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伤寒论 Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders - Retrieving wonder doctor's wisdom
December 2, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
"SHANG Han Lun," or "Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders," is one of the earliest complete clinical texts in the world and a cornerstone in the traditional Chinese medicine.
The book is based on medical masterpiece "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases," compiled by Zhang Zhongjing (AD 150-219) in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).
While the original book was lost in war soon after it was produced, fortunately, a major part of its contents were later recollected and edited by Zhang's disciple Wang Shuhe (AD 210-258) into "Shang Han Lun."
Zhang, one of the most eminent Chinese physicians in history, was born in Nanyang, in today's Henan Province. He became interested in medicine when a child and at 10 began to learn from his uncle, Zhang Bozu, a local herbal doctor.
Young Zhang studied medical classics, such as "Internal Canon of Medicine," and spent much time collecting folk prescriptions and formulas.
Thanks to years of study and diligent practice, Zhang soon became a well-known herbal doctor.
Later, he was appointed by the imperial court the prefect of Changsha in today's Hunan Province. But soon afterward, a plague broke out in the country and thousands of people, including more than 130 members of Zhang's family, died of fever.
Zhang immediately quit his job in Changsha and returned to his hometown to treat patients. However, due to the fast spread of the disease and lack of effective diagnosis and treatment, nearly two thirds of people reportedly died in the country in less than 10 years.
Zhang was so appalled by the death toll that he began work on the monumental medical book "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases."
In his book, Zhang explained ways to diagnose and treat infectious disease caused by the cold and presented a long list of various types of effective recipes. Zhang divided diseases into six categories in terms of their yin and yang symptoms, which are still followed by many TCM doctors today.
Zhang was also the first doctor in the country to introduce emergency resuscitation and enemas, about 1,000 years before they were used in Western countries.
It was said that Zhