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Traditional TCM Preparation Methods

Ⅸ-4Traditional MedicineJingshan, HubeiBatch 3 (2011)Extension Item

01 · Historical Records

Alchemical activities in China originated in the Warring States period of the 3rd century BCE; on the basis of traditional Chinese pharmaceutical preparation, the heating and sublimation of medicines developed into the art of alchemy (liandan). The so-called "ascending dan" (shengdan) means placing the vessel mouth upward during alchemical processing, which is called "ascending"; conversely, with the vessel mouth pointing downward, it is "descending", and the product is called "descending dan" (jiangdan).

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The art of alchemy was a method by which the ancients compounded elixirs in pursuit of "immortality and eternal youth". Medicines produced by the art of alchemy are of two kinds: external application and internal administration. The elixir produced by the Xia family's art of alchemy is an external medicine. The elixirs commonly used in surgery are of two kinds: Hongshengdan (red ascending dan) and Baijiangdan (white descending dan). Baijiangdan has the effects of drawing out toxins and reducing swelling, and removing necrotic tissue and killing parasites. Today it is mostly used for difficult conditions such as cellulitis, chronic osteomyelitis, and suppurative infections in various parts of the body.

Ascending and descending cinnabar preparations

With the jar mouth upwards the product is called ascending, downwards it is called descending; the same furnace yields two kinds of preparation purely by the way it is sealed.

Calcining minerals into the pill

Mineral drugs are heated in the furnace so that their constituents separate and condense into a pill; everything depends on heat and on how airtight the sealing is, and an inch off spoils it.

Bai Jiang Dan drawing out toxin

Bai Jiang Dan draws out toxin, reduces swelling and kills parasites, serving the wound where dead tissue has not yet fallen away so that it liquefies and leaves, letting new flesh grow.

Hong Sheng Dan

Hong Sheng Dan and Bai Jiang Dan are the two standard external preparations of surgery, acting in different directions; paired as ascending and descending, they form a fixed combination in surgical texts.

Four generations at the furnace

Xia Dazhong and Xia Xiaozhong are the representative inheritors, Xia Xiaozhong being the third generation and his son Xia Wensha the fourth; in Hubei the art has never actually lapsed.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The art of alchemy arose in the Warring States period; it was originally a method for seeking immortality, and those traditions that have truly survived to the present are very few, so the fact that a branch remains in Hubei can be counted a surprise. The villagers of the Jingshan area in old times mostly suffered from chronic surgical ailments such as sores, shank ulcers, and bone consumption; the mountainous region lacked doctors and medicine, and among the people there was an old practice of calcining minerals into dan and applying it externally to sores. The Xia family lineage of Hubei built its trade on this, carrying it on from father to son and son to grandson. This land has belonged to the Chu-Xiang region since ancient times; mountain paths are rugged, medicinal herbs and mineral materials are easy to obtain, and there were many people seeking treatment for bone ailments and rheumatism, so surgical dan had a fixed use. Two generations of inheritors, Xia Dazhong and Xia Xiaozhong, received patients in their consulting rooms while guarding the furnace and calcining, turning alchemy from a quest for immortality into practical medicine for physicians; today, within the city of Jingshan, besides the dan elixirs, there is also the Xia Family Hospital treating bone ailments and rheumatism, allowing the furnace fire and the outpatient clinic to sustain each other in the same place.

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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The external applications still retain considerable medical value to this day, while internal administration has gradually been eliminated because of its high toxicity. Alchemy has always been cloaked in mystery, and most of its experimental methods and prescriptions have been lost; yet in Hubei, the Xia family — whose representative inheritors are Xia Dazhong and Xia Xiaozhong — still continues this ancient pharmaceutical method to this day, producing "Baijiangdan" (white descending dan) by calcining mineral medicines. With the changing times, advanced pharmaceutical processes of all kinds have impacted the traditional art of alchemy, which faces an endangered state and urgently needs rescue. Xia Xiaozhong (recorded in the official archives of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in January 1958, a native of Jingshan City, Hubei Province. A representative inheritor of the Xia family elixir-making craft, a project under the fourth national-level batch of the national intangible cultural heritage item "Traditional Preparation Methods of Chinese Medicine". A third-generation inheritor of the Xia family elixir-making craft. At the age of 21, he served as a resident physician in the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine at Jingshan County People's Hospital, Hubei Province; at 28, he became director of Wuhan Xia Xiaozhong Hospital. For more than thirty years, he has received and treated over 500,000 patients (visits) from home and abroad, relieving the pain of large numbers of patients with bone ailments and rheumatism. The products have participated in domestic and international exhibitions on multiple occasions and won awards. His son Xia Wensha is the fourth-generation inheritor.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

  1. Traditional TCM Preparation Methods (Jingshan, Hubei) · China ICH Official Project Archive
  2. Xia Xiaozhong · National Representative Bearer Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗

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