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Traditional TCM Preparation Methods

Ⅸ-4Traditional MedicineHangzhou, ZhejiangBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Its founder, Zhu Yangxin, opened the "Zhu Yangxin Pharmacy" (originally called "Rishengtang") at the foot of Xushan (present-day Wushan) in the ancient city of Hangzhou during the Tianqi era of the Ming dynasty, specializing in the treatment of bone and injury medicine. Its influence spread across Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Shanghai, the Hong Kong and Macau regions, and Southeast Asian countries, and it has a history of more than four hundred years to this day.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The traditional Zhu Yangxin medicated plaster craft is a traditional hard black plaster technique for external application in the treatment of bone and injury medicine. Because the plasters it developed have remarkable efficacy, the craft became famous throughout Jiangnan, and it is an outstanding example of China's traditional pharmaceutical techniques. These plasters have unique formulas and are made entirely by traditional handwork. Production strictly follows more than ten steps — material selection, frying the medicines in oil, adding the mineral (dan), concentrating the plaster, removing toxins, remelting the plaster, spreading it on the backing, and adding the medicines — with complex processes and consummate skill. In particular, mastery of key techniques is required: in the oil-refining stage, the "thread-drawing" test, in which dripping oil draws out threads, and the "water-drop-beading" test, in which a drop of water beads up like a pearl; the "firmness" (the degree of doneness, from "old" to "tender") of the concentrated plaster; and, when spreading the plaster, the "chrysanthemum-heart with bronze-gong rim" pattern.

Frying the drug materials

The materials are fried over gentle heat to a degree judged by eye and nose; this fixes the aroma and the stickiness of the finished plaster, and too much burns it while too little leaves it loose.

Adding the lead oxide

Lead oxide is dropped into the heated oil and the plaster base forms at once; the pour must be decisive, and a pause leaves the paste dark and uneven in colour.

The hanging thread and the hanging drop

During oil cooking a bamboo strip lifts the paste: if it draws a fine unbroken thread it hangs a thread, and if it sets in cold water as a round bead it hangs a drop; both pass and the batch is ready.

Judging the firmness of the finished paste

One batch can be made soft or firm: soft paste suits delicate skin, firm paste suits joints and sinews, and the degree is judged by mirror, by hand and by test application together.

The chrysanthemum heart and gong rim

When spreading, the centre is pressed into fine radiating lines like a chrysanthemum and a slightly wider rim is left like a gong; such a patch stays put for days without losing its draw.

More than a dozen steps from selection to application

Selection, frying, adding oxide, finishing, detoxification, melting, spreading and applying proceed in fixed succession, each governed by rule, and all of it rests on a steady hand.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Zhu Yangxin line began at the foot of Wushan in Hangzhou, where the pharmacy was established during the Tianqi era of the Ming dynasty, and for more than four hundred years it never left the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region. Hangzhou is crisscrossed by waterways where southern goods and northern medicines converge: oxhide, musk, and borneol arrived by boat, while local aromatics such as Hangzhou white chrysanthemum and camphor could be gathered at hand, so plaster formulas could be compounded from materials on the spot; meanwhile the family rules of medicinal wine from the Shaoxing area and the old plaster-boiling methods of the Ningbo area seeped in along the rivers from time to time, gradually giving the plaster's ingredient pairing and heat control a southern-school coloring. From the late Qing to the Republican era, specialized bone-and-injury clinics opened densely across Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and the Hong Kong-Macau region; demand for external hard plasters such as Goupi Plaster (dogskin plaster) and Wanling Wuxiang Plaster rose sharply, billboards carried the Zhu family's trade name, and customers in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and even the Nanyang Chinese communities sought to buy them. Today, Hangzhou Zhu Yangxin Pharmaceutical carries on this heritage: although the range of products has shrunk, the process steps are unchanged — only the heat control of plaster boiling is now recorded by instruments and standard curves.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The main traditional Zhu Yangxin plaster products still retained today include Zhu's Goupi Plaster (dogskin plaster), Wanling Wuxiang Plaster, Wuxiang Shang Plaster, Tonglu Plaster, Xiaoyan Red Plaster, and Qingliang Plaster, with Goupi Plaster being the most famous. The traditional Zhu Yangxin plaster craft has been passed down orally and by personal instruction from inheritor to inheritor. Its descendants have always upheld the business philosophy of "focusing on bone and injury medicine" and the ancestral teaching of "diligence and continuous progress", carefully transmitting and protecting the traditional plaster products and the craft, and striving for refinement and strength within the specialty so that it may flourish. The traditional Zhu Yangxin plaster craft has outstanding value in Chinese pharmacy, cultural value, folklore value, and social value, and is a precious heritage of China's traditional medicinal culture. As modern lifestyles change and Western medicine becomes widely used, the application of traditional plasters has declined, and the traditional craft faces the danger of being lost, urgently requiring strengthened protection.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (Hangzhou, Zhejiang) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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