TCM Bone-setting Therapy
01 · Historical Records
Luoyang bone-setting originated from the Guo family of Pingle Village, Mengjin County, Luoyang City, and took shape during the Jiaqing reign of the Qing Dynasty. In 1985, Guo Chunyuan, a fifth-generation successor of the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method and former president of the Zhengzhou Orthopedic Hospital, founded the Shenzhen Pingle Orthopedics and Traumatology Hospital.
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. Luoyang bone-setting is a folk Chinese medical therapy for treating bone and injury diseases, also known as "Pingle Guo-school bone-setting," "Pingle bone-setting," or "White Horse Temple bone-setting." Generation after generation, the Guo family practiced medicine in their hometown, transmitting it secretly within the clan; the several generations of successors thereafter all upheld the ancestral teachings and devoted themselves to the development and innovation of Chinese medical bone-injury medicine, raising the long-standing Pingle bone-setting from a simple folk healing art that treated the sick and saved lives into a Chinese bone-injury science that benefits humanity. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, it flourished for five generations and was renowned for its unique therapeutic efficacy and noble medical ethics. Through more than two hundred years of practice and innovation by successive generations of successors, Luoyang bone-setting has become the largest academic school of Chinese medical orthopedics and traumatology in China, forming a complete set of bone-setting theories and methods — the three principles (holistic syndrome differentiation, equal weight to sinews and bones, and combined internal and external treatment) and the four methods (manipulative techniques for treating injuries, immobilization methods, medicinal treatment, and rehabilitative exercise) — with characteristics such as interdependence with the cause of Chinese medicine, a legendary quality, scientific validity, systematic completeness, practical applicability, and a wide scope of dissemination. Guo Chunyuan wrote "The Pingle Guo School's Bone-Setting Method" and "New Compilation on Bone-Setting by Hereditary Physicians." He vigorously developed and spread the Pingle bone-setting medical art; for more than twenty years, he and his disciples and students treated more than one million patients with bone and injury diseases in Shenzhen.
The three principles
Whole-symptom differentiation, equal attention to sinew and bone, and treatment from both inside and outside.
The four methods
Manual reduction, fixation, medication and rehabilitation, treated as one closed loop rather than a single procedure.
The theory of balance
The third-generation inheritor extended three principles and four methods into seven principles and six methods, and built a theory of balance around qi and blood.
Fixation with early movement
Splints are adjusted as swelling changes and active rehabilitation begins from the first stage.
From Pingle village to Shenzhen
A family secret passed for five generations opened into a hospital in 1985, treating over a million patients in Shenzhen.
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.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine bone-setting therapy are expressed in three aspects. With its distinctive characteristics, rich connotations, systematic theory, unique therapeutic efficacy, and leading techniques, together with the medical ethics and demeanor of "a physician's heart is that of a parent" that it upholds, the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method has attracted wide attention from the medical community at home and abroad, and has become an important orthopedics and traumatology school recognized by domestic professional circles, possessing high medical value and traditional cultural value. The Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method retains the imprint of Confucian and Daoist thought; it is an intangible cultural heritage that merits careful research and dedicated protection. Like other fields of Chinese medicine, this school now faces difficulties in its development and urgently needs protection. Guo Yanjin (official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in November 1949, a native of Mengjin County, Henan Province. Born into a family of traditional Chinese medicine bone-setters, and influenced by her family, she aspired from childhood to carry on the cause of Chinese medicine. She has published more than ten papers in professional journals and collections such as "Chinese Bone-Setting," "Chinese Journal of Orthopedics and Traumatology," and the "Proceedings of the Third High-Level Forum on the Academic Transmission of Famous Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientists." Representative inheritor of the third national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone-Setting Therapy (the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method)". The research projects she led have won awards repeatedly. She has spared no effort in cultivating successor talent. Guo Yanxing (official archival record of an associated inheritor): Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in August 1959, a native of Mengjin County, Henan Province. Chief physician, doctoral supervisor, and an expert enjoying the special government allowance of the State Council. Instructed by her grandmother Gao Yunfeng, she studied the basic theoretical knowledge of bone injuries. On the basis of fully inheriting and mastering the essence of the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method, she developed its "three principles and four methods" into "seven principles and six methods," constructed the Pingle bone-setting "balance theory," and formed the Pingle theories of bone nourishment and injury treatment. Persisting in clinical practice, she takes "syndrome differentiation of qi and blood as the guiding principle" in diagnosing and treating pain of the neck, shoulders, waist, and legs, osteoarthritis, rheumatism, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, osteoporosis, soft-tissue injuries, and traumatic fractures, with distinctive medicinal methods and good results. She actively participates in academic exchanges at home and abroad, promoting the theory and methods of the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method. Representative inheritor of the fifth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage project "Traditional Chinese Medicine Bone-Setting Therapy (the Pingle Guo school's bone-setting method)". She has trained dozens of master's and doctoral students.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Guo Weihuai 01-0212
- Sun Shuchun 01-0213
- Shi Qi 01-0214
- Liu Gang 03-1446
- Luo Jindian 03-1447
- Shi Yangshan 03-1448
- Guo Yanjin 03-1449
- Wu Chengmou 04-1945
- Zhang Yuzhu 04-1946
- Luo Sulan 05-2951
- Su Jicheng 05-2952
- Shi Yinyu 05-2953
- Zhang Yanyou 05-2954
- Guo Yanxing 05-2955
- Liao Huaizhang 05-2956
- Li Feiyue
- Zhan Hongsheng
- Lin Zishun
- Zhu Liguo
- Li Tao
- Zhang Yunzhi
- Guo Jiayi
- Zhu Huaiyu
- Xu Zesan
- Zhu Long
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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