Original source www.zhihu.com
Because traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) tried to combine with science, even attempting to perform surgeries to replace Western medicine’s operations, but the result was…
The greatest “innovation” of TCM after the Liberation
On the afternoon of July 17, 1958, at 3 p.m., a male patient named Liu Xiuli was sent to Wuhan City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine due to his left lower leg being crushed and broken by a rolling wheel.
Usually, for such open fractures, hospitals would treat with debridement, reduction, fixation, tissue reconstruction, and wound suturing—this is a standard Western medicine treatment for fractures.
But this was Wuhan City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and inside this hospital was a “TCM miracle worker.” After communicating with the patient and obtaining consent, this “TCM miracle worker” unprecedentedly used TCM techniques to perform fracture surgery on the patient, launching a nationwide 5-year clinical trial of “TCM fracture surgery replacing Western medicine surgery.”
This “TCM miracle worker” was named Liu Dafu. His TCM fracture surgery was called — Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.
The biggest difference between “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” and traditional Western orthopedic surgery was using willow branches instead of steel plates and screws to stabilize the fracture. After healing, the willow branch did not need to be removed, as the willow branch directly transformed into leg bone.
An authentic “TCM miracle”
“Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” was first recorded in the Qing dynasty master of orthopedic TCM Qian Xiuchang’s “Essentials on Trauma.”
At the beginning of “Essentials on Trauma,” it records:
“I personally saw a broken foot; the doctor broke the bone and aligned it, inserted poplar wood in between, and in a hundred days the patient could walk repeatedly without failure as usual.”
Here, Qian Xiuchang saw poplar wood used for bone fixation, but ancient people often collectively referred to poplar and willow trees as “poplar-willow.” Liu Dafu, after comparison, found willow branches more suitable for bone fixation and therefore switched to willow branches.
“Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” also has extensive records in folklore.
During the Qing dynasty in areas around Fujian and Taiwan, there was folk worship of the TCM deity “Baosheng Dadi,” originally named Wu Ben (979-1036), from Baijiao Township, Tong’an County, Fujian Province. He was a famous TCM doctor who lived during the Northern Song Taiping Xingguo era.
His medical ethics and skills were highly praised in Fujian-Taiwan, and he was gradually deified as the local guardian god and also called “Medical God,” “Master Wu,” etc.
Wu Ben’s most famous medical skills included “performing rituals to call grain boats for famine relief,” “warding off thunder and demons,” “riding a crane to slash bandits,” “miraculously aiding Emperor Gaozong’s southern migration,” “aiding Ming Taizu to defeat Chen Youliang in Poyang Lake,” “treating Empress Wen’s breast disease,”
and — “Willow branch fracture fixation, bringing the dead back to life.”
Folk literature records the “miracle” of Wu Ben’s “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation”:
“There was a man named Jiang Shaofeng, on a trial in the capital, who was attacked by a tiger and lost his servant. The master, in a mulberry forest, saw the servant’s bones on the ground, missing the left thigh. He took a nearby willow branch as a substitute, incanted charms with holy water, and the servant instantly revived, willing to follow the master. When Shaofeng returned home to report success, he met his old servant, and both were stunned. The master explained the cause; Shaofeng dismissed it as absurd and took him to the superintendent. The master let the servant walk on the ground, applied charms and holy water again, causing skin and flesh dissolution and the willow branch replacing the bone becomes real.”
Besides folk records, late Ming and early Qing scholar Fu Shan introduced specific methods of willow branch fracture fixation in his “Golden Needle to Save the World.”
Although Fu Shan is often depicted as a wandering hero in literary works, so the credibility is low.
However, in the late Qing, many TCM masters capable of willow branch fracture fixation emerged.
For example, the famous TCM family Cheng in Jurong, Jiangsu Province, was renowned nationwide for “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.” In “Jurong Folk Stories,” there is the record of a villager named Dai Guocai who broke his leg and after asking Cheng family descendant Cheng Gongming to perform “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation,” recovered successfully, and Dai Guocai could “move freely.”
