techniques such as point tapping, lifting and lowering, opening and closing, rotation, and separation and regulation at the acupoints commonly used in acupuncture and moxibustion as well as at the special acupoints of pestle-needle therapy. This therapy is a distinctive method of TCM treatment inherited from the family's secret transmission and developed by Li Zhongyu, a renowned veteran physician and chief physician at the Teaching Hospital of Chengdu University of Chinese Medicine; it is therefore called Li Zhongyu's Pestle-Needle Therapy and has now been passed down to the seventeenth generation. Pestle-needle treatment first employs the doctrine of the viscera and bowels and the meridians, using the four diagnostic methods in combination to examine the condition, carrying out pattern differentiation according to the eight principles and analysis of the syndrome, and clarifying the cause and mechanism of disease, the viscera and bowels involved, and the conditions of exterior-interior, cold-heat, deficiency-excess, and the relative urgency or chronicity of the root and the branch. A corresponding point-combination prescription is then made, and the pestle needle is applied according to that prescription, either reinforcing or draining, so as to free the meridians, regulate qi and blood, and bring yin and yang back into relative balance. The pattern-differentiation thought of pestle-needle therapy is the same as that of the Huangdi Neijing and the Nanjing, yet with differences within the similarity: first, it uses no medicinals, but neither does it reject them; second, although it belongs to acupuncture-moxibustion therapy, it does not insert metal needles or stone probes beneath the acupoints, so there is no pain of broken skin and injured flesh and no worry of scar or infection, making it easy for patients to accept, with neither women nor children feeling fear, and thus easy to promote; third, its selection of acupoints is precise and appropriate, relying mainly on the source, network, transport, and alarm points, the 'river chariot' points, and the eight arrays, with 'tianying' (natural reaction points) as the guide, making it easy to learn and master. Li Zhongyu's Pestle-Needle Therapy takes the treatment of clinical disease as its mode of practice, with its principal medical objects being patients with common, frequently occurring, and difficult conditions such as sports-trauma injuries, cerebrovascular disease, osteoarticular disease, otorhinolaryngological disease, respiratory disease, and sub-health states. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "The seven-luminaries mingled-original pestle": One of the pestles, shaped like seven uneven stars, tapped at varying angles and pressures according to the condition. "The five-star three-terrace pestle": A heavier pestle, used on the thick musculature of the back and waist where the lighter ones cannot reach. "Point tapping": The fundamental action — tapping the point and its surroundings, with rate and force adjusted to supplement or drain. "Lifting, pressing, opening, closing, rotating, separating": Five further actions, combined with supplement and drain, complete a treatment alongside tapping.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

In 2025, Zhong Lei was announced in the sixth batch of national representative bearers for TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods, with Sichuan as the declared area. Within the documented safeguarding record of TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods in Sichuan: The project was inscribed in the national inventory in 2021 (batch 5), with Sichuan as its declared area, and Chengdu Traditional Chinese Medicine University Affiliated Hospital (Sichuan Zhongyi 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. Zhonglei (Sichuan) · China ICH Official Project Archive
2. Zhonglei · China ICH Official Archive