Yi Medicine
01 · Historical Records
The Yi regions have a hot, damp climate where venomous insects and mosquitoes do harm and miasmic epidemic qi is toxic, with boils, swellings, and abscesses occurring from time to time; the water-poultice therapy arose precisely as an external treatment to clear heat and resolve toxin against such external contractions and sores. It rests on the Yi medical understanding that the primordial qi of heaven and earth divides into clear and turbid qi, which generate the five phases of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Applying the cool, penetrating nature of water to red, swollen, hot, and painful sites, it embodies the basic Yi medical idea that clear qi networks the chest, abdomen, and five viscera, turbid qi follows the muscles, skin, abdomen, and back, and the six qi above and below flow through one another to counterbalance internal and external evil toxins. The choice of well water, ice water, and snow water also follows the seasons: in winter, snow may be gathered from high mountains and stored in earthen jars for later use, showing that from its inception this method was closely tied to seasonal conditions.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
In the human body, clear qi networks the chest, abdomen, and five viscera, while turbid qi follows the muscles, skin, abdomen, and back; the six qi above and below flow through one another, counterbalancing internal and external evil toxins. This is the Yi people's understanding of life and health, and it has become the foundational theory of Yi medicine. The water-poultice therapy is an external treatment to clear heat and resolve toxin. The Yi regions have a hot, damp climate where venomous insects and mosquitoes do harm and miasmic epidemic qi is toxic, with boils, swellings, and abscesses occurring from time to time. The water-poultice therapy mixes herbs with well water or ice or snow water (gathered in winter or from high mountains and stored in earthen jars for later use) and applies them to the affected site. When boils and toxic sores have not yet ruptured, one or more herbs are chopped and pounded, mixed with well water or ice or snow water into a paste, applied to the red, swollen, hot, and painful area, wrapped on the outside with gauze, and changed once every one to two days. The herbs used — such as qingyedan, didan, yingchunhua (winter jasmine), and yejuhua (wild chrysanthemum) — together with the cool, penetrating nature of water, have the effects of clearing heat, resolving toxin, reducing swelling, and relieving pain.
Mixing herbs with water into a paste
One or several herbs are cut and pounded, mixed with well water, ice water or snowmelt into a paste and laid on the sore place.
Bandaging and renewing every one to two days
The paste is covered with gauze and renewed every one to two days while the sore has not yet burst.
Herbs of gentian, elephantophantome, jasmine and chrysanthemum
Drugs such as gentian, elephantophantome, winter jasmine and wild chrysanthemum bring cooling, clearing, detoxifying and pain-relieving action.
Snow and ice water taken by season
Well water, ice water or snowmelt collected in winter or from high mountains and stored in earthen jars is used as the medium.
The clear and turbid qi and the five phases
Yunnan Yi medicine divides cosmic qi into clear and turbid, generating the five phases, with clear qi in the trunk and turbid qi in the surface.
Yu Huixiang and four disciples
Yu Huixiang, born in Chuxiong in 1952, mastered the water-paste therapy and taught it to four named disciples.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Yi medicine is the traditional medicine of the Yi people, distributed in Chuxiong, Yunnan, Liangshan, Sichuan, and other areas. Yi medicine divides the primordial qi of heaven and earth into clear and turbid qi, which generate the five phases — metal, wood, water, fire, and earth — as the fundamental substances.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Yi Medicine.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Yu Huixiang (per the official file of the associated inheritor): Male, Han ethnicity, born in October 1952, a native of Chuxiong City, Yunnan Province. Systematically masters techniques such as the Yi water-poultice therapy, with rich practical experience. Representative inheritor of Yi medicine (Yi water-poultice therapy), an intangible cultural heritage project of the fourth national-level batch. Devoted to research on the Yi water-poultice therapy; participated in multiple Yi medicine research projects, receiving provincial and autonomous-prefecture science and technology progress awards; took part in compiling and publishing three monographs on Yi medicine, and has had a certain influence in Yi medicine research in China; received a special government allowance of the Yunnan Provincial Government in 2008. Successively taught four apprentices — Yang Guohui, He Chunrong, Liu Benxi, and Yu Qiuhong — the Yi water-poultice therapy and the identification, collection, processing, and cultivation techniques of Yi medicinal materials.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Huixiang 04-1953
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。