Traditional Chinese Medicine Diagnostics

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineHuangshan, AnhuiBatch 3 (2011)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

Counting from the time the name "Zhang Yitie" was acquired during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, the family has practiced medicine from generation to generation, with a transmission history of more than 450 years to the present day. The "Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine" family, with a history of more than 450 years, has been passed down to the present day, demonstrating that the cause of Xin'an medicine is being transmitted and carried forward.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

In the lineage of hereditary medical families of Xin'an medicine in Anhui, the "Zhang Yitie" family, focused on internal medicine, is considered one of the families with the longest history and the greatest contemporary influence. The "Zhang Yitie" hereditary medicine was rooted in Dingtan, Shexian County. With its exquisite medical skill, "Zhang Yitie" repeatedly achieved excellent results in treating difficult and complicated internal diseases and acute febrile diseases, earning renown in the provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. The name "Zhang Yitie" derives from the fact that acute and critical conditions were often cured with just one dose (yi tie) of medicine; there are also miraculous folk legends such as "the immortal's crutch". After the chronic illness of the renowned classical scholar Wu Chengshi was cured by Zhang Guanggui, the thirteenth-generation heir of "Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine", Wu sincerely praised him: "Art recorded in the Qihuang classics, a family calling of three generations; heart imbued with rain and dew, spring for ten thousand households."

Single-dose treatment of acute crisis

Acute crisis is met with a small, forceful dose intended to turn the tide in a single packet.

Reading tongue and pulse together

Tongue and pulse are cross-checked to place the illness among the channels and organs before any drug is chosen.

Timing the treatment

When a drug is given matters as much as which drug, a rule condensed out of family practice.

Transmission along a family line of physicians

Case records and dosing notes accumulated branch by branch into the family's shared store of experience.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine is rooted in Dingtan, Shexian County, a branch of the lineage of hereditary medical families of Xin'an medicine. Its medical practice extended along commercial routes and waterways beyond Anhui, leaving records of treatment in the provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, and the local reputation for curing acute conditions with a single dose spread accordingly. The Shexian Xin'an National Medical Museum provides collection and research conditions for the documents, pulse verses, and old implements of this family line. After the chronic illness of the classical scholar Wu Chengshi was cured by Zhang Guanggui, the thirteenth-generation heir, Wu inscribed a couplet in praise of this medical connection, bringing the Zhang family name into the memory of Xin'an academic circles. The two inheritors Li Jiren and Zhang Shunhua, in their spare time between consultations, organized their family-transmitted experience and wrote books, turning the origin of the Zhang Yitie name into a traceable genealogy of hereditary medicine.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Li Jiren (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1931, native of Shexian County, Anhui Province. He has practiced medicine for more than sixty years, accumulating rich experience in the clinical treatment of difficult and complicated diseases in internal medicine, gynecology, and pediatrics. On the basis of comprehensively inheriting Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine's diagnostic methods, he innovated and developed them further. He is particularly skilled in the treatment of persistent conditions such as bi syndrome, flaccidity syndrome, tumors, and kidney disease. He is a representative inheritor of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage project "Chinese Diagnostic Methods (Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine Therapy)". He has written fourteen academic works, including Jiren's Medical Records, A Comprehensive Treatise on Bi Syndrome, and A Study of Famous Physicians of Xin'an, published more than one hundred papers, and five of the research achievements he led received provincial and ministerial awards. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the China Association of Chinese Medicine and was named one of the first National Medical Masters by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Health, and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. He trained dozens of graduate students; most of his five children are engaged in traditional culture and Chinese medicine research, with remarkable achievements. Zhang Shunhua (record of the associated inheritor's official archive): Female, Han ethnicity, born in January 1932, native of Shexian County, Anhui Province. She has practiced medicine for more than sixty years, with rich clinical experience; she is particularly skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of cold damage, kidney disease, liver and gallbladder disease, diankuang (manic-depressive psychosis), and gynecological diseases; she has made many developments in the principles and methods of Chinese medicine treatment, and in pattern-based medication she established principles such as treatment at the appropriate time, which have important clinical value. She emphasizes transmission; all five of her children are engaged in Chinese medicine or related research. In 1999, she founded the Shiji Zhang Yitie Clinic. She is a representative inheritor of the fourth batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage project "Chinese Diagnostic Methods (Zhang Yitie Internal Medicine Therapy)". Since 1990, for twenty consecutive years she has returned to her hometown every spring to provide free medical consultations, earning high praise from the villagers and being reported many times by media such as People's Daily Overseas Edition and China Central Television.

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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