The Yao ethnic group: Medicated bath heritage refreshes body and life

BEIJING, Dec. 31, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from China.org.cn on The Yao ethnic group:

The Yao ethnic group: Medicated bath heritage refreshes body and life
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk2VnotmjfE

The Yao ethnic group is one of China's oldest ethnic groups. Located in the southeastern part of Congjiang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Gaohua Village is a settlement predominantly inhabited by the Yao people. The village boasts a high number of residents with longevity, and is renowned for its mysterious Yao medicated bath.

Ascending the hill, the silhouette of the Yao village gradually vanishes into the night. The fresh air is filled with the scent of medicinal herbs, providing a soothing sensation to the senses. The lights are on at Zhao Caixian's Yao medicated bath inn, where his wife, Zhao Zhenghua, is preparing medicinal decoctions while also giving their youngest son a bath.

In Gaohua Village, it is a common custom for everyone to take medicated baths. Medicated bath therapy is a traditional health treatment method that uses medicinal substances for bathing to enhance physical fitness, resist the cold, relieve fatigue, and prevent and treat diseases. It is a collective wisdom of the Yao ethnic group accumulated since ancient times.

Zhao Youhui: The tradition of Yao medicated bath has been passed down to me from my ancestors, and I am already the seventh generation. When I was six years old, I followed my mother to work. When she went up the mountain to collect herbs, I would go with her. When she came home to weave cloth, I would watch her and think, ''Hmm, it looks like a lot of fun.'' The next day, when my mother came to weave again and saw that the thread was broken, she would look angry and blame me, her sixth and youngest son, for the mess. As I grew older, I found that I could make paper in our traditional way better than my mother, and I could weave better than her too. When she saw that I was a fast learner, she decided to pass on the medicated bath tradition to me.

According to Zhao Youhui, he had 10 siblings, and in the past, there was no hospital in the village. The Yao women relied on Yao medicated bath for childbirth, recovery, and ensuring the healthy growth of their children.

Zhao Youhui: In our Yao family, the primary use of Yao medicated bath is for women during childbirth. When a woman is about to give birth, her father-in-law and mother-in-law would go to the mountains to collect herbs and bring them home to dry them by hanging them upstairs. If the woman experiences abdominal pain, the father-in-law would immediately start a fire and pour water into a large tub. After childbirth, the woman would then be called to soak in the tub, and water would be scooped to bathe the newborn in a basin. This helps prevent diseases in the child. After the woman takes a medicated bath, her body would recover quickly, and within three days, she can resume doing some household chores and certain work at home.

Zhao Caixian has acquired the tradition from Zhao Youhui. With the assistance of the government, he has successfully opened a Yao medicated bath inn and continues to learn about herbal identification and prescription from his master. Due to the lack of a written language in the Yao ethnic group, the medicated bath's ''formulas'' can only be passed down orally, adding a sense of mystery to this craft.

Zhao Youhui: The leaves used here should be neither too big nor too small. They must be just the right size, shiny, and without any fuzz. That's how my mother taught us, which is very specific. We know exactly which herb to use for each specific illness. Some diseases require only one type of herb, while others may require two or three, and there are even cases where five or six, or even seven or eight herbs are needed. We match the medicine to the illness accordingly.

Due to the inability to air-dry and store certain valuable medicinal herbs, Zhao Youhui, when he was young, used to venture deep into the mountains to search for them, sometimes only returning home after sunset. Even now, despite his limited mobility, he still makes an effort to gather herbs in the surrounding areas.

In addition to developing the Yao medicated bath cultural and tourism industry, Gaohua Village has also scaled up the cultivation of commonly used medicinal plants. During his free time, Zhao Caixian helps out at the cooperative, where they package the herbs into medicated bath kits that are sold both domestically and internationally. This has provided additional income for himself and the villagers, putting Gaohua Village at the forefront of rural revitalization.

Zhao Youhui: Even if my children don't want me to work in the fields, I still want to do it. They ask me to move to the city to live with them, but I am not willing to leave. You can see that the air quality here is great. I may get tired during the day, but when I come home and take a medicated bath, I feel relaxed and ready to do the work again the next day.

Zhao Youhui still lives in the mountains where he was raised. The sound of weaving from his childhood, his mother's pretended intimidating gesture, and the lingering scent of herbal medicine in the air are all unforgettable. After having breakfast, Zhao Caixian and his wife reappear in the fields, which marks the beginning of another day for a Yao ethnic family.

The Yao ethnic group: Medicated bath heritage refreshes body and life
http://www.china.org.cn/2025-05/26/content_117895449.shtml

SOURCE China.org.cn