TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineXianningshixianan, HubeiBatch 4 (2014)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Zhen family's maqianzi (Semen Strychni) therapy for rheumatism began in Tongyi Village, Matang Township, Xian'an District, Xianning City, Hubei Province, and is a craft passed down from generation to generation by the Zhen clan. Its method uses maqianzi as the principal drug; as raw maqianzi is toxic, it must undergo an elaborate set of manual processing steps before it can be used clinically. The clan's ancestors did not know where the secret formula came from; they knew only that the heavy use of maqianzi could relieve the suffering of rheumatism and bi-syndrome pain, and so passed on to their descendants both the processing method and records of cases. Over more than a hundred years, the Zhen family practiced medicine while revising dosages and ingredient combinations, gradually expanding from a small local formula for rejoining bones and sinews into a complete system of diagnosis and treatment for intractable conditions such as rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Zhen family's maqianzi therapy for rheumatism uses maqianzi as its main medicinal material. After traditional manual processing — soaking, peeling, slicing, dry-frying with sand, sifting and grinding — the maqianzi is mixed evenly with the powder of processed chaenomeles fruit (mugua) and other medicinal materials to make Maqianzi Powder. Through this special processing, the aim of safety and efficacy is achieved. The prepared medicines include Maqianzi Rheumatism Pills, Maqianzi Turtle-Shell Pills, Maqianzi Chaenomeles Pills, Rheumatism Maqianzi Powder and others. The main characteristic of this therapy lies in its emphasis on the clinical use of the Chinese medicine maqianzi. On the basis of inheriting the family secret maqianzi formula, the Zhen transmitters, upholding the concepts of traditional Chinese medicine, have refined it through many years of clinical practice. Through the synthesis of the four examinations and treatment based on pattern differentiation, supplemented by acupuncture and moxibustion, medicinal baths, external application of Chinese medicines and dietary regulation, they treat intractable conditions such as rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and lumbar disc herniation, adapting treatment to the individual, the season and the locality. From formula composition and dosage to processing and the diagnosis and treatment of patients, the art relies both on the transmission of ancestral experience and on the accumulation of personal experience; through more than a hundred years of development and refinement, it has formed treatment methods and a system of diagnosis and treatment with its own distinctive characteristics. The Zhen family's maqianzi therapy for rheumatism, together with its associated processing implements and medical theories, enriches, supplements and improves the treasure house of traditional Chinese medicine in China. Its patients are found throughout China and even overseas; the therapy has become a bond for exchange and mutual learning in traditional medical culture and has played a positive role in spreading Chinese culture.

Soaking nux vomica

The first stage of processing, soaking to draw down the raw drug's toxicity before skinning and slicing.

Skinning and slicing

Skinning and slicing the seed spreads its active and toxic constituents evenly so the dose can be controlled.

Sand-frying

Frying in hot sand breaks down the toxic fraction without destroying the drug's action — the decisive step of the craft.

Grinding and compounding

The processed seed is ground and blended evenly with prepared chaenomeles powder to fix the dose.

Nux vomica powder

The finished powder centred on nux vomica, one of a family of pills and powders that form the core of the treatment.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The transmission area of this method centers on Matang, Xianning; patients seeking treatment come continuously from Hubei itself and from the Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui regions, so the family has had extensive contact with folk physicians in the neighboring provinces. While attending patients alongside his father, Zhen Shuiqing studied the specialty of integrated Chinese and Western medicine at Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, bringing the academy's pattern-differentiation approach back into the family formulas. His patients are found throughout China and as far away as overseas; overseas Chinese often come for treatment through introductions from acquaintances, and this network of personal connections has instead become a channel for the spread of the art.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Zhen family's maqianzi therapy for rheumatism is a traditional Chinese medical therapy with local characteristics, founded and transmitted from generation to generation by the Zhen clan in Tongyi Village, Matang Township, Xian'an District, Xianning City, Hubei Province. At present, the patients diagnosed and treated by this therapy are found throughout China, and it also has a certain influence abroad. The therapy has long been transmitted in a living state among the people; while relieving the public's suffering, it has also promoted social harmony. Zhen Shuiqing (as recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of the Han ethnic group, born in March 1975, from Xianning City, Hubei Province. From the age of twenty, while attending patients alongside his father, he studied for a degree in integrated Chinese and Western medicine at Hubei University of Chinese Medicine, with a subsidiary study of the graduate courses in administrative management at Wuhan University, specializing in the treatment of rheumatism with integrated Chinese and Western medicine. Based on the properties of the hereditary maqianzi secret formula, he developed eight hospital preparations, including Maqianzi Rheumatism Pills, which have become the preferred medicines at the Xianning Matang Rheumatism Hospital for treating rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, cervical and lumbar hypertrophy, lumbar disc herniation and sciatica. He is a representative inheritor of the item Traditional Chinese Medical Therapies (Zhen Family's Maqianzi Therapy for Rheumatism) in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage.

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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