TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineXicheng, BeijingBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Qinghuachi was originally located on the north side of Zhushikou Street in Xicheng District, Beijing; its predecessor was the "Xiaocanglang Bathhouse," which opened in the thirty-first year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1905). In the 1920s, after investment and renovation, it became the "Halal Qinghuachi" (Qingzhen Qinghuachi). In 1959 the first foot-disease treatment room was established; in 2000 renovation created a 200-square-meter foot-disease treatment room; and in 2007 a foot-disease treatment center of more than 3,000 square meters was completed.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Qinghuachi traditional pedicure technique is a Chinese medicine diagnostic and therapeutic method in which skilled technicians use Qinghuachi's distinctive diagnostic and treatment techniques to treat foot disorders. Qinghuachi's distinctive diagnostic and treatment techniques for foot disorders belong to the northern school of pedicure: the technique is ingenious, the work is meticulous, and it excels at treating all kinds of foot disorders; most practitioners come from Dingxing County, Laishui County, and Yi County in Hebei Province. The Qinghuachi traditional pedicure technique is currently practiced in Xicheng District, Beijing, serving the people of the capital. In addition, patients with foot disorders come for treatment from all parts of the country. The traditional diagnostic techniques of the Qinghuachi pedicure technique include looking, asking, touching, and palpating; it also applies traditional Chinese medicine methods and special knife work, performing techniques such as trimming, digging, cutting, and splitting, directing the knife according to the condition to treat foot disorders. The basic hand techniques include finger-and-wrist skill and foot-holding methods such as supporting, pinching, gouging, wedging, gathering, and pulling. The basic operating procedure for foot-disease treatment is standardized into preoperative preparation, operating steps, and postoperative care; the trimming and treatment methods rely primarily on traditional knife work, with medicinals in support. That is, various knife techniques are used to remove the lesion, with appropriate application of medicinals. Among them, surgical treatment includes disinfection of the affected area, local anesthesia, the scalpel, incision, dissection, the wound, and patient positioning. In terms of medication methods, there are mainly two - external application and injection - with oral administration rarely used. There is also massage therapy, which treats conditions such as heel spurs, heel inflammation, tendon inflammation of the foot, and certain pad inflammations mainly by activating blood and dissipating stasis and by relaxing the meridians and activating the collaterals. In addition, kneading warts also falls within the scope of massage. Using traditional Chinese medicine methods and knife techniques, the Qinghuachi traditional pedicure technique has remarkable efficacy in treating various foot disorders such as paronychia, gray nails, bursitis, warts, and heel inflammation; it is characterized by simple technique, safety, effectiveness, little pain, and quick recovery, and it remedies the single approach of Western surgical treatment of foot disorders, earning recognition and favor from prominent members of society and the broad masses.

Looking, asking, touching

Site, colour, hardness and thickness are assessed before a blade touches, dictating how deep and how fast it goes.

Cutting, gouging, paring and splitting

Cutting, gouging, paring and splitting each suit a different lesion, the order set by the shape of what is being treated.

Holding the foot

Bracing, pinching, hooking and locking hold the foot still so the blade has a stable base to work from.

Rubbing away corns and warts

Warts are worked away with finger skill alone, a conservative technique requiring no cutting or bleeding.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Qinghuachi's foot-disorder treatment belongs to the northern-school lineage; the technicians' native places are mostly from the areas of Dingxing, Laishui, and Yi in Hebei, which is closely tied to the prosperity of bathhouse business in the capital and the movement of people from surrounding regions. The foot-disease treatment room converted from the bathhouse on Zhushikou Street was later expanded into a treatment center, giving this knife technique a permanent foothold in the old city area and making it one of the few places in China where the northern school of pedicure is still transmitted completely. As the skill spread with the flow of customers through bathhouses and foot-disease clinics, patients with foot disorders from various places came seeking it out, so its geographic service range is not limited to the capital.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Qinghuachi traditional pedicure technique is a special skill of external treatment for foot disorders, belonging to a part of Chinese medicine surgery, transmitted mainly from master to apprentice. 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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