Miao Medicine
01 · Historical Records
The Jiujiecha plaster is an ointment-type medicinal preparation derived from the empirical prescriptions of Miao medicine practitioners in Jinping County, Rongjiang County, Huangping County, and other places in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture; its formula originates from the Yang family of Miao medicine practitioners in Jinping County.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture is the main settlement area of the Miao people, with a Miao population of more than 1.7 million, accounting for one quarter of the total Miao population of China. The Miao have long been known for the saying that 'every herb is a medicine and everyone can practice medicine.' Among the Miao people circulate the sayings 'a thousand years of Miao medicine, ten thousand years of Miao materia medica' and 'three thousand Miao medicinals, eight hundred single prescriptions.' Their approaches to the causes, diagnosis, and medication of diseases, to the naming, processing, and preparation of drugs, and to health preservation all have distinctive ethnic characteristics, and they have formed a theoretical system of two guiding principles, five channels, thirty-six major syndromes, seventy-two diseases, one hundred and eight minor syndromes, and forty-nine acute episodes. Miao medicine practitioners are familiar with more than two hundred diseases, spanning internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics, and other specialties. Among these, external treatments are especially distinctive. Well-known therapies include steaming and fumigation, egg rolling, water dissolving, plowshare stepping, tendon picking, blistering, fire needling, lamp-fire burning, and guasha scraping, all highly effective in treating bone-setting and trauma, wounds from knives, arrows, and guns, and bites from snakes and insects. The principal formula of the Jiujiecha plaster consists of 1,500 g of Sarcandra glabra (jiujiecha), 1,200 g of wild grape root, 1,000 g of shuisanqi, 800 g of shuidonggua, 500 g of gunshanzhu, and 500 g of crab. The preparation process is to weigh out the medicinals according to the prescription and assemble them, keeping the gunshanzhu, crab, and white wax separate. First, the jiujiecha, shuidonggua, shuisanqi, wild grape root, and other medicinals are broken into small pieces, while the gunshanzhu and crab are ground into a fine powder and passed through an 80-100 mesh fine sieve. For frying the materials, take another 1,500 g of camellia seed oil, pour it into a pot, and heat it; add the jiujiecha, shuidonggua, shuisanqi, wild grape root, and the rest, fry them until dry and yellow, then remove the residue and strain. To make the ointment, add 500 g of white wax to the medicated oil and melt it in, pour it into a jar, let it cool to warm, blend in the gunshanzhu and crab powder, and stir evenly; the ointment is then ready. For storage, pack it in an enamel jar or ceramic pot, seal it, and keep it in a cool indoor place, protected from high heat. The effects of the Jiujiecha plaster are to dissipate blood stasis, reduce swelling, reconnect sinews, and set bones; it is indicated for fractures and bruises with blood stasis and swelling, and is an important component of Miao medicine.
The four bulk herbs of the formula
The bulk drugs are jiu jie cha, wild grape root, shui san qi and shui dong gua, joined by two animal drugs and white wax.
Bruising and sieving the crude drugs
Plant drugs are bruised into pieces while the two animal drugs are separately powdered and passed through a fine 80-100 mesh sieve.
Frying the herbs in tea-seed oil
Tea-seed oil is heated and the bruised herbs fried until yellow, then strained to yield a clear medicated oil.
Melting white wax and mixing the paste
White wax is melted into the oil and, once cooled, the animal powders are stirred in to set the paste.
Sealed cool storage
The finished paste is kept in sealed enamel or earthen jars in a cool place away from heat.
Bruising and fractured bone
The paste dispels bruising, rejoins tendons and mends bone, addressing fractures and traumatic swelling.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The lineage of the Jiujiecha plaster lies in Jinping County of Qiandongnan, where the empirical prescription of Miao medicine was passed down hand to hand through generations of the Yang family, becoming the source of the Miao plaster preparation technique; later, Miao practitioners in Rongjiang, Huangping, and the surrounding area modified the formula by adding and subtracting medicinals along the same lines, giving this plaster several centers of transmission within the Qiandongnan Prefecture. Qiandongnan is the main settlement area of the Miao people, and its practitioners hold that every herb is a medicine and everyone can practice medicine; among the external treatments, steaming and fumigation, egg rolling, water dissolving, plowshare stepping, tendon picking, blistering, fire needling, lamp-fire burning, and guasha scraping all coexist, providing a technical background for externally applied bone-trauma plasters such as the Jiujiecha plaster. The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture Ethnic Medicine Research Institute has organized this preparation method into operating procedures that can be promoted, a key step in its transformation from a family secret recipe into a local standard.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Miao Medicine · Miao Medicine · Miao Medicine · Miao Medicine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Miao have no written script, so the transmission of Miao medicine and materia medica is highly fragile, and there is an urgent need to strengthen protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Long Yunian 04-1950
- Tian Xingxiu 05-2963
- Wang Zengshi 05-2964
- Long Xinchen
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。