TCM Bone-setting Therapy

Ⅸ-6Traditional MedicineHuangpu, ShanghaiBatch 2 (2008)Extension ItemFeatured

01 · Historical Records

The Shi school's bone-injury therapy was founded by Shi Lanting in 1880. Blending traditional martial-arts bone-setting manipulative techniques with the internal treatment and regulation methods of traditional Chinese medicine into a single whole, it is a distinctive diagnostic and therapeutic method in Chinese medical orthopedics and traumatology, and its transmission has continued for five generations up to the present day.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

Traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy is also known as "shangke" (traumatology) or "gu shang ke" (bone and injury medicine, orthopedics and traumatology). First, it has a distinctive understanding of bone physiology and the pathology of bone injuries in the light of traditional Chinese medicine theory; second, it makes ingenious use of manipulative techniques; and third, it has distinctive characteristics in its use of medicines. The combination of these three points often forms a unique therapy and a famous school. In theory, the Shi school's bone-injury therapy values the holistic concept, emphasizing equal attention to qi and blood and the combination of internal and external treatment, and has created the "thirty-two-character concept of treating disease." In diagnosis and treatment, it emphasizes sinew-and-bone injuries treated in three stages; internal injuries must be differentiated according to the state of the viscera, qi, and blood; and old injuries and strain injuries are assessed by examining their causes and circumstances. In manipulative technique, it emphasizes the criteria of being "steady yet forceful, supple yet flexible, and fine yet accurate," summed up in twelve characters of application: "traction and pressing to correct, pulling and lifting, and pressing, kneading, shaking, and twirling." In medicinal application, it stresses that prescriptions change with symptoms and medicines differ with diseases, and through long-term practice it has accumulated and summarized a series of famous formulas and proven remedies, such as Sanse Fuyao (three-color application medicine), Xiaosan Gao (dissipating plaster), Qilin San (qilin powder), and Xinshang Xuduan Tang (new-injury bone-mending decoction). Due to the impact of Western surgical procedures, Chinese medical traumatology — especially its most distinctive non-drug therapies such as manipulative techniques — has been shrinking day by day; and because the development of ready-made Chinese medicines is required to meet the same standards as the development of Western drugs, not a few Chinese medical preparation methods and therapies have fallen into obscurity.

Traction and pressing straight

The first four of the twelve characters: open the displacement, then press it straight — everything after depends on this.

Pulling, wrenching, lifting and raising

Four middle characters that pull, twist, support and lift, used together for displacement in different directions.

Pressing, kneading, rocking and shaking

The last four characters, used to loosen spasm, move joints and disperse stasis after reduction.

Three-colour plasters

Plasters are graded by colour to match severity, and are combined with oral formulas that change with the syndrome.

Three-stage treatment of sinew and bone injury

Three-stage treatment for fresh injury, with viscera and qi-blood differentiation for internal injury and careful weighing for chronic wear.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

In ancient agricultural society, the incidence of bone injuries was very high, and bone injuries were a common and frequently occurring ailment. At that time, medical conditions were very poor, and transportation in rural areas and frontier settlements was blocked off; once a fracture occurred, seeking treatment was extremely difficult. Thus practice produced true knowledge, and need produced talent: in almost every somewhat larger village or town, one or two local doctors and local methods for treating bone injuries would emerge, and bone-setting therapy became a Chinese medical therapy with wide distribution and a multitude of schools across China. With social development and the broadening and deepening of academic exchange, Chinese medical bone-injury therapy shows a tendency toward convergence; however, the regional characteristics, manipulative characteristics, and medicinal characteristics of certain famous traumatology experts and famous traumatology schools still remain. Compared with Western orthopedic medicine, Chinese bone-setting therapy still has its unique advantages.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

The characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy are expressed in three aspects. The Shi school's bone-injury therapy applies the traditional Chinese medicine concept of "the thirteen disciplines are penetrated by a single principle" to Chinese medical orthopedics and traumatology, which embodies great value in China's traditional medicinal culture. Under these circumstances, the Shi school's bone-injury therapy has fallen into the predicament of lacking successors both in people and in techniques, and urgently needs strengthened protection. Shi Yangshan (official archival record of an associated inheritor): In diagnosis and treatment, he emphasizes equal attention to qi and blood and the combination of internal and external treatment. He created the concept of treating disease: "take qi as the primary factor and blood as the first concern, give equal weight to sinews and bones while aligning internally with the liver and kidneys, regulate and treat concurrent pathogenic factors with special emphasis on phlegm-dampness, examine deficiency and excess, and apply tonification or purgation accordingly." In diagnosis and treatment he emphasizes the three-stage treatment of sinew-and-bone injuries; in medicinal application he attends to both internal and external aspects with holistic regulation, and is skilled at prescribing internal medicines on the basis of syndrome differentiation, taking injury as the primary consideration together with the patient's constitution and concurrent pathogenic factors. Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in March 1931 and deceased in December 2015, a native of Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone-Setting Therapy (the Shi school's bone-injury therapy)". In 1995 he was named a famous practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine of Shanghai by the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau; in 2006 he was awarded the Special Contribution Award for the transmission of traditional Chinese medicine by the China Association of Chinese Medicine; in 2007 he was conferred the title of "Famous Master of Chinese Orthopedics and Traumatology" (inaugural class) by the China Association of Chinese Medicine; and in 2014 he received the title of "National Medical Master" (second batch) awarded by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the National Health and Family Planning Commission, and the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

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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