Even in the late Qing to early Republic, the famous “Min’s Orthopedic” family in Suzhou also passed down the technique. The inheritor Min Siqi once used willow branch fixation. The county records say Min Siqi:
“Learned orthopedic skills from his father, mastering the art fully… Also skilled in martial arts, especially the secret technique of willow branch fracture fixation, with outstanding medical effects, patients come in crowds, fame spread across Jiangsu and Zhejiang.”
“Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” can be called the “great glory” of TCM.
So if Liu Dafu’s surgery succeeded, it would be a revolution in human orthopedic surgery.
TCM would wash away centuries of shame, surpass Western medicine in orthopedics, and successfully offer a cheaper alternative.
Hence nearly everyone closely watched this surgery, hoping for TCM’s resurgence to break the monopoly of Western medicine in surgery.
Thus, Liu Dafu carried the hopes of thousands of TCM practitioners, represented TCM on the operating table, successfully finishing the first “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” surgery in TCM history.
The “astonishing” surgical process
Liu Dafu’s Willow Branch Fracture Fixation surgery process was breathtaking.
The surgery steps were as follows:
- Patient lies flat on the operating table after spinal anesthesia
- Routine skin disinfection
- Surgical site draped with sterile towels
- Wound enlarged and repaired, exposing fracture ends
- Sharpened fracture ends smoothed with bone file
- Willow branch shaped into short rods matching bone defect
- Willow branch embedded into both fracture ends
- Rooster comb blood dripped on the willow branch at the fixation site
- A piece of skin taken from the inner thigh of the rooster, grafted onto the patient’s wound, sutured with thread
- Around the wound, powdered Pinellia and Yincui Powder applied moderately, then half-pine ointment applied, bandaged, splinted and fixed
Unlike traditional Western orthopedic surgery using antibiotics to fight infection, Liu Dafu used authentic Chinese herbal medicine for anti-infection after “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.”
First was the oral medicine “Jiegu Dan” (Bone-Connecting Pill).
The ingredients were raw ox gall one liang, ground beetle two liang, natural copper two liang (iron disulfide), and a small amount of vinegar.
First, the ground beetle was mixed and stir-fried with raw Pinellia. When the Pinellia turned yellow, the Pinellia was discarded, and natural copper was placed in an iron pot and heated seven times. After each time the copper turned red, it was soaked in vinegar, then taken out and ground into powder.
According to Liu Dafu, this medicine promotes fracture healing.
Then there was the “Jiegu Gao” (Bone-Connecting Ointment), also oral.
Its ingredients were: mountain chrysanthemum 5 liang, dragon bone 1 liang, oyster shell 1 liang, cornelian cherry 2 liang, clematis root 1 liang, copper shavings 1 liang, angelica 5 qian, raw astragalus 2 liang, roasted licorice 2 liang, papaya 2 qian, bone-connecting grass 3 liang, frankincense 5 qian, myrrh 5 qian.
Then mixed with honey.
Three doses daily…
Finally, besides oral medicine, there were topical medicines like Qing Shi Powder, Yincui Powder, Clotting Ointment, Putrefaction-Removing and Flesh-Regenerating Ointment, etc.
Applied on the broken leg, Liu Dafu claimed they could “promote flesh growth, reduce inflammation, and prevent tetanus”…
Yeah, very traditional Chinese medicine, anyway.
According to Liu Dafu, after Liu Lixiu underwent the willow branch fixation surgery, the limb recovered well, penicillin could be stopped 7 days post-op, walking resumed after 4 months, and labor ability rapidly returned. The surgery was deemed a “huge success.”
“Many fortresses unreachable by world medicine (Western medicine) were conquered by TCM!”
The entire TCM community was excited by Liu Dafu’s surgery. Various media reported the great “success” of TCM’s “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.”
On July 16, 1958, the “Health Newspaper” published Liu Dafu’s “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” surgical success, praising it nationwide.
Liu Dafu quickly participated as a Hubei representative in the “National Medical and Health Technology Revolution Experience Exchange Conference” held in Beijing, delivering a special speech. His submitted paper “Preliminary Summary of Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” was listed first under the “Native Medicine” column, widely promoted as an important achievement of “TCM defeating Western medicine.”
As then Vice Minister of the Health Ministry Qian Xinchong said in the closing speech:
“At this conference, native medicine shone brilliantly. Many fortresses previously unconquerable by world medicine were all conquered by TCM and Chinese medicine.”
This referred to “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.”
To promote this “important achievement,” in March 1959, the Xi’an Drama Troupe staged a large-scale drama “Willow Branch Chronicle,” based on the story of “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation,” touring the country.
Determined to build “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” as a cornerstone achievement proving “the East wind overpowering the West wind” in TCM surgery.
For a time, media packaged willow branch fixation as TCM’s most successful case replacing Western medicine, calling it “a long-lost heritage of native medicine,” “a treasure dug out from native medicine’s treasury.”
Some media even claimed willow branch fixation was “unmatched by orthopedic medicine anywhere in the world,” proposing a Nobel Prize nomination, etc.
“Rushed and irresponsible” clinical application
Following this great “achievement” of TCM, relevant authorities swiftly acted to rapidly promote “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” nationwide.
Wuhan City quickly developed a “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation teaching” plan, established a “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation Technical Training Class” and “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation Collaboration Committee” to train successors of the technique across regions.
According to incomplete statistics, from August 1958 to May 1960, over 21 months, 28 units in 17 cities across 12 provinces (and municipalities) conducted more than 480 clinical willow branch fixation surgeries. Of these, 259 had relatively complete case records, 171 had textual records but no materials, and 50 had only numbers without any records.
Such rushed and irresponsible clinical trials caused great harm to the public.
The Wuhan City “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation Research Group” statistics in July 1959 reported various failures after willow branch fixation surgeries.
These included willow branch shedding in 49 cases, failure of willow branch ossification in 58 cases, and some postoperative adverse reactions such as late fistulas; pain, swelling, and dysfunction at the surgical site; delayed fracture healing and nonunion.
More seriously, 69 so-called “successful cases” of willow branch fixation had poor fracture healing positions, requiring corrective surgery 5-7 months postoperatively.
Doctors found all willow branches implanted in the body did not change or connect to the main bone. Around the willow branch was a thin connective tissue membrane containing pale yellow secretions; the willow branch was not connected to the medullary cavity wall.
The so-called “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” was merely periosteal callus and spontaneous fracture end healing, with risk of deformity.
Therefore, on July 22, 1959, the authorities stopped all clinical trials of “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.” The patient Liu Lixiu, deemed “surgically successful” by Liu Dafu, was found by X-ray two years later to have the implanted willow piece fully visible, meaning the willow branch had not turned to bone and had to be removed.
According to incomplete retrospective statistics, more than 500 patients nationwide received willow branch fixation treatment; more than 100 suffered injury and disability; many had to endure the pain of a second surgery to remove the willow branches.
Even an 8-year-old patient in Shanghai frequently suffered infection after willow branch surgery and after eleven years was forced to remove the branch. Observations found the willow branch not only led to chronic leg infection but showed no sign of ossification.
The negative impact of “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” even spread abroad. Foreigners, having heard of the “miracle” of China’s willow branch fixation, entirely replayed the surgery process following Liu Dafu’s published method, even sending photos and procedure details to Liu Dafu for assistance, causing worldwide embarrassment.
Media made and broke the matter.
Thus, once hailed as TCM’s “conquering Western medicine fortress,” “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” quickly became the opposite of its reputation in the media, joining “chicken blood therapy,” “swing arm therapy,” and “qigong therapy” as the “four great pseudosciences.”
Final remarks
“Willow Branch Fracture Fixation” has been regarded as the “shame of TCM.” Yet to this day, some TCM practitioners and fanatics still praise “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation,” glorifying it as a “glorious achievement” of TCM.
This is why I repeatedly write about the history of “Willow Branch Fracture Fixation.” The main reason is that too many TCM fans hold a “disdainful” attitude toward medicine and life, choosing to forget this history to avoid confronting TCM’s inherent problems.
Let’s repost this classic image once again.