Introduction
"Secret Recipes for Treating Wounds and Rejoining Fractures, Divinely Transmitted"
This page is cultural documentation, not medical advice.
A Tang-dynasty orthopedics and traumatology treatise attributed to Lin Daoren (Huichang reign, ca. 841–846), the earliest specialist work on bone-setting and wound treatment in the Chinese medical tradition.
The Xianshou Lishang Xuduan Mifang is the earliest specialist text on orthopedics and traumatology in the Chinese medical tradition, traditionally dated to the Tang-dynasty Huichang reign. The text systematizes the three-pillar approach to bone injury: (1) internal formulas (often using Xu Duan 续断 / Dipsacus and other "tendon-bone" herbs), (2) external applications (plasters, washes, ointments), and (3) manual reduction (复位) techniques. The text is the canonical source of the Diē Dǎ Wán (跌打丸) family of formulas, "for injuries from falls, fractures of muscles and bones, and stasis from impact." It is, in short, the foundational text of Chinese-medicine orthopedics and traumatology, and remains the citation source for the entire "diē-dǎ" (fall-and-strike) formula lineage.
Historical background
The Xianshou Lishang Xuduan Mifang was composed during the late Tang Huichang reign (841–846 CE), a period of political turbulence at the dynasty's end. The text is attributed to Lin Daoren (蔺道人), a "person of the Way" who, according to the preface, lived as a recluse and transmitted his recipes through a divinely inspired lineage. After circulating in manuscript form for centuries, the text was catalogued in the Siku Quanshu (四库全书) project of the Qing dynasty. As the earliest specialist text on orthopedics in the Chinese tradition, it shaped the dieda (跌打) trauma-pharmacology lineage and laid the framework for the three-pillar approach (internal formulas, external application, manual reduction) that still defines the bone-setting specialty.
Formulas recorded in this text· 1
Formula · Diē Dǎ Wán
Bone-Setting Pills
跌打丸
A trauma-oriented "huo-xue xiao-zhong" (invigorate blood and reduce swelling) formula associated with Lin Daoren's "Secret Treatise on Bone-Knitting", one of the standard Chinese household formulas for bruises and knocks.