Qiang Medicine CultureWhat is the history of Qiang medicine?

Qiang medicine began in ancient times. Legend has it that "Shennong's tasted all kinds of food, tasted all the sweet and bitter water springs, so that people know what to avoid, all kinds of food must encounter seventy poisons", indicating that the Qiang who entered the Central Plains, Jiang Xing, and Shennong's long known some medicinal plants, and use them to cure diseases. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, living in the upper reaches of the Minjiang River Ran, Xiang Qiang accumulated a wealth of pharmacological knowledge. : "A sheep with a spirit can cure poison. There are also medicated deer and deer suede with fetuses. The feces in their intestines can also cure toxic diseases." Others call it "special polypharmacy." In fact, Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai, where the Qiang people live, have had rich resources of medicinal herbs since ancient times. In addition to their own use, but also exported to China and tribute to the court. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, they offered musk, antelope horn, rhubarb, angelica and other precious herbs.

After the founding of Xixia, the medicine Qiang people had a great development. Xixia people focus on absorbing the medical knowledge of the Song and Jin dynasties to develop their own medicine. The state set up a "medical personnel hospital". According to the relevant information in the middle of the 12th century "Xixia Dictionary" and "Hou Han Shu Xin An Yi Biography", Xixia Qiang people have accumulated rich experience, system and knowledge in medical theory, pathology, pharmacology, common diseases and treatment methods. Xixia medicine has been quite specialized.

For example, Xixia medicine believes that human beings are composed of earth, water, fire and wind. Without the harmony of these four, the so-called "Four Dissonances" lead to disease. The understanding of pathology focuses on the blood vessels, believing that both health and disease are caused by the smooth flow of blood vessels. Its prescriptions are also very distinctive. For example, the Wen Hai explains "scab medicine": "Pine, cypress, grass, feces, and the paste of feces are the same as scab medicine". The use of feces as medicine was initially a medical tradition in Aqiang, as mentioned above. It can be inferred that Xixia medicine should be developed on the basis of Qiang traditional medicine. In addition, Xixia medicine knew something about infectious diseases. It says in Wenhai miscellaneous thunder: "Flash disease" means people moving to other rooms, which means isolation and treatment of infectious diseases.

This traditional therapy has continued in the Qiang region until modern times. Before the founding of China, the Qiang people treated infectious diseases such as "leprosy" in this way: first, they were moved to a place outside the village that was hard to reach and isolated for treatment. If they died, they would be cremated to eliminate the source of their infection. This is very reasonable and scientific.

With the development of Xixia medicine, the collection, production and exchange of medicinal herbs became increasingly active. Medicinal herbs such as musk, antelope horn, chaihu, cistanchis, safflower, rhubarb and wolfberry were commodities during the Xia-Song period. In particular, rhubarb and wolfberry have been famous for a long time and are still famous products today.

In recent times, the Qiang region has seen the coexistence of Qiang medicine, Chinese medicine and Western medicine. Qiang doctors are most active in rural and mountain villages. According to relevant survey data, Qiang doctors have a close relationship with Chinese medicine, and there are many ****similarities between the two. However, Qiang doctors have their own characteristics in terms of collection, processing methods and medication habits. Qiang doctors attach great importance to the seasonality of drug harvesting. If Cordyceps sinensis is dug in long summer, it is believed that the primary healing effect of Cordyceps sinensis is the best. At the Dragon Boat Festival, Bei Mu is dug, and at the beginning of the fall, Qiang Wu, Da Huang, Dog Ji, Huang Qi, and Qin Gentian are dug. In terms of medicines, they can be used externally, internally, decocted in water or infused in wine. Single drugs are used more frequently. More than 100 kinds of medicines are often used. Qiang medical cases and prescriptions organized by Qiang medical expert Chen Baosheng are attached for reference.