TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineShanghaiBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Ding-style tuina originated in the one-finger meditation pushing (Yizhi Chan) tuina academic school of Ding Fengshan during the Tongzhi reign of the Qing dynasty. The branch descended from Ding Shushan achieved the most brilliant results: his disciple Zhu Chunting became the first principal of the Tuina School affiliated with Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a pioneer of modern tuina education, playing a promoting role in the wide dissemination of the Ding school of tuina throughout China. Ding Shushan's son Ding Jifeng founded the rolling-technique (gun fa) tuina school in the 1940s and stands as a representative figure of tuina innovation and development.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Tuina is one of the oldest therapeutic methods and, together with acupuncture, moxibustion, and Chinese herbal medicine, constitutes the system of traditional Chinese medical therapy. The core elements of Ding-style tuina therapy are the manipulation techniques and the exercises (gong fa): the manipulations are mainly the one-finger meditation pushing method (Yizhi Chan tuifa) and the rolling method (gun fa), while the exercises are mainly the Yijinjing (Muscle and Tendon Classic). The one-finger meditation pushing method uses the tip of the thumb to contact the treatment surface, with the left-right swinging of the forearm driving the thumb, so as to achieve point-like stimulation. The rolling method (gun fa) is a compound tuina manipulation completed through flexion and extension of the practitioner's wrist joint together with internal and external rotation of the forearm; the dorsum of the hand and the hypothenar eminence deliver continuous arc-shaped surface stimulation to the treatment area, which is more conducive to integration with passive movement and can provide linear and planar stimulation of the sinew channels and the skin regions. 'Softness' (rou) is the basic prerequisite for maintaining benign stimulation by the manipulation techniques; 'softness' is taken as the highest requirement of the techniques, pursuing the ideal that 'where the technique is applied, the patient does not feel its pain'. In actual practice one must also contain hardness within softness and softness within hardness, combining strength and gentleness. Second, points are primary, with points and surfaces combined. 'Point' refers to acupoints and pressure pain points (extraordinary points), while 'surface' refers to the sinew channels and the skin regions; combining points and surfaces is the combination of channels and sinews. Third, movement comes first, with movement and stillness combined. 'Stillness' includes the practitioner's meditative concentration as well as the patient's rest. The one-finger meditation pushing manipulation and the rolling manipulation of Ding-style tuina, together with the spinal micro-adjustment techniques and guided exercise tuina techniques developed from them, have been applied in the treatment of spinal diseases, limb and joint injuries, internal and gynecological miscellaneous diseases, and pediatric conditions, contributing to raising the health level of the public and to the dissemination and promotion of traditional Chinese medicine culture.

The single-finger meditation technique

The thumb pad leads, swung from the forearm to deliver a focused point stimulus, easing in gradually.

The Gunfa rolling technique

A compound technique created by Ding Jifeng, driven by wrist flexion with forearm rotation, the back of the hand sweeping an arc over a broad surface.

Gentleness above all

The school's first principle: gentleness as the highest requirement, with hardness hidden inside softness and vice versa.

Points and surfaces combined

Focusing on points while also working surfaces — points for acupoint and tender points, surfaces for sinew and skin.

Movement first

Movement leads, combined with stillness: movement of limb, breath and mind, stillness supplying the practitioner's concentration and the patient's rest.

Fine spinal adjustment

A refined adjustment developed from the two core techniques, applied to the spine for back pain and limb joint injury.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The features that distinguish Ding-style tuina from other tuina schools are embodied in the following three points: first, gentleness is prized, with hardness and softness combined. 'Movement' includes physical movement, respiratory movement, and mental activity, and can also be divided into passive movement and active movement.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Ding school of tuina originated in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, and developed in Shanghai. Through the graduates of the Tuina School affiliated with Shanghai College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, founded in 1958, it expanded nationwide; its representative and principal inheritors are currently distributed in the tuina departments of traditional Chinese medicine and integrative medicine hospitals in central Shanghai and its surrounding areas. For more than a century, Ding-style tuina has continued from the early master-apprentice transmission to modern institutional education, and then to models such as mentorship under senior practitioners, studios of veteran TCM doctors, and school inheritance studios; it survives to this day and radiates throughout the country and even overseas. Zhu Dingcheng (official archive record of associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in February 1951, from Shanghai. He is skilled in synthesizing the four diagnostic methods and differentiating patterns by channels and collaterals; applying Zhu-style one-finger meditation tuina therapy to treat external diseases through internal treatment, harmonizing nutrient and defensive qi, overcoming hardness with softness, and supporting the healthy qi to expel pathogenic factors. He treats insomnia, spleen and stomach diseases, and pain of the neck, shoulder, waist, and knees, enjoys high prestige in the field, and his practice is one of the medical specialties of Huadong Hospital affiliated with Fudan University. His works include Collected Academic Experience of the Renowned Tuina Master Zhu Chunting, Haipai Traditional Chinese Medicine, The Complete Guide to Healthy Living: Yuesheng, Yuesheng, Cervical Spondylosis, and others. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage project TCM diagnostic methods (Zhu-style tuina therapy). He has been engaged as a mentor for Shanghai's high-level acupuncture, tuina, and trauma medicine talent program, teaching Zhu-style tuina therapy. Lu Deming (official archive record of associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in July 1935, from Pinghu, Zhejiang Province. Professor, doctoral supervisor, and chief physician. Since the 1980s he has led the construction and development of 'TCM Surgery' at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, playing a foundational and pioneering role in the discipline's becoming a national key discipline in the field of TCM surgery. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage project TCM diagnostic and therapeutic methods (Gu-style surgical therapy). He has presided over more than twenty research projects, including the national Seventh Five-Year Plan key tackling project, projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and projects of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. His research results have repeatedly received the Science and Technology Progress Award of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award, among others. In 1995, he was named among the first 'Famous TCM 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 ↗

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