Dong Medicine
01 · Historical Records
The guoluhuang medicine production technique grew out of the long accumulation of experience in using medicinal biological and mineral resources by Dong medicine in Qiandongnan. No written treatise on concoctive preparation was left behind; everything was transmitted orally, preserved among the medicine stalls and medicine baskets of the Dong villages. Taking the unity of heaven, earth, qi, water, and humanity as the core of its academic thought, Dong medicine regards the human body as part of a single system with mountains, rivers, soil, climate, and seasonal phenomena. It therefore emphasizes selecting medicinals according to the ailment and the season of collection: guoluhuang may be used whole-herb or in part, giving rise to different dosage forms such as fresh herb juice, fresh herb poultices, compound decoctions, tinctures, and ointments.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The production technique of guoluhuang medicine is one of the essences of traditional Dong medicine; it is highly distinctive in its concoctive preparation as well as in examining causes and pathogenesis of disease, diagnosis, medication, and health preservation. Guoluhuang is a plant of the genus Lysimachia in the primrose family (Primulaceae) and a natural medicinal plant widely used in Dong medicine of Qiandongnan. The whole herb is used medicinally, with effects such as stopping bleeding, fighting bacteria and viruses, and reducing inflammation. Depending on the ailment, it is collected by different methods — the whole herb or only parts of it — and combined with other herbs to make the required dosage form. The main dosage forms are fresh guoluhuang juice and fresh herb poultices, compound guoluhuang decoctions, tinctures, and ointments. Dong physicians use guoluhuang medicine widely to treat urinary stones, cholecystitis, gallstones, icteric hepatitis, edema, injuries from falls and blows, venomous snakebites, and poisoning by toxic mushrooms and drugs; applied externally, it treats scalds and fire burns and purulent inflammations, as well as digestive system ailments. The guoluhuang production technique is folk medical knowledge accumulated and created by the Dong people in their long use of medicinal biological and mineral resources, transmitted by oral means. With the development of modern society, the transmission of Dong medicine (guoluhuang production technique) has become fragile and is in urgent need of protection.
Gathering Lysimachia
Lysimachia of the Primulaceae family is widely used whole by Dong healers, gathered whole or in part according to the complaint.
Fresh juice and fresh poultice
Juice of the fresh plant and a fresh poultice are the simplest forms, used for trauma, burns and suppurative inflammation.
Compound decoction, wine and paste
Combined with other herbs it becomes decoction, wine or paste, taken for urinary stones, gallbladder disease, jaundice, dropsy and poisoning.
The Dong five-in-one cosmology
Dong medicine holds heaven, earth, air, water and human as one, so remedies follow season and locality.
Twenty-four syndromes and seventy-two ailments
Dong medicine divides disease into twenty-four syndromes and seventy-two ailments, strong in orthopaedics and wound treatment.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Dong are one of China's ethnic groups with the richest and most widespread ethnic medical knowledge, and Dong medicine has a broad popular foundation locally; the idea of the five-in-one of heaven, earth, qi, water, and humanity is the core of Dong medical academic thought. Dong physicians divide diseases into twenty-four major syndromes and seventy-two minor ailments, spanning internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics and traumatology, and more; they are especially effective at bone-setting in traumatology, wounds from knives, arrows, and guns, and bites from snakes and insects.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Dong are one of China's ethnic groups with the richest and most widespread ethnic medical knowledge, and Dong medicine has a broad popular foundation locally. Gathering herbs, recognizing them, formulating prescriptions, and applying treatments are all everyday activities within the village, so knowledge of commonly used medicinals such as guoluhuang is very widely held. Dong physicians divide diseases into twenty-four major syndromes and seventy-two minor ailments, spanning internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, orthopedics and traumatology, and other departments, with special excellence in bone-setting in traumatology, wounds from knives, arrows, and guns, and bites from snakes and insects. This classification system gives clear rules for the external use of guoluhuang on scalds and purulent inflammations and its internal use for icteric hepatitis and urinary stones. With the development of modern society, this folk medical knowledge, transmitted orally, has become fragile: fewer and fewer people master whole-herb identification and the formulation of the different dosage forms. Urgent protection is needed.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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