Traditional Herbal Processing Techniques

Ⅸ-3Traditional MedicineJiaozuo, HenanBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Chinese medicinals derive from plants, animals, and minerals of the natural world. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Huai-medicinal merchants rose to prominence, greatly promoting the standardization of Huai-medicinal processing and the formation of the Huai-medicinal cultural brand, and making the Four Great Huai Medicinals the leading genuine regional medicinal materials of Henan.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

China's traditional medicinal-material resources reach 12,807 kinds, but in the clinical application of Chinese medicine and the manufacture of prepared medicines, raw drugs are generally not used; instead, the processed and prepared products - prepared slices (yinpian) - are used. Chinese medicinal processing is a special technique of processing raw drugs according to the theory of Chinese medicine and the different requirements of medical treatment, compounding, and storage, as well as the properties of the materials themselves, using methods such as trimming and purifying, water processing, fire processing, and the addition of auxiliary materials. Its origins can be traced back to the cultivation, collection, or rearing of the medicinal materials, among which stir-frying, dry-frying with liquid adjuvant, scalding, calcining, and roasting, along with fire-based methods, are the most commonly used - hence the name "processing" (paozhi). The purpose of Chinese medicinal processing is to reduce or eliminate the toxicity and side effects of drugs and to moderate or change their nature, thereby improving efficacy and facilitating compounding, storage, and administration; its core is reducing toxicity and enhancing effect. The Jiaozuo region of Henan Province has cultivated Huai yam, Huai rehmannia root, Huai chrysanthemum, and Huai achyranthes root for nearly three thousand years; because what is now Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, was in ancient times under the jurisdiction of Huaiqing Prefecture, Huai yam, Huai rehmannia root, Huai chrysanthemum, and Huai achyranthes root are collectively called the "Four Great Huai Medicinals." The cultivation of the Four Great Huai Medicinals, including seed breeding, site selection, soil preparation, seedling raising, fertilization, and pest control, is subject to strict requirements, and the processing of the medicinal materials also follows strict traditional craft standards; processes such as the nine-steaming-and-nine-sun-drying of Huai rehmannia root and the repeated soaking, steaming, sun-drying, and rubbing of Huai yam give the materials their superior quality. In recent years, because some farming households have one-sidedly pursued yields of Huai medicinals and lowered unit costs to strengthen price competitiveness, abandoning traditional cultivation and processing techniques and arbitrarily introducing seeds and seedlings from other regions, the original quality of the Four Great Huai Medicinals has been distorted.

Nine steamings and nine sun-dryings of Huai rehmannia

Fresh rehmannia is steamed and dried again and again until moisture equalises inside and out, the cross-section turning black and oily with heavier gel.

Soaking, steaming and rubbing of Huai yam

Repeated soaking and steaming followed by drying and rubbing strip the skin and the woody core, leaving the starchy flesh for slicing.

High-yield trials on loess clay

Li Chengjie ran nearly three decades of trials on loess clay, reaching 2226.5 kg per mu, close to three times the ordinary field yield, and used crop antagonisms to break the rotation problem of yam and rehmannia.

Domestication of Huaqing cliff chrysanthemum

The cliff chrysanthemum of the Taihang Mountains was moved down and domesticated as Huaqing cliff chrysanthemum; a selected yam strain from the same trials yields two to three kilograms per plant.

Judging adjuvant and fire

Sun Shuwu identifies genuine material by eye and taste and knows which channel each of the four Huai drugs enters, which adjuvant it takes and how far the fire should go.

The Huai share in finished formulas

In Liuwei Dihuang Wan the Huai rehmannia and Huai yam carry nearly half the dosage, and that steady demand in turn sustains the growing and processing of Huai drugs.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

From ancient times to the present, the Chinese medicine profession has accumulated extensive experience in medicinal processing, summarized complete sets of theory, invented numerous techniques, formed many schools, and compiled a large body of works; Chinese medicinal processing technique has become one of the important components of Chinese materia medica. In Liuwei Dihuang Wan (Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Pill), Huai rehmannia root and Huai yam account for 48 percent of the formula, and the cultural customs arising from the Huai medicinals also widely influence the production and daily life of local people.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The genuinely traditional cultivation and processing techniques have been severely impacted and await further excavation, protection, and transmission. Sun Shuwu (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born July 1947, from Wuzhi County, Henan Province. In 1964 he studied with veteran pharmacy workers Guo Zhenchao and Sun Zhanli at a Chinese medicine factory, learning the techniques of purifying, cutting, stir-frying, calcining, steaming, vinegar processing, salt processing, wine processing, and honey processing of Chinese medicinals, and later took the authoritative Huai-medicinal master Zhang Jingtang as his teacher. He can identify the authenticity of medicinal materials by eye and taste, and knows the places of origin, properties, and effects of most genuine regional medicinal materials; he is deeply versed in the processing techniques of the Four Great Huai Medicinals - which diseases each treats, which meridian it enters, what auxiliary materials must be added, and to what degree the fire control should be mastered. In 2011 he conducted three on-site training sessions totaling eighty person-times for interns of the Department of Chinese Medicine at Henan Agricultural University. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Chinese Medicinal Processing Technique (Cultivation and Processing of the Four Great Huai Medicinals). He has always attached great importance to talent cultivation, teaching several apprentices, and has trained Chinese medicinal processing technicians free of charge for rural areas. Li Chengjie (from the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born October 1932, from Qinyang City, Henan Province. From childhood he cultivated and processed the Four Great Huai Medicinals together with his father, and after starting work he still spent his spare time working alongside his father. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project Chinese Medicinal Processing Technique (Cultivation and Processing of the Four Great Huai Medicinals). After nearly thirty years of research and experimentation, he conducted high-yield experiments on lu-tu (sticky clay) soil, reaching a per-mu yield of 2,226.5 kilograms, nearly three times that of ordinary field production; using the principle of mutual promotion and restraint among crops, he solved the problem of continuous cropping of yam and rehmannia; the new yam variety he cultivated and domesticated can reach 2 to 3 kilograms per plant when grown on lu-tu soil; and he successfully transplanted and domesticated the stone chrysanthemum growing on the cliffs of the Taihang Mountains, naming it "Huaiqing Cliff Chrysanthemum." In addition to passing the technique on to his son Li Maoqing and grandson Li Bo, he taught it to farmers such as Wang Guodong, Song Lianghui, Li Shusen, and Zhao Xingwang, who in turn passed it on to villagers in their own villages.

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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