Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineXicheng, BeijingBatch 3 (2011)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

The Wang-style spinal therapy is a traditional Chinese medicine health therapy used by imperial physicians of the Qing dynasty palace to treat spinal and brain disorders. The Wang-style spinal therapy originated during the Shunzhi reign (1644-1661) of the Qing dynasty. In the late Qing dynasty, the therapy dispersed among the common people.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

It integrates the traditional Chinese medicine approaches of treating internal diseases by external means and of dispelling pathogens while supporting healthy qi, mobilizing the body's own reparative capacity; it is a Chinese medicine health therapy that combines prevention and treatment. At the time, the folk practitioner Wang Ruqing joined the army to treat arrow wounds; because of his high curative results he remained in the palace and became an imperial physician. During the Qianlong reign, Wang Ruqing's descendant Wang Zhao'en was again summoned into the palace to serve as an imperial physician. The therapeutic principle of the Wang-style spinal therapy consists mainly of point selection along the meridians, drug permeation, and tuina massage. Following the Chinese medicine principle that "where a meridian reaches is what it treats," the therapy focuses on the body's yang meridians, with the yin meridians in a supporting role, and applies treatment based on pattern differentiation. Through elastic needling of the acupoints, it achieves the aim of "medicine entering and pathogens exiting." The therapy makes bamboo into jars as a drug-delivery tool, taking advantage of bamboo's own effects of clearing heat and toxins and dispersing wind and dampness, which combine with the formula's medicinals to achieve the best curative results. High temperature and pressure are then used to fully drive the medicinal liquid into and store it within the bamboo jar; the negative pressure generated during cupping allows the liquid to effectively permeate into the body.

Selecting points along the channels

Points are chosen chiefly along the yang channels with the yin as adjunct, following the principle that where a channel runs it governs.

Springing needling

A quick springing thrust and withdrawal at the chosen point lets the medicine in and the pathogen out.

Herbal infusion in bamboo cups

Bamboo supplies its own cooling and drying action while pressure and heat load the drug, then suction drives it through the skin.

Massage and spinal alignment

Manual alignment of neck and lumbar segments is combined with drug infiltration to move blood and relieve pain.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Wang-style spinal therapy flowed from the palace into the wider population; after its late-Qing dispersal it was practiced mainly in the Beijing area, and it has since been carried on by a single line of the Wang family's descendants, now reaching the thirteenth generation. Wang Xingzhi has devoted himself since 1977 to the research, practice, teaching, and transmission of this therapy, completing two texts - a treatment protocol and a disinfection protocol - turning an orally transmitted craft into procedures that can be followed on record. Within the same city of Beijing, external-treatment techniques such as pedicure foot care and tendon-kneading coexist; their emphases differ, but their approaches to point selection are similar.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

After the founding of the Republic of China, Wang-family transmitters continued to practice, and the therapy has never been interrupted in transmission; Wang Xingzhi is now its thirteenth-generation inheritor. The Wang-style spinal therapy has been transmitted and developed for more than three hundred years; its cultural connotations, preparation craft, and therapeutic technique are deeply accumulated, and it urgently needs better protection and transmission. Wang Xingzhi (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born June 1953, from Beijing. Since 1977 he has professionally engaged in the research, practice, teaching, and transmission of the project. Using the methods of point selection along the meridians, drug permeation, and tuina massage, he treats cervical spine, lumbar spine, and cerebral thrombosis and other conditions, achieving the effects of activating blood and resolving stasis, softening hard masses and dissipating nodules, and unblocking the collaterals to relieve pain. He completed the "Wang-style Spinal Therapy Treatment Protocol" and the "Wang-style Spinal Therapy Disinfection Protocol," combining traditional pricking-collateral, cupping, and drug-delivery methods with modern medical standards of disinfection and safety. Since 2008 he has taught the technique to Wang Xu. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Diagnostic Methods of Chinese Medicine (Wang-style Spinal Therapy). Wang Jiansheng (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born May 1957, from Beijing. In 1976 he studied traditional foot-disorder treatment under Du Deshun and Liu Zhenying, mastering the eight knife techniques of trimming, digging, lifting, slicing, separating, tearing, scraping, and kneading, and becoming proficient in all knife work. He pioneered the use of acupuncture, massage, and moxa-smoked bloodletting to treat heel inflammation and heel spurs, and adopted a "wart-kneading technique" using finger skills to treat warts. He combined traditional foot-disorder treatment techniques with modern Chinese and Western medical technology, establishing technical standards and workflows for foot-disorder treatment and standardizing surgical operating procedures. He has run more than twenty training courses for pedicurists, with more than one thousand students. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods of Chinese Medicine (Qinghuachi Traditional Pedicure Technique). Senior technician; an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council; recipient of the national May 1st Labor Medal. He has trained sixty-five pedicurists, including Cao Dongbin, Ren Xinchun, and Li Jinming.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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