TCM Bone-setting Therapy
01 · Historical Records
The Yanqingmen bone-setting art comes from the martial school of Bayu (Chongqing), where martial arts and medicine share a common origin; apprentices first practice the strength for palpating bones and setting bones on wooden stakes and sandbags, and only after mastering it are they allowed to work on patients' bodies. Practice unfolds in four stages: bone-setting manipulation, external fixation with small splints, internal and external application of family verified prescriptions, and guided exercise during recovery; only when the four stages are linked together is the treatment complete, and mastery of a single branch alone does not qualify one as a Yanqingmen practitioner.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Influenced by the geographical environment, dampness is heavy in the Chongqing region, and residents living there for long are prone to cold-damp bi syndrome and other osteoarticular diseases; its mountainous character means that in daily life and labor the people often suffer falls and injuries, and the need for bone-injury treatment is pronounced. Chongqing is also an important production area of Chinese medicinal materials in China, and its abundant medicinal materials provide an efficacy guarantee for the clinical application of the Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy. The Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy is composed of manual reduction, fixation with small splints, internal and external application of secret and verified prescriptions, and recovery-stage exercise, and has a complete and systematic theoretical and technical system, with the distinctive advantages of "simple, convenient, effective, and cheap". It takes master-apprentice transmission, talent cultivation, and relieving the world as its modes of practice, has a strong martial character of "martial arts are used for medicine, and medicine contains what martial arts has learned", and fuses the footwork, body method, and qi method of Yanqingmen martial arts with bone-setting manipulation, becoming a famous bone-injury medical art of the Bayu region. Academically, the Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy advocates manipulating sinews before setting bones, stage-based pattern treatment, holistic regulation, and combined treatment, so as to achieve the union of sinews and bones; in applying force in bone-setting manipulation it emphasizes that "force is born in the feet, power issues from the legs, qi begins at the waist, and merit is exercised by the hand", and in applying the manipulations it emphasizes the "internal three unions" - heart united with mind, mind united with qi, qi united with force - and the "external three unions" - hand united with foot, elbow united with knee, shoulder united with hip. With the establishment of the Chongqing TCM Culture Publicity and Education Base, the heritage project has entered communities and campuses. The Yanqingmen bone-setting art blends martial culture with traditional Chinese bone-injury culture; physicians organically fuse the body method, footwork, and qi method used in martial practice with bone-setting manipulation, making the generation of force in bone-injury manipulation more scientific and clinical efficacy more pronounced, remedying and enriching the research results of traditional bone-setting manipulation in treatment, which is of great significance for transmitting and developing Bayu TCM culture and traditional martial-medical culture. The Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy now sees more than 100,000 outpatient visits a year and nearly 5,000 hospitalized patients, efficiently alleviating patients' pain and making bone-injury patients stronger after recovery, with positive social significance.
Palpation and reduction
The foundational skill drilled first on wooden posts and sandbags: the practitioner reads the displacement by touch and returns the bone, always loosening the surrounding tendons before touching the bone itself.
Small-splint fixation
After reduction the fracture is held with small splints rather than plaster, tightened or loosened as swelling changes, leaving room for the bone to knit without losing alignment.
Household prescriptions, oral and topical
The inherited prescriptions are used both orally and externally, alongside manual reduction and splinting, adjusted as swelling and pain shift in the damp Chongqing climate.
Guiding exercises in recovery
The closing stage after union: martial stepping, body movement and breath are recast into guiding exercises so the patient actively regains function instead of waiting for healing.
Force rising from the feet
Force is trained to rise from the feet through the legs and hinge at the waist, coordinated by an inner triad of mind, intention and breath and an outer triad of limbs and joints.
The Yanqingmen line of succession
Transmission runs through apprenticeship, with martial skill serving medicine and medicine carrying martial learning; the tenth generation now numbers over three hundred disciples.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Yanqingmen bone-setting school arose in Jiangbei District, Chongqing; Yuzhong District and Jiulongpo District also have its transmission; the tenth-generation disciples already number more than three hundred, and its medical fame has spread far through Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, and Hunan. Its academic proposition is the union of sinews and bones - sinews are manipulated before the bone is set, treatment is differentiated by stage rather than viewing fractures and dislocations separately, and the process is closed off with functional exercise; this approach is quite comparable to bone-setting schools outside Bayu.
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04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy is an important TCM academic school of Chongqing, a martial-medical bone-setting system transmitted in a single line of the Yanqingmen school to the present day; it is distributed in Jiangbei District, Yuzhong District, Jiulongpo District, and other areas of Chongqing, its influence radiating to surrounding regions and other provinces and cities of the country; it has now been transmitted to the tenth generation, with more than 300 inherited disciples. Over more than ten years, as intangible-cultural-heritage protection work has been strengthened, the transmission practice of the Yanqingmen bone-setting therapy is developing in a better direction. Some students of TCM colleges have entered the intangible-cultural-heritage protection units for orthopedic internships, and a number of university students have joined the intangible-cultural-heritage transmission ranks, effectively raising the quality of the ranks and strengthening the building of the talent ladder.
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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