TCM Bone-Setting: Pingle Guo Family Method

The Pingle Guo-family bone-setting method arose with the Guo family of Pingle village in Mengjin, Luoyang, taking shape in the Qing Jiaqing era. Refined over more than two centuries by successive heirs, it became one of the largest schools of Chinese orthopedics, ranked with Luoyang peonies, the Water Feast and the Longmen Grottoes as one of the 'Four Wonders of Luoyang' — rooted in the Heluo land, handed down in the family, producing eminent physicians across generations.

The method centers on manual reduction guided by pattern differentiation, prizing the qualities of steadiness, accuracy, gentleness and speed, and combines splinting, internal and external medicines, and functional exercise into a complete orthopedic system uniting theory and technique — stressing care of sinew and bone alike and cooperation between physician and patient.

The Pingle Guo-family bone-setting method is a national-level item of intangible cultural heritage. As a major school of Chinese orthopedics, it grew a family craft into a therapeutic system benefiting the whole country — a representative of Heluo medical wisdom and the spirit of healing service.

In Luoyang, the origins and techniques of this bone-setting art can be learned at clinics, museums and heritage display spaces tied to Pingle bone-setting, where the two-hundred-year story of a Heluo medical lineage comes alive.