TCM Bone-setting Therapy · Chinese Craft Stories

01 · Historical Records

During the "Cultural Revolution", General Luo Ruiqing was cruelly persecuted and injured in the leg, and in 1975 he came to Fuzhou to seek treatment from Lin Rugao. In 1977, Lin Rugao's Verified Bone-Injury Prescriptions in Verse and Their Explanations, Thirty-Six Methods of Exercise, Lin Rugao's Method of Applying Medicaments for Bone Injuries, and Selected Materials on Bone Injuries were published, together with more than eighty academic papers.

02 · Core Techniques & Process

The Lin family of bone-setters had its ancestral home in Panyu Township, Gaishan Town, Cangshan District, Fuzhou, and its founding ancestor was Lin Danian, who was famous throughout the eight prefectures of Fujian (Bamin). Lin Danian (1837-1913) learned Shaolin kung fu and the medical art of bone injuries from Elder Monk Tiezhu of the Hechao Temple on Gaigai Mountain in his hometown; through years of continuous study and practice his medical skill greatly improved, and he became a leading bone-setting physician of Fuzhou in his day. Lin Danian passed the art of bone-setting on to his descendants, among whom his grandson Lin Rugao was the most outstanding. Lin Rugao fully inherited and developed the Lin family's TCM bone-setting medicine, and for decades, as consistently as ever, he cured countless patients with bone injuries. After more than a year of careful treatment, General Luo's leg injury improved markedly. In addition, he cured bone and injury ailments for central leaders such as Wang Zhen, Wan Li, and Ye Fei, and thus became famous in the capital. Lin's TCM orthopedics has distinctive features in the diagnosis, reduction, fixation, exercise, and internal and external medication for all kinds of bone and injury ailments; its academic thought and clinical experience are mainly embodied in: 1. Dialectical treatment of bone injuries, with emphasis on manual reduction. 2. Tracing problems to their source, and being skilled at treating sinew injuries. 3. Expounding the causes of bi syndrome (arthralgia), and advocating pattern-based treatment. 4. Discussing the causes and pathogenesis of flaccidity syndrome (wei), and advocating treating flaccidity by focusing on the yangming. Lin's TCM orthopedics has distinctive features in the diagnosis, reduction, fixation, exercise, and internal and external medication for all kinds of bone and injury ailments; its academic thought and clinical experience are mainly embodied in four aspects: first, dialectical treatment of bone injuries with emphasis on manual reduction; second, tracing problems to their source and being skilled at treating sinew injuries; third, expounding the causes of bi syndrome and advocating pattern-based treatment; fourth, discussing the causes and pathogenesis of flaccidity syndrome and advocating treating flaccidity by focusing on the yangming. Of these four points, the first two concern manual skill, while the latter two concern the principles of internal medicine; this parallel dual track is precisely what distinguishes the Lin bone-setting school from schools of pure manipulation.

Reduction first, sinew injury equally treated

Fractures are treated by manual reduction while sinew injury is traced to its root, both pursued together in every case.

Treating atrophy through the Yangming channel

For atrophy of the limbs the school follows the classic instruction to treat through the Yangming channel rather than broadly tonifying the liver and kidney.

The thirty-six therapeutic exercises

Published in 1977 alongside the formula songs, the plasters and the case collection, the thirty-six exercises made recovery a formal part of treatment.

From Hetiaotang temple to Panyu

The line began with martial arts and medicine learned together from a temple master, and was then handed down within the family.

Famous cases and official compilation

Treating senior officials from 1975 onwards carried the family's reputation well beyond Fujian.

03 · Regional Records & Related Items

The Lin family of bone-setters had its ancestral home in Panyu Township, Gaishan Town, Cangshan District, Fuzhou, and its founding ancestor was Lin Danian, who was famous throughout the eight prefectures of Fujian. Lin Danian (1837-1913) learned Shaolin kung fu and the medical art of bone injuries from Elder Monk Tiezhu of the Hechao Temple on Gaigai Mountain in his hometown; through years of continuous study and practice his medical skill greatly improved, and he became a leading bone-setting physician of Fuzhou in his day. The family craft was passed down by him through two generations of his descendants, among whom his grandson Lin Rugao was the most outstanding, raising this line of family learning to nationally known standing. The Lin school that took shape was centered on Fuzhou, and over more than forty years it treated large numbers of bone-injury patients with equal emphasis on internal treatment, external application, and exercise, its fame spreading from the eight prefectures of Fujian to the capital.

04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding

In accordance with Premier Zhou Enlai's instruction to "compile Lin Rugao's medical experience, pass it on to later generations, and serve the people", the Fujian Provincial Health Department sent people to compile Lin Rugao's bone-setting experience. In accordance with Premier Zhou Enlai's instruction to compile Lin Rugao's medical experience, pass it on to later generations, and serve the people, the Fujian Provincial Health Department sent people to compile Lin Rugao's bone-setting experience; in 1977, Lin Rugao's Verified Bone-Injury Prescriptions in Verse and Their Explanations, Thirty-Six Methods of Exercise, Lin Rugao's Method of Applying Medicaments for Bone Injuries, and Selected Materials on Bone Injuries were published, together with more than eighty academic papers. These writings fixed the orally transmitted manipulations and verified prescriptions of a single family and locality into the written word, giving the Fuzhou Lin bone-setting school the two conditions of cross-regional dissemination and having successors.

05 · Associated Representative Bearers

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

06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography

TCM Bone-setting Therapy (Fuzhoushicangshan, Fujian) · China ICH Official Project Archive

Sources

China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)

Read the official ihchina.cn record ↗