Heritage Figure

Guo Guantian, the third-generation inheritor of the PingLe Guo School of Orthopedics

  Guo Guantian, courtesy name CunGeng (year of birth and month unknown), studied medicine under his father from an early age. According to the “Chronicles of Luoyang County,” Guo Guantian “frequently accepted invitations from outside the county to diagnose and treat patients” and also compiled the “Essentials of Orthopedic Manipulation Techniques,” which he passed down to posterity.

  In 1901, while Empress Dowager Cixi and her entourage were returning to Beijing via Luoyang, they were harassed by an unidentified armed group. A prince of the imperial clan was unexpectedly injured and suffered a fracture. The Prefect of Henan summoned Guo Guantian to treat the prince’s injury. Drawing on his family’s time-honored prescriptions and therapeutic techniques, Guo Guantian successfully reduced the fracture and provided comprehensive medical care. Within less than a month, the prince’s condition had largely healed. Upon their return to Beijing, the prince reported the incident to Empress Dowager Cixi, who personally inscribed the three characters “Hao Hao Hao” and had them made into a plaque to be bestowed upon Guo Guantian. In addition, she conferred upon him the rank of fifth-grade official, thereby granting him the dual status of a private-sector physician and an imperial court physician.