TCM Bone-setting Therapy

Ⅸ-6Traditional MedicineChina Academy of Chinese Medical SciencesBatch 1 (2006)Newly Added ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

It is an important component of traditional Chinese medicine, with a history of more than three thousand years to the present day.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy is a treatment method that, through manipulations such as traction, repositioning, and alignment, employs external fixation with small splints to treat fractures, joint dislocations, and other diseases of the locomotor system. Through long-term medical practice, Chinese bone-setting has formed a distinctive theoretical system and complete principles and methods of treatment, and has accumulated very rich experience. The "small splint fixation" used in bone-setting was first developed in China and was later emulated by many countries. Chinese bone-setting can be called one of the great contributions of traditional Chinese medicine to world medicine. Among these traditions, some are documented in the literature, while others have survived only through oral transmission among the people.

Traction, reduction and apposition

Traction opens the overriding ends, reduction realigns them and apposition corrects the rest, all held by small splints, a fixation first devised in China.

The eight methods for sinew injury

His eight sinew methods come from the Liu Shoushan line, and he always paired manual treatment with differentiated herbal formulas.

Breaking, moving and tonifying in stages

Drug treatment moves in three stages — expel stasis, activate blood, then strengthen the kidney — alongside eight manual methods for reduction.

Adjusting the small splints

Splints are shaped to site and displacement and loosened as swelling subsides, keeping fixation and movement together.

Records of bone-setting since the emergency formulary

Bone injury has had its own practitioners since the Zhou, and much of it survives in classical formularies while other parts live only in oral transmission.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

As for the transmission pattern of traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy in different regions, viewed in terms of the distribution of schools, Luoyang and Shanghai remain the two most concentrated centers: the Northern school of bone-setting is represented by the lineage of the Luoyang Pingle Guo Family Bone-Setting Hospital and the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Hospital, while the Wangjing Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences is distinguished by the Eight Methods of Tendon Alignment of the Liu Shoushan lineage and the internal treatment with Chinese medicine of the Sun Shuchun lineage; in addition, hospitals in various places have set up separate clinics according to their master-apprentice lineages. Guo Weihuai, born in Luoyang, Henan in 1929, founded the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Hospital with Gao Yunfeng in 1956, featuring the Luoyang Pingle Guo family bone-setting tradition; in 1958 he established China's first university of bone-setting, and in 1959 the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Research Institute. Today, the authentic bone-setting techniques of the Northern and Southern schools are transmitted in fewer than ten hospitals.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

As early as the Zhou dynasty, the division of medical labor already included officials specially in charge of treating orthopedic diseases; the basic theory and techniques were formed during the Qin and Han dynasties and have been handed down through the generations, as abundantly recorded in works such as the Handbook of Prescriptions for Emergencies, the Secret Formulas for Treating Injuries and Rejoining Fractures, the Essential Formulas Worth a Thousand Gold, and the Golden Mirror of the Medical Tradition. These simple, convenient, inexpensive, and proven therapies of Chinese medicine have made tremendous contributions to the health of the Chinese nation through long-term medical practice, and have circulated for a long time and continued to be transmitted and developed. However, driven by economic interests, at present many hospitals, and even hospitals of Chinese medicine, have largely abandoned this therapy; authentic bone-setting is transmitted in fewer than ten hospitals of the Northern and Southern schools. The transmission of traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy has fallen into difficulties and is hard to advance. To inherit traditional Chinese bone-setting, effective protective measures should be adopted as soon as possible. Relevant academic and policy research should also be actively carried out so as to promote the inheritance and development of bone-setting. Guo Weihuai (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1929, from Luoyang, Henan Province. In 1956, together with Gao Yunfeng, he founded the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Hospital, featuring the Luoyang Pingle Guo family bone-setting tradition; in 1958 he established China's first university of bone-setting, the Henan Pingle Bone-Setting Medical College; and in 1959 he established the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Research Institute, later the Henan Bone-Setting Research Institute. Since 1994 he has co-organized adult college classes in orthopedics and traumatology of Chinese medicine with Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, personally teaching and guiding students in clinical practice. In the drug treatment of fractures, he proposed the principle of "breaking, activating, and supplementing" — that is, "dispelling stasis and rejoining bones in the early stage, activating blood and rejoining bones in the middle stage, and tonifying the kidney and strengthening bones in the late stage" — based on pattern differentiation; in the treatment of sinew injuries, he summarized methods such as point-pressing massage, medicine-rubbing massage, and the blood-activating tendon-regulating method, enriching the content of Chinese medicine in the treatment of sinew injuries; in bone-setting manipulation, he summarized eight methods for clinical use, such as feeling with the heart through the hand, traction repositioning, and pushing, squeezing, lifting, and pressing, improving the rate of fracture reduction. His monographs include Pingle Bone-Setting and Concise Bone-Setting. He was a representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone-Setting Therapy", chief physician of the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Hospital, lifelong director of the All-China Society of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and honorary president of the Henan Luoyang Bone-Setting Hospital. Since 1958 he has trained nearly three thousand practitioners of orthopedics and traumatology of Chinese medicine for the country. He received the Bethune Medal awarded by the Ministry of Health. Sun Shuchun (recorded in the official file of the associated inheritor): male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1939, from Lixian County, Hebei Province. Sun Shuchun attached great importance to the internal treatment of orthopedic and traumatic diseases with Chinese medicine; while using manipulative therapy, he combined it with pattern-based treatment using Chinese herbal formulas. As the principal developer, he researched the nationally approved new drugs "Yaotong Granules" and "Yaobi Tong Capsules", which have been widely used, yielding major economic and social benefits. He still undertakes four national and provincial or ministerial-level research projects. His published works include Liu Shoushan's Bone-Setting Experience, Color Atlas of Practical Tuina Manipulations, Atlas of Medical and Health Tuina of China, and Clinical Orthopedics and Traumatology. He was a representative inheritor of the first national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone-Setting Therapy", chief researcher, chief physician, and doctoral supervisor of the Osteopathy Hospital of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Research, and a member of the National Drug Evaluation Committee. In 1993 he received a special government allowance from the State Council.

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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