TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods

Ⅸ-2Traditional MedicineFujianBatch 5 (2021)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

The Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy is inherited from the Southern Shaolin traumatology lineage. Shaolin Temple warrior monks practiced martial arts year-round, and injuries were unavoidable, so the temple had to possess its own competence in preventing and treating injury and illness; over time, Shaolin traumatology became an important school within traditional Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. Fujian is the home of the Southern Shaolin ancestral hall: the Putian Southern Shaolin Temple, the Quanzhou Shaolin Chan Temple and the Fuqing Southern Shaolin site are all within a hundred li of Fuzhou, allowing this bone-injury lineage to be carried forward. In modern times, Lin Rugao of Fuzhou (1888–1986) was a renowned master of the elder generation of this school; Wang Heming inherited his bone-setting experience and, taking up the Southern Shaolin characteristic of combining medicine and martial arts, founded the Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy is a traditional Chinese orthopedic treatment method combining “Chan, medicine and martial arts.” The project is located in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, within a hundred kilometers of which lie the famous Putian Southern Shaolin Temple, the Quanzhou Shaolin Chan Temple and the Fuqing Southern Shaolin site. Renowned bone-injury masters of the elder generation of modern Southern Shaolin include Lin Rugao of Fuzhou (1888–1986). While learning from Lin Rugao's bone-setting experience, Wang Heming synthesized the Southern Shaolin characteristic of combining medicine and martial arts and founded the “Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy.” Successive generations of talent have emerged, and works such as Illustrated Guide to the Southern Shaolin Sinew-Treatment and Spine-Correcting Rehabilitation Therapy, Atlas of Southern Shaolin Sinew-Treatment and Spine-Correcting Manipulations and Secret Formulas and Verified Cases of Southern Shaolin Orthopedics have been published in succession. The core element of the Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy is the combination of “Chan, medicine and martial arts.” Its academic thought carries out the traditional Chinese orthopedic treatment principles of “combining movement and stillness, giving equal weight to sinew and bone, treating both interior and exterior, and cooperating between physician and patient.” Its diagnostic and therapeutic techniques include sinew treatment, spine correction, Tuina, acupuncture, acupoint pressing, rehabilitation, health preservation, secret formulas and verified cases, covering many fields of Chinese medicine and fully embodying the holistic view of traditional Chinese medicine's “treating both interior and exterior.” The Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy has three main characteristics. The first is the thoroughgoing unity of medicine and martial arts. The sinew-treatment and spine-correcting manipulations are combined with Southern Shaolin kung fu, incorporating some basic martial-arts movements into the therapeutic manipulations to improve efficacy. The second is the thoroughgoing unity of movement. The movements of the trunk and limbs are required to be coordinated and coherent; while “the hand follows the turn of the mind” and “hands and feet follow one another,” the waist should serve as the axis. “The waist is the pivot”; the waist is the hub of the whole body, so the coordination of lumbar movement with the sinew-treatment and spine-correcting manipulations is of vital importance. The third is the thoroughgoing unity of breath. The sinew-treatment and spine-correcting manipulations must be unified with the breath in one flow; manipulations under the guidance of consciousness must coordinate with respiration. When applying rising and inward-closing manipulations, one should inhale; when applying descending and outward-opening manipulations, one should exhale. The speed of breathing changes with the urgency or slowness of the manipulations. In recent years, the national-level continuing education project “Southern Shaolin Sinew-Treatment and Spine-Correcting Manipulation Technical Training Course” has attracted nearly 300 students from home and abroad to each session for study and exchange.

Medicine and martial art as one

Movements borrowed from martial arts are folded into the technique so that force and posture share one source.

The waist as axis

Trunk and limbs move in one continuous flow, but the waist leads, driving the whole manoeuvre.

Breath running through

Breath is matched to the movement — inhale on lifting and gathering in, exhale on lowering and opening, its pace following the tempo of the hands.

Tending the sinews

Working on damaged sinews after first identifying the affected lines and the degree of injury — the first half of the treatment.

Setting the spine

Correcting misaligned spinal joints alongside sinew work, following the principles of bone and sinew together, movement and stillness combined.

The southern Shaolin bone-setting formulas

Family formulas and case records compiled into books, studied alongside the manual techniques rather than separately.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Shaolin Temple warrior monks, because they practiced martial arts year-round, were frequently injured, so the temple needed to possess the skill to prevent and treat injury and illness; thus “Shaolin traumatology” long ago became an important academic school of traditional Chinese orthopedics and traumatology. The practicing subjects of this heritage project are the medical personnel of this school. The main transmission communities also include the Strait Southern Shaolin Manipulation Medicine Association and the Southern Shaolin Orthopedics Lineage Transmission Workshop established at the Fujian Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital, along with twelve second-tier workstations distributed in Fujian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Zhejiang and Henan. This method has been transmitted and practiced over a long period along the East China Sea coast, and has spread along the Maritime Silk Road to Southeast Asian countries. Its transmission system takes the Strait Southern Shaolin Manipulation Medicine Association as its hub, with a Southern Shaolin Orthopedics Lineage Transmission Workshop at the Fujian Provincial Rehabilitation Hospital and twelve second-tier workstations in Fujian, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Zhejiang, Henan and elsewhere. The national-level Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting manipulation technical training course attracts nearly three hundred students from home and abroad to each session and is the means by which this technique has spread.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The Southern Shaolin sinew-treatment and spine-correcting therapy has the characteristics of being simple, convenient, effective and inexpensive. It has been transmitted and practiced over a long period in the coastal region of the East China Sea and has spread along the Maritime Silk Road to Southeast Asian countries, promoting the dissemination and advancement of traditional Chinese medical culture, and it possesses considerable socio-cultural value.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

TCM Diagnostic and Therapeutic Methods (Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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