Traditional TCM Culture
01 · Historical Records
Heniantang was founded during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty and was handed down through generations of hereditary physician families such as Cao Sasang, Wang Shengyi, and Liu Yifeng; it is the oldest surviving time-honored brand in Beijing's pharmaceutical trade.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Traditional Chinese medicine is the study of human life and of human health that took shape in ancient Chinese society; it is not a simple accumulation of prescriptions, drugs, individual techniques, and tricks, but a body of knowledge concerning human life and health. This body of knowledge has a profound traditional cultural background. With its distinctive philosophical thinking, systematic foundational theories, rich scientific content, and distinct humanistic character, it stands tall in the forest of world medicine. It is both one of the living forms of traditional Chinese culture and a vast space for the further development of that culture. For example, the way of nourishing life through tranquility and authenticity, the therapeutic principles of harmony, balance, and the golden mean, the conception of life grounded in inner serenity, the criterion of the medical way that puts people first, and the professional norm of honesty and good faith — all of these run through every aspect of the theory and practice of Chinese medicine. They have become the soul of all its figures, writings, artifacts, and undertakings, and also the fine tradition and professional dedication that today's Chinese medicine enterprises and institutions are proud to carry forward. The culture includes the view of natural lifespan expressed in "harmony brings the longevity of the crane," the epistemology of "the laws of yin and yang are the root of life," the holistic view of "nourish life unceasingly throughout one's years and keep the whole in balance without partiality," the "Heavenly Crane Years" view that "life unnourished turns against the body," the "Human Crane Years" view that "life unregulated, the body weakens and declines," the method of "seeking harmony through regulation" — regulating frequently before illness strikes, pre-emptively when illness approaches, and treating medically once illness has arisen — the method of "seeking harmony through spirit" captured in the four-character secret of "moderation, rhythm, spirit, and harmony," and the arts of physical cultivation, spiritual cultivation, medicinal protection, dietary nourishment, and massage. The Heniantang tradition of health preservation through Chinese medicine fully embodies the outstanding creativity and vigorous vitality of traditional Chinese culture, and is also a historical microcosm of the tortuous development of Chinese medicine over the past several centuries. Grounded in centuries of practice, the Heniantang tradition of health preservation through Chinese medicine is an effective means for people to achieve health and longevity under modern conditions of life, and is of important practical significance for raising the health level of the whole population and building a harmonious society.
Rhythm, vital energy and harmony
Rhythm, vital energy and harmony form its core formula, aimed not at disease but at the imbalance of the body's qi.
Nourishing the body and the spirit
Nourishing form and spirit, protecting with drugs and food, and massage—five practices addressed to body and mind together.
Steaming, frying, honey-frying and calcining in the dispensing room
Apprenticed in the dispensing room, he learned to decoct and to steam, fry, honey-fry and calcine the decoction pieces.
Pills, powders, pastes and elixirs
He trained in making pills, powders, pastes and elixirs, and in the skilled trades of waxing skins, spreading plasters and distilling—work matching the 694 items in the house price list.
Fine ingredients and the matched colour process
The inherited court formulas came with the techniques for handling fine ingredients and matching colours—the weighing of costly materials and the blending of powders.
Seeking harmony through adjustment
Over four centuries the house put sustaining life before curing disease, a stance carried on today in more than a hundred products developed by the inheritor and his disciples.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Heniantang was passed down in the city of Beijing as a single line of hereditary physicians. Founded during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, it was handed down through hereditary physician families such as Cao Sasang, Wang Shengyi, and Liu Yifeng, making it the oldest surviving time-honored brand in Beijing's pharmaceutical trade. Lei Yulin entered Xi Heniantang as an apprentice in 1940, learning one craft in the drug-processing room (doufang) and another in the pill workshop; he took on nine apprentices, including Wang Guobao and Lei Song, and trained more than twenty technical backbones over the years.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture · Traditional TCM Culture.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As an heir to and promoter of traditional Chinese medicine, Heniantang has for centuries upheld the principle that "in sustaining the body, nourishing longevity comes first; in caring for the body, warding off disease is urgent," forming a culture of health preservation through Chinese medicine whose cultural content is "regulating the primordial qi and nourishing supreme harmony." The traditional processing techniques of Heniantang's decoction pieces are renowned throughout Beijing; the "Xi Heniantang Price List of Ginseng, Antler, Medicated Wines, Pills, Powders, Ointments, Elixirs, and Tonic Preparations" records 694 medicinal products. The craft is distinctive and has been passed down to this day, meriting the name of a treasure house of health preservation through Chinese medicine. In recent years, the development of Chinese medicine has come under pressure from Western medicine and pharmaceuticals; protecting and developing Heniantang's traditional culture of health preservation through Chinese medicine is an urgent task in carrying forward the culture of Chinese medicine. Lei Yulin (official archival record of the associated inheritor): In 1940 he entered the Xi Heniantang pharmacy as an apprentice, studying in the drug-processing room the steaming, stir-frying, roasting, and calcining of crude drugs and decoction pieces, and in the pill workshop the preparation of pills, powders, ointments, and elixirs as well as crafts such as hanging wax skins, spreading medicated plasters, and distilling medicated waters. He inherited Heniantang's traditional court formulas and pharmaceutical craft, mastering the workflows for premium materials and multi-colored pill-making. He completed the excavation and collation of Heniantang's traditional prescription manuscripts. Male, Han ethnicity, born in September 1926, died in January 2020, a native of Sanhe City, Hebei Province. Representative inheritor of the fourth national-level batch of the intangible cultural heritage item "Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture (Heniantang's Culture of Health Preservation through Chinese Medicine)." Building on the traditional inheritance, he developed products such as Heniantang Jiubao (Nine Treasures), Heniantang health-preserving tea, Heniantang imperial-diet liquor, Heniantang classic-method black soybeans, Muchun tea, and Qianyuan ointment, and guided his apprentices in developing more than a hundred health products. He took on nine apprentices, including Wang Guobao and Lei Song, and trained more than twenty technical backbones over the years.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Quyuxiang 03-1461
- Lei Yulin 04-1948
- Shentuyinhong
- Lu Qifu
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。