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Traditional TCM Preparation Methods

Ⅸ-4Traditional MedicinePingyin, ShandongBatch 2 (2008)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Dong'e County in Shandong Province is the place of origin and main producing area of ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin). Ejiao production there has a history of more than two thousand years, and in the mid-to-late Ming dynasty it reached its peak, when 'women and children alike knew how to boil gelatin.' The county has been named by the state the 'Hometown of Ejiao in China,' and is the protected area of origin and sole place of production of Fupai Ejiao.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Traditional Chinese medicine preparation refers mainly to pills, powders, ointments, and elixirs (dan); in addition, there are wine preparations, lozenges (dingji), gelatins (jiaoji), and so on. Each dosage form has its own set of traditional preparation techniques, and in combination with certain products there are also some special methods of production. With the development of the times, the production of ready-made Chinese medicines (patent medicines) has undergone many reforms and innovations, greatly raising production efficiency; yet traditional preparation methods have not all been eliminated, and some of them remain the best choice in the production of patent medicines — especially famous-brand patent medicines, patent medicines with secret formulas, and patent medicines containing precious and rare medicinal ingredients, which are often still produced by traditional preparation methods in time-honored brand enterprises. Traditional Chinese medicine preparation methods retain certain features of ancient workshop production: materials are selected with precision, ingredients are fed in an orderly sequence, and the techniques are distinctive; the packaging and instruction slips are imbued with a traditional cultural atmosphere, and are deeply trusted by physicians and patients. Dong'e County has the A Well (Ajing), whose groundwater system is an underground flow formed at the confluence of the Mount Tai and Taihang mountain ranges. On the yin side of Mount Tai and the yang side of the Taihang Mountains, yin and yang complement each other; the water has a relative density of 1.0038, is rich in minerals and trace elements, and easily removes impurities from the ejiao, making the gelatin pure and readily absorbed by the human body. The traditional process of Dong'e Ejiao includes more than fifty process steps — preparing the hides, dissolving the hides, boiling the extract, and so on — all carried out by hand. Among them, boiling the gelatin and drying the gelatin are the most complex, and the stages in between — 'hanging the beads' (guazhu), 'breaking the oil' (zayou), and 'lifting the monkey' (diaohou) — most reveal the craftsman's skill; it takes six or seven years of practice before one begins to grasp the knack. The process regulations of Dong'e Ejiao were included in the first batch of scientific and technological secrecy projects of the National Pharmaceutical Administration. Ejiao culture integrates Chinese medicine and pharmacy, historiography, philosophy, health preservation, tonic supplementation, paste-formula culture, and classical literature; it is a representative of Chinese medical culture. It has won such honors as the gold medal at the Panama International Exposition, the international 'Great Wall' gold medal for traditional medicines, the designation 'China Time-Honored Brand,' and the 'China Well-Known Trademark.'

Archival record of the process steps

The traditional process of Dong'e Ejiao includes more than fifty process steps — preparing the hides, dissolving the hides, boiling the extract, and so on — all carried out by hand. Among them, boiling the gelatin and drying the gelatin are the most complex, and the stages in between — 'hanging the beads' (guazhu), 'breaking the oil' (zayou), and 'lifting the monkey' (diaohou) — most reveal the craftsman's skill; it takes six or seven years of practice before one begins to grasp the knack.

The codex of donkey-hide gelatin production

A generally applicable production codex that fixed the stages in writing, making quality comparable nationwide.

Operating rules for each production post

Post-specific written instructions that converted orally taught technique into checkable rules, later recorded in the pharmacopoeia.

From the boiling vat to written standards

Joining the Pingyin gelatin factory in 1983, he worked nearly forty years on production, technique and quality and edited China Ejiao.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Pingyin branch took root at the Shandong Pingyin Ejiao Factory (the predecessor of today's Fujiao Group), sharing the same origin as Dong'e but in a different place. Yang Fu'an, born in Pingyin in September 1963, entered the factory in 1983, starting from the old process steps of boiling and drying the gelatin, and wrote down one by one — as post operating rules — the heat judgments and 'hanging the beads' assessments that his masters had passed on orally, turning the craft into standards that could be verified. He served as chief editor of 'Chinese Ejiao' and organized scattered experience into the first nationally applicable 'Code of Ejiao Production Process' and 'Operating Rules for Ejiao Production Posts,' which were incorporated into the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The quality standards of Pingyin's gelatin thus stood alongside Dong'e's advantage of well water, becoming another set of generally applicable rules for this craft.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

Under the impact of modern industrialization and Western medicine, compounded by industrial pollution and the increasing scarcity of water and donkey-hide resources, workers trained in the ancient method of boiling gelatin are in short supply, and some traditional processes and the application of ancient formulas in syndrome differentiation are on the verge of being lost; the traditional Chinese medicine culture of Dong'e Ejiao urgently needs protection. Yang Fu'an (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1963, from Pingyin County, Shandong Province. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project 'Traditional Preparation Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Dong'e Ejiao Production Technique).' Research fellow; an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council; National Model Worker. In 1983 he entered the Shandong Pingyin Ejiao Factory (the predecessor of Fujiao Group) to work. For nearly forty years he has devoted himself to the study of ejiao culture, working on the production, technology, quality, product development, and management of ejiao, and leading the factory to develop from a traditional small works into a modern national-level enterprise of traditional Chinese medicine. He is currently chairman and Party secretary of the Shandong Fujiao Group. He served as chief editor of 'Chinese Ejiao.' He took the lead in research on the standardization of ejiao products, compiling the first nationally applicable 'Code of Ejiao Production Process' and 'Operating Rules for Ejiao Production Posts,' which were incorporated into the Chinese Pharmacopoeia.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (Pingyin, Shandong) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Yang Fuan · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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