Bian Stone - the Stone You Didn't Know About
If you have a chance to visit Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum, among more than 3000 specimens, you will find artifacts made of Bianshi, or bian stone. Those artifacts which date back to the Stone Age include scrapers, needles, and massage tools to treat patients.
Since ancient times, it has been believed that top grade authentic bian stone could calm the mind, heal the body, nourish Qi (the vital energy according to Chinese medicine) and blood, dredge the body energy channels, eliminate pathogenic factors, and prevent energy stagnation.
So, what is bian stone?…
What is Bian Stone?
Bian stone is a type of microcrystalline limestone, or micrite. You’ve probably seen limestone. And the bian stone is so fine grained that you cannot see and feel any individual grains which makes it suitable for polishing.
But unlike its cheaper siblings, bian stone contains over thirty rare earth elements that make this stone so amazing. Those elements include titanium, strontium, manganese, chromium, zinc, etc.
The most valued and authentic type of bian stone is Sibin bian stone.
Bian Stone Composition – What is Bian Stone Made Of
Following a preliminary examination by the Shandong Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Geology and Mining, as well as re-examination by the Institute of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sibin bian stone is comprised of the following base ingredients.
Despite the long history of using a bian stone therapy in Chinese medicine, this practice was lost a long time ago.
In the Tang Dynasty, a scholar named Yan Shigu stated: “In the ancient days, when we treated illnesses, we utilized a bian stone art; today, it is no longer practiced”.
Sibin Bian Stone
Long story short, it was rediscovered in 20-th century by Geng Naiguang, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He used hundreds of rocks and applied petrophysical experimental techniques to find suitable rocks to reconstruct an ancient art of stone therapy.
In his book about bian stone therapy he wrote: “In 1984, I found a stone in Sichuan Province during an examination of a Stone Age relic.” He was only getting started on his adventerous journey to find the misterious stone.
Finally, the scientist found the best rock for bian stone therapy after conducting many experiments and doing a lot of research. The best rock can be found in the province called Shandong, in the place called Sibin.
Healing Properties of Sibin Bian Stone
Far Infrared Radiation – the Healing Heat which Penetrates
When you use a slightly heated bian stone, you put it on the patient’s target body site or meridian points. The far-infrared electromagnetic energy that comes out of the stone will help to heal the person.
The outstanding property of Bian-stone is its far-infrared electromagnetic wave. This is a very important characteristic. Geng Naiguang, found that far infrared electromagnetic waves that Sibin Bian-stone emits are from 7 micron, until the upper limit of measurement equipment 14.5 micron. Since the waves don’t exhibit any indications of attenuation, the wavelength may be more than 16 microns long.
The study findings from the Fudan University Study Group revealed a window for infrared energy in the human body’s meridians.
Window spectral range goes from 9 microns to 20 microns. In this window, less than 50% of energy is lost during transfer. This window has high transmission rate of energy transferring.
Human energy windows and Bian-stone energy windows have similar spectral ranges. This is a surprising discovery. The energy transfer in the meridians affects not only the surface parts of the body, but also the deep layers, which helps treatments work better.
Ultrasound Waves
Sound is a type of energy that travels in waves. The frequency of the sound wave determines how high or low the sound is. If the frequency is too high for people to hear, we call it ultrasound.
Ultrasound waves are called that because you can’t hear them. They are high frequency sound waves that you can’t hear. Ultrasound and regular sound waves are basically the same thing, just a different kind of energy transmission.
Different degrees of ultrasound may be produced by external forces acting on natural stones, but bian stone is the most prolific.
Resonating with human body’s biological molecules, ultrasonic waves emitted by bian stone improve microcirculation in meridians. As a result, Sibin Bian stones can be used to make massage and gua sha tools.
Therapeutic Use of Bian Stone: Gua Sha Massage, Thermal Therapy
Thermal Stone Therapy
This procedure helps improve human cell energy metabolism and microcirculation, which can help drive away illnesses and improve health.
Bian Stone for Gua Sha
Gua sha is a traditional East Asian healing technique that uses a blunt-edged instrument to cause light skin scraping to release stagnation and promote healing.
The use of a Bian stone for gua sha allows the practitioner to achieve better results than with other tools, such as metal spoons or coins, or jade stone. The stone’s smooth surface helps to glide over the skin, and its thermal properties provide heat that helps to loosen up the congestion.
The Sibin Bian-stone is thought to be an excellent material with excellent therapeutic capabilities due to its high thermal qualities we’ve already discussed. The ultrasonic has a resonance with human body’s biological molecules, allowing it to improve microcirculation in meridians.
Facial Gua Sha
For the same reason, the use of a Bian stone for facial gua sha can result in multiple benefits for the face.
Far Infrared Radiation emitted by bian stone penetrates deeper into the facial skin layers being more beneficial comparing to the application of other stones used as gua sha tools.
Some of the most popular stones used for gua sha include jade (actually, a serpentine), rose quartz, obsidian and amethyst.
Read our article about materials used for gua sha tools.
Using Bian stone for facial massage and gua sha helps to resolve qi blockages in problematic areas of the face, smoothes out wrinkles and fine lines by increasing elasticity of the muscles and promoting the production of collagen, improves the skin’s tone by increasing blood flow, fights pore formation, minimizes pores by eliminating lymphatic congestion, clears skin by removing of waste and toxins from the deeper layers of face, and lifts and shapes by toning the fascia surrounding muscles.
The use of Bian-stone gives a soothing and comfortable feeling because it has the penetrating property of far infrared energy, instead of direct heat conduction.
The latter is mostly limited to the surface of the skin. If you use, for example, a hot water bag, while the skin is hot, the deep organization isn’t. The overall sensation of using the heated Bian-stone is not comparable to that of traditional therapy – the deeper layers of the body are aslo get a curative dosage of gentle heat.
Bian Stone Gua Sha Before and After
Scientists used a laser Doppler flow imager to study how a copper sheet put underneath of a Bian-stone blocked the far-infrared heat from it. They found that this significantly reduced the effect of increased blood flow. Therefore, when using hot Bian-stone therapy, its infrared spectrum characteristics are very important.
The extensive presence of nanometer-sized graphite in the Sibin Bian-stone not only improved the Bian-stone’s thermal conductivity and heat storage, but also resulted in a high infrared emission rate due to its excellent infrared emission capability.
