Chinese Craft Stories NATIONAL HERITAGE INVENTORY
Home / Inventory / Ⅸ-4

Traditional TCM Preparation Methods

Ⅸ-4Traditional MedicineTaigu, ShanxiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

It was a great treasure among gynecological preparations of traditional Chinese medicine during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Dingkun Dan is a comprehensive gynecological therapeutic preparation. It belongs to the category of state-level secret formulas — 'not present among ancient formulas, precious and secret, not transmitted to outsiders.' The imperial physicians quickly based themselves on the 'Bujing Tang' (Menses-Supplementing Decoction) in the monk of Zhulin Temple's 'Zhulin Nuke Zhengzhi' (Treatise on the Treatment of Women's Diseases of Zhulin), deleting and adding ingredients, and drafted a formula which, when applied clinically, proved effective time after time. It was named 'Dingkun Dan' (Settling the Kun Elixir), taking the meaning of 'the Kun Palace (the uterus) being settled,' and was exclusively for use in the inner court. Later, the Dingkun Dan formula passed through several hands to the Guangsheng Pharmacy, the predecessor of Guangyu Yuan, and was preserved as a distinctive product of Shanxi. The main raw materials of Dingkun Dan include ginseng, deer antler (lurong), Chinese angelica (danggui), prepared rehmannia root (shudi), amomum fruit (sharen), safflower (honghua), notoginseng (sanqi), Yuqian atractylodes (yuzhu), cyperus tuber (xiangfu), ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin), flying squirrel feces (wulingzhi), and corydalis tuber (yuanhu) — more than twenty precious Chinese medicinal materials in all. It has the functions of tonifying blood, astringing blood, regulating menstruation, calming the fetus, relieving depression, softening the liver, moderating the middle, relieving pain, moving stasis, soothing qi, harmonizing the stomach, and awakening the spleen. Its materials are selected for their rarity, its combination is refined and precise, and its range of treatment is quite broad. Besides its effects of regulating menstruation and activating blood, it also has the actions of tonifying qi and generating blood, soothing the liver and relieving depression, relieving pain, and checking vaginal discharge, and it can enhance the body's immune function.

Adapting the Bujing Tang into a formula

Court physicians took the Bujing Tang from the Zhulin gynaecological treatise as a base, cutting and adding to produce Dingkun Dan, which proved effective in the clinic and was named to settle the uterus.

The meaning of settling the Kun palace

The name means the Kun palace is made peaceful; the formula was made for the inner court alone until it passed to the Guangsheng drugshop and left the palace for the market.

The twenty-odd ingredient gynaecological formula

Twenty-odd ingredients from ginseng and deer antler to donkey-hide gelatin and frankincense are combined to nourish and contain blood, regulate the cycle and calm the fetus, tonifying and attacking together.

Yang Jukui's work on the Dingkun Dan process

From 1953, when he returned to Taigu to build the Shanxi TCM Factory, Yang Jukui both studied the production of Guiling Ji and Dingkun Dan and joined the scientific reform of their processes, finalising formulas and rules for the National Archives.

Liu Huiwu's hand-to-hand teaching of the honey-pill process

Born into a family of physicians, Liu Huiwu entered the factory at seventeen and learned Dingkun Dan from his father Liu Zijun, keeping the ancient methods and teaching one to one on the production floor.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

Dingkun Dan originated in Taigu, from the same lineage as Guilingji. During the Qianlong reign, the Imperial Medical Academy gathered famous physicians from throughout the country to compile the 'Golden Mirror of the Medical Tradition' (Yizong Jinjian); the stagnant-blood disorders of the imperial consorts were included in the research, and the imperial physicians, based on the Bujing Tang in the monk of Zhulin Temple's 'Zhulin Nuke Zhengzhi,' deleted and added ingredients to form this formula. Taigu's medicine shops took it up from then on, with the work of compounding ingredients and making the pills relying largely on the local medicine shops and veteran pharmaceutical workers. From the Republican period onward, firms such as the Guangsheng Pharmacy established this fine gynecological medicine firmly in central Shanxi (Jinzhong); the signboard changed several times, yet the process steps were always transmitted within the pharmacies of the single city of Taigu. Guilingji and Dingkun Dan shared the same factory and furnace, with their staffing, honey refining, and methods of sealing the honey pills lending support to one another, so that Taigu developed a set of local house rules for pharmaceutical production in which large honey pills and ascending refinement proceeded in parallel.

Other submitting regions for the same item: Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods · Traditional TCM Preparation Methods.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

According to records, in the fourth year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty (1739), the Imperial Medical Academy gathered famous physicians from throughout the country to compile the 'Golden Mirror of the Medical Tradition' (Yizong Jinjian), and the Qianlong Emperor ordered that the stagnant-blood disease of the imperial consorts be included in the research agenda. Yang Jukui (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1933, from Taigu County, Shanxi Province. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project 'Traditional Preparation Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Traditional Production Technique of Guilingji).' In 1953 he returned to Taigu to take charge of establishing the Shanxi Chinese Medicine Factory. During the more than forty years he worked there, on the one hand he devoted himself to studying the famous Chinese medicines Guilingji and Dingkun Dan and actively developing production; on the other hand he took part in scientific research and development, boldly reforming the ascending-refinement process of Guilingji, adopting the theory of optimization methods to ensure efficacy to the greatest extent possible, and verifying its pharmacological and anti-aging effects with modern scientific theory and methods. After years of unremitting effort, he finalized the formula and the process regulations, which have been collected by the National Archives. Over the years, he has led his apprentices in continuously collecting and collating famous formulas and folk remedies from various places, and in developing new medicines. Liu Huiwu (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1955, from Taigu County, Shanxi Province. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage projects 'Traditional Preparation Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Traditional Production Technique of Guilingji)' and 'Traditional Preparation Methods of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Dingkun Dan Production Technique).' Born into a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, he entered the Shanxi Chinese Medicine Factory (formerly the Guangyu Yuan Pharmaceutical Factory) at the age of 17, where he studied the production technique of Dingkun Dan under his father, the senior pharmacist Liu Zijun. For decades he has worked in production posts for Guilingji, Dingkun Dan, and others; he has not only fully mastered the distinctive processing and production techniques of Guilingji and Dingkun Dan but has also carried out technical innovation in the traditional process through continuous exploration. At the same time, he has devoted himself to studying the pharmacology and clinical application of traditional ancient formulas such as Guilingji and Dingkun Dan, excavating their broad intrinsic value. He insists on traditional processing, strictly observes the process steps, and for a long time has orally instructed and personally demonstrated the production workers on the front line of production, selecting those of both good character and ability to carry out teaching activities, guiding and demonstrating hand by hand and one to one, and cultivating successors.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (Taigu, Shanxi) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Yang Jukui · National Representative Bearer Archive
  3. Liu Huiwu · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。