Hui Medicine
01 · Historical Records
The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques took shape in the early 19th century and have a history of more than two hundred years. The first-generation inheritor, Chen Jinxiao (1871–1954), of the Hui ethnicity, lived in Kaifeng City, Henan Province. In his youth he practised martial arts and mastered medical techniques for treating injuries from falls and blows; he later studied Hui medical techniques such as "Huifang medicine" and "Gongbei medicine", summarised and applied the Hui folk medical techniques for treating internal diseases by external means — fumigation, application, blowing, and smearing — and thereby formed the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques, treating injuries and illnesses for the people. In 1935 the Chen family moved to Bazhazi Village, Jinji County, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (present-day Bazhazi Village, Xiakou Town, Qingtongxia City, Wuzhong City), and applied and promoted the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques throughout Ningxia and its surrounding areas, including Dingbian County, Yulin City, Shaanxi Province; Huan County, Qingyang City, Gansu Province; and Otog Banner, Ordos City, and Alxa Left Banner, Alxa League, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques arose among the people. Drawing on the theories of channels and collaterals, yin and yang, and qi and blood of Chinese medical culture, and on the doctrines of "the True One and the Seven Manifestations" (zhenyi qixing) and "the Four Elements and Three Essences" (siyuan sanzi) of Arab medical culture, they follow the principle that "the rationale of external treatment is the rationale of internal treatment, and the drugs used externally are the drugs used internally; the only difference lies in the method of application."
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In practice the techniques are used singly, in combination, or together with internally administered folk and proven prescriptions such as Tongguan San, Beiji Wan, the Ayalazhi prescription, and Zhihong San. The ten techniques are: fumigation therapy (vinegar fumigation, medicinal fumigation, and smoke fumigation), application therapy, smearing therapy, pulling therapy, pricking-picking therapy, throat-pointing, nose-dropping and eye-washing therapy, blowing therapy, pinching therapy, acupuncture therapy, and cutting therapy.
Acetous, medicinal and smoke fumigation
Fumigation takes three forms, vinegar vapour, medicinal steam and smoke from burning drugs, each entering through the skin.
Poultices and topical application
Poultices and ointments are applied directly, alone or together with oral formulas such as Tongguan powder and Beiji pills.
Cupping and picking
Cupping draws pathogens out while needling lifts stagnation under the skin; both are invasive external measures.
Touching the throat, nasal instillation and eye washing
Remedies are applied directly to the throat, nose and eyes for complaints of those organs.
Blowing, pinching, pricking and cutting
Blowing, pinching, needling and cutting progress from the surface inward, forming the latter half of the repertoire.
Chen Jinxiao and the move to Baqiazi
The first inheritor Chen Jinxiao, of Kaifeng, combined martial skills with Hui medicine; in 1935 the family moved to Baqiazi in Ningxia.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques are simple and easy to carry out, with marked therapeutic effects; the medicinals they use are commonly available, economical and affordable, and low in medical cost. They are little affected by environmental or regional factors and are therefore easy to disseminate. This method is the product of combining ancient Arab medical culture with traditional Chinese medical culture; it has absorbed effective folk medical techniques, been passed down from generation to generation within the Chen family, been deepened at the theoretical level, and integrated modern sonic, optical, and electromagnetic medical technologies, forming a distinctive medical technique with clearly national, regional, and contemporary characteristics.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Hui Medicine · Hui Medicine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
As a typical representative of Hui medicine, the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques suit the living customs of the Hui people; they possess both medical and cultural value and are deeply favoured by the local population. The medical research institute and hospital founded by the Chen family receive large numbers of patients, and people from the Shaanxi-Gansu-Inner Mongolia region adjacent to Ningxia come in large numbers drawn by their reputation. This is also of positive significance for safeguarding the people's health, building a harmonious society, and strengthening ethnic unity. Zhang Baoyu (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Hui ethnicity, born in September 1946, from Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Representative inheritor of Hui Medicine (Zhang's Hui Bone-Setting Therapy), a project in the fourth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. Third-generation inheritor of Zhang's Hui bone-setting therapy; laureate of the second Xinchuan Prize for Inheritors of Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage, awarded by the Chinese National Academy of Arts (China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center). For his outstanding performance in work relating to minority medicine, he has been named an Advanced Individual in National Minority Medicine Work by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, and an Advanced Individual in National Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Work by the Ministry of Culture. Chen Weichuan (from the official archival record of the associated inheritor): Chief physician. For more than fifty years he has repeatedly visited fellow renowned physicians, drawing widely on others' strengths to enrich and perfect the Chen family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques, and has applied the medical skills handed down in his family in clinical practice. He has edited and published numerous works, including Huiyao Huicui (A Collection of Hui Medicines), Wuzhong Hui Yiyao Shi (A History of Hui Medicine in Wuzhong), Chen Weichuan Yijian Yanfang Ji (Collected Proven Formulas of Chen Weichuan), Chen Weichuan Hui Yi Fawei (Chen Weichuan's Exploration of Hui Medicine), Chen Weichuan Yishi Lu (A Record of Chen Weichuan's Medical Practice), and Chen Weichuan Zhong Hui Yi Linzheng Shilu Fang (Verified Prescriptions from Chen Weichuan's Clinical Practice of Chinese and Hui Medicine). For several decades he has trained medical and pharmaceutical talent through teaching and clinical practice, instructing nearly one hundred students. Male, Hui ethnicity, born in May 1939, died in August 2019, from Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Representative inheritor of Hui Medicine (the Chen Family's Ten Hui Medical Techniques), a project in the fifth national-level batch of intangible cultural heritage. He was appointed an instructor in the second batch of the national programme for inheriting the academic experience of veteran traditional Chinese medicine experts by the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and was conferred the titles of Famous TCM Physician and Excellent Instructor by the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Zhang Baoyu 04-1951
- Yang Huaxiang 04-1952
- Chen Weichuan 05-2965
- Chen Kun
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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