Miao medicine (bone injury and snake bite treatment)

Guizhou
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Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture is the main settlement of Miao people. There are more than 1.7 million Miao people, accounting for a quarter of the total Miao population in China. The Miao people are known as "every herb is medicine, and everyone knows how to be a doctor". There are sayings among the Miao people that "Miao medicine has existed for thousands of years, and Miao medicine has existed for tens of thousands of years", "three thousand Miao medicines, and eight hundred prescriptions". The Miao people have unique ways and methods for the etiology, diagnosis, medication, naming, processing, and health care of diseases, forming a theoretical system of two principles, five classics, thirty-six major symptoms, seventy-two diseases, one hundred and eight minor symptoms, and forty-nine flips. There are more than 200 diseases mastered by Miao medicine, widely involving internal medicine, surgery, gynecology, pediatrics, and bone injuries. Among them, the external treatment method is unique, and the famous ones include fumigation, rolling eggs, water, stepping on the plow mouth, picking tendons, foaming, fire needles, blasting lights, scraping, etc., which are very effective in treating bone setting, knife and arrow gunshot wounds, and snake and insect bites. Miao doctors are experts in treating bone setting and snake bites. In 2006, among the 113 Miao doctors surveyed by the Leishan County Health Bureau of Guizhou Province, 47 were good at treating traumatic fractures of upper and lower limb bones, ribs, skulls, clavicles, etc., 15 were good at treating snake bites, and 6 could treat both types of injuries. The Miao doctor in Shuizhai Village, Fangxiang Township, has been practicing medicine for 24 years and is good at using ancestral secret recipes to treat fractures and snake bites. The cure rate for fractures is 90.4%, and the cure rate for snake bites is 84.9%. The Miao doctor in Jiayong Village, Yongle Town is good at using ancestral secret recipes to treat fractures of upper and lower limb bones and ribs, with a cure rate of 89.3%. The inheritance of the Miao bone injury and snake bite treatment is mainly through ancestral inheritance and teacher-student instruction. Because the Miao people have no written language, most Miao doctors are illiterate or semi-literate, which increases the difficulty of inheritance. The inheritance genealogy is incomplete, and the Miao bone injury and snake bite treatment is in an endangered state. We should increase support for rescue and research.

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