Die-da: the trauma tradition diē dǎ sǔn shāng · 跌打损伤（跌打）

"Die-da" ("fall and strike") is the Cantonese-rooted name for the tradition of managing everyday musculoskeletal injuries — sprains, bruises, strained tendons. The classical model reads a fresh injury in stages: first blood stasis and swelling (qi and blood do not move), later chronic stiffness and "cold" sensations in the injured tissue. External applications, liniments, tuina and gentle mobilisation are its tools; the famous "die-da jiu" (medicated wine) liniments belong here.

One honest boundary matters more than the whole tradition: the classical model cannot tell a bad sprain from a fracture. Numbness, deformity, inability to bear weight, or swelling that does not improve belongs with imaging and a physician first. The tradition itself always assumed an experienced hand reading the injury — self-treatment of an unexamined injury is the failure mode, not the method.