The Tradition of External Treatment in Lingnan Medicine

Lingnan (岭南) is located in southern China, and its medical culture not only has distinct local characteristics, but also has the characteristics of a marginal culture. Since Ge Hong (葛洪)'s period of seclusion on Luofu Mountain (罗浮山), the development of Lingnan medicine over time has presented different features. However, it is distinguished by the attention paid to the prevention and treatment of surgical diseases such as wounds, snake bites and bone injuries, and relied heavily on external treatments such as surgery, dressing, heat ironing and acupuncture. The continuous influence of Taoist culture, the special natural geographical environment, the non-textual knowledge mode of transmission and the mechanism of regional cultural marginalization all contributed to the formation of this tradition of external treatment of Lingnan medicine.