This page is cultural and historical background. It is not medical advice; for health concerns, see a licensed professional.
Life
Zhang Ji, known as Zhang Zhongjing, lived in Nanyang at the end of the Eastern Han, an age of repeated epidemics; in his preface he writes that many of his clan died of 'cold damage' disease. He gathered earlier prescriptions into the Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases. The original was scattered in the wars and later re-edited as two books, the Shanghan lun and the Jingui yaolüe. Their approach of reading illness by stage and matching treatment to the pattern became known as 'pattern differentiation'. Later generations called him the Sage of Medicine.
The system
- Six-stage (six channel) analysis of externally contracted illness.
- Pattern differentiation: reasoning from the pattern, not the disease name.
- A unified structure of principle, method, formula and herb.
Key works
- Shanghan zabing lun, later edited as the Shanghan lun and the Jingui yaolüe
Where to start
- Read as history of ideas: a general history of Chinese medicine first, then Zhang's own preface to the Shanghan lun.
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