Zhuang Burning-string Therapy

I have always been fairly cynical about so-called alternative therapies. I like old fashioned drugs thank you very much.

About seven years ago, I was sitting here in Liuzhou suffering from rheumatism in my left arm. This was nothing new. I had been suffering for years. It became so painful sometimes that I couldn't move the arm under its own steam, but had to use my right hand to manoeuvre it to where I wanted it to be.

One day a friend was visiting and noticed this. I explained and she said,

"I can cure that."

I didn't want to be too sceptical, so I just mumbled something about her being an anthropologist, not a pharmacist and please pass the pain killers.

A week later she returned to Liuzhou after a visit to Nanning and came to see me again. She announced that she had bought what she needed for my cure. I thought, "OK. Nothing to lose. Let her mess about and after she's gone, I'll be back on the distalgesic." Then she explained the process.

She had a small bottle containing alcohol in which some herbs had been infused. The bottle also contained a short length of string. She fished out the string, set fire to it, blew it out and applied the still glowing end to my arm.

"Aaagh! That burnt!"

She relit the string and went through the same process several times, applying the hot string to various acupuncture points on my arm and shoulder.

"I'll be back tomorrow," she said.

This went on for several days. At the end of her treatment my arm looked terrible - covered in burn marks - but the rheumatic pain had gone. And it has never come back. Years of suffering were burned away.

I am reminded of this by a website I stumbled upon. Apparently the treatment originated among the Zhuang minority people around Liuzhou. A Dr. Long Yu Qian, a native of Liuzhou, learned the technique from his grandmother and developed it.

It is still taught in Guangxi Traditional Chinese Medicine University (from which my brother-in-law graduated) and is used in many of the local traditional medicine hospitals.

Dr Long wrote two books: Zhuang Burning-String Therapy and Zhuang Burning-string Therapy Acupuncture Points: A Visual Guide for 200 Different Symptoms & Diseases. Catchy title!

Both are out of print, but the website plans to reissue them in both Chinese and English.

I can't wait!

tags: china  guangxi  zhuang  liuzhou  laowai  rheumatism  alternative medicine  acupuncture  chinese medicine  中国  广西  柳州  壮族  

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