Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineShanghaiBatch 3 (2011)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Zhu Chunting is the only expert in tuina medicine recorded in the Grand Cihai (2003 edition). The Shanghai Health Gazetteer (1998 edition) lists the "Zhu school of tuina" as one of the schools of traditional Chinese medicine. Yizhi Chan tuina is the only school of tuina included in the Cihai dictionary (1936 edition).

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Zhu school's Yizhi Chan (One-Finger Meditation) tuina therapy was founded by Mr. Zhu Chunting, a sixth-generation physician of the Huangqiang family of traditional Chinese medicine in Jiading, Shanghai, and was passed down in direct succession by his son, Mr. Zhu Dingcheng. Its foundations are the great classic of Chinese medicine, the Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), and the "Yizhi Chan tuina" created by Bodhidharma. Its hand techniques number more than ten, including pushing (tui), grasping (na), pressing (an), rubbing (mo), and push-rubbing (tuimo), of which the Yizhi Chan pushing method is the essence. "Using the finger in place of the needle" and "treating internal disease by external means" are its distinguishing features. Its concepts and therapies of "all methods return to one," "diagnosis and treatment through the meridians," and "gentleness and comfort" are distinctive in the diagnosis and treatment of internal and external diseases such as disorders of the spleen and stomach, poliomyelitis, headache, irregular menstruation, childhood developmental disorders, cervical spondylosis, and osteoarthritis. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhu Chunting was appointed to Huadong Hospital, where he established the first specialist department of tuina in Chinese medicine. Through more than half a century of clinical accumulation, the Zhu school's Yizhi Chan tuina, on the basis of comprehensively inheriting and summarizing Zhu Chunting's academic thought, has continually expanded the fields of tuina treatment, health care, and rehabilitation, incorporating new therapeutic concepts and methods such as "treating disease before it arises." Striving to be people-oriented and to provide individualized services, it has successively launched specialist clinics for conditions such as insomnia and cervical vertigo, as well as studios of traditional Chinese medicine. The father and son Zhu Chunting and Zhu Dingcheng devoted themselves to mass medical care and to the health care of senior cadres, relieving patients of their suffering, and swiftly rose to prominence. The Zhu school's Yizhi Chan tuina has contributed the wisdom of Chinese medicine to the cause of public health and wellness. The Zhu school's Yizhi Chan tuina has made an enormous contribution to Chinese tuina education: Zhu Chunting wrote books and taught, founding China's first professional school for tuina education, breaking through the thousand-year-old pattern of family transmission or master-apprentice teaching in Chinese medicine, pioneering classroom teaching of tuina, and nurturing students found throughout the land.

The single-finger meditation technique

The thumb pad leads, swung by the forearm, demanding a steady wrist and sustained gentle force.

The finger standing in for the needle

Force is driven inward by the finger instead of the needle, carrying needling's stimulation into the channels.

Combined pushing and rubbing

Beyond pushing, grasping, pressing and rubbing lie a dozen further techniques chosen by site and pattern, comfort before force.

Teaching massage as a specialty

Family cases were turned into class material with syllabi and reference notes, moving the craft from apprenticeship to curriculum.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Zhu school's Yizhi Chan tuina is one of the most famous schools of tuina in modern Chinese medicine.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Zhu Dingcheng (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1951, a native of Shanghai. He excels at the comprehensive correlation of the four diagnostic methods and pattern differentiation through the meridians; applying the Zhu school's Yizhi Chan tuina therapy to treat external disease by internal means, harmonizing ying and wei, overcoming hardness with softness, and supporting the healthy while dispelling the pathogenic, he treats insomnia, disorders of the spleen and stomach, and pain of the neck, shoulders, lower back, and knees, enjoying high esteem in the profession; his practice is one of the medical hallmarks of Huadong Hospital affiliated with Fudan University. His writings include "Collected Academic Experience of the Tuina Master Zhu Chunting" (Tuina Mingjia Zhu Chunting Xueshu Jingyan Ji), "Haipai Traditional Chinese Medicine" (Haipai Zhongyi), and "A Complete Guide to Healthy Living: Yuesheng, Yuesheng, Cervical Spondylosis" (Jiankang Shenghuo Wanquan Zhinan Yuesheng, Yuesheng, Jingzhuibing), among others. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Diagnostic Methods of Chinese Medicine (the Zhu School's Tuina Therapy)." He has been engaged as a mentor for Shanghai's high-level training class for specialists in acupuncture, tuina, and trauma, transmitting the Zhu school's tuina therapy. Lu Deming (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1935, a native of Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province. Professor, doctoral supervisor, and chief physician. Since the 1980s he has led the development of the discipline of "Surgery of Traditional Chinese Medicine" at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, playing a foundational and pioneering role in its becoming a national key discipline in the field of TCM surgery. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Therapeutic Methods of Chinese Medicine (the Gu School's Surgical Therapy)." He has successively led more than twenty research projects, including national Seventh Five-Year Plan key tackling projects, National Natural Science Foundation of China projects, and projects of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine; his research results have repeatedly won awards including the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine's Award for Scientific and Technological Progress and the Shanghai Award for Scientific and Technological Progress. In 1995 he was named one of the first "Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Doctors of Shanghai" by the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau.

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 ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回英文名录。