Intangible Cultural Heritage

The production process of Huozhong'er Qishe Decoction (the second batch of provincial-level) In Jiuzhou City, the history of traditional Chinese medicine processing and preparation is long. As early as the year 670 during the Xianhe period of the Tang Dynasty, there were many pharmacies in the city that could produce ointments, pills, powders, and granules. The Huozhong'er Decoction Bureau was established in the late Ming Dynasty and has a history of more than 400 years. Its main product, Huozhong'er Qishe Decoction, relieves pain, dispels wind, relaxes muscles and tendons, and is a miraculous medicinal wine used to treat diseases such as rheumatism-induced numbness, paralysis of the limbs, hemiplegia, joint pain, and leprosy. The inventor of the production process of Huozhong'er Qishe Decoction was Huozhong'er, the owner of the Huozhong'er Decoction Bureau. His invention originated from a beautiful and widely believed legend. It was said that one year, Huozhong'er went to Guangdong to purchase medicinal materials and stayed at an inn in Lingnan. He met a woman named Chen who recommended herself for a bed. Huozhong'er was a kind person and asked her about the reason. He learned that the young woman was unfortunately suffering from leprosy and was forced by her parents to go "lose her mind". "Losing her mind" was a folk custom where one would transfer the leprosy virus through sexual intercourse to the other person and then recover themselves. Huozhong'er sympathized with Chen's situation and promised to treat her for free in Jiuzhou. One year later, Chen's illness flared up, and she begged for help all the way. She arrived in Jiuzhou. Huozhong'er placed her in the backyard and boiled soup and made medicine for her. However, three years passed, and the disease did not improve. Huozhong'er was extremely anxious but had no choice. Once, Huozhong'er went out to purchase medicinal materials again. The hired servants were afraid of infection and lost the supervision of their employer. They no longer took good care of the emaciated and ugly Chen, who was covered with sores. One day, Chen was hungry and thirsty and couldn't bear it anymore. She drank the dirty water from the water tank under the flower stand. Unexpectedly, she felt comfortable after drinking it. She drank it every day. Over time, a miracle occurred. The sores on Chen's body gradually healed, and her body became much stronger. Huozhong'er returned and saw that Chen's illness had disappeared completely. He was surprised and puzzled and asked repeatedly. He learned that it was because she drank the dirty water from the tank in the backyard. So, he went to investigate. It turned out that the "dirty water" in the tank was ordinary medicinal wine placed under the flower stand. However, how could ordinary medicinal wine have such a magical effect? Huozhong'er ordered someone to scoop out the wine in the tank and found that a Chinese snake was soaking in it. This discovery made Huozhong'er understand the secret. So, he used precious Chinese medicinal materials such as Qishe and Jinshe as the main formula to make Qishe medicinal wine with the functions of relieving pain and dispelling wind, and relaxing muscles and tendons. The traditional Huozhong'er Qishe medicinal wine is very strict and meticulous in the selection of raw materials and the preparation process. The ratio of these medicinal materials is very specific, and the preparation methods for different medicinal materials are also different, including steaming, salt-frying, vinegar pickling, and even fire forging. It is extremely diverse. After all the medicinal materials are prepared, they are mixed and ground into coarse powder, placed in an earthenware container, soaked in 50-degree liquor, and the mouth of the container is covered with a large ball of straw wrapped in cotton cloth to seal it. It is stirred once a day for about a month. After pressing and filtering the residue, it is clarified, and the supernatant and filtrate are combined and mixed with brown sugar, dissolved, and left to stand before being filtered again to obtain the finished medicinal wine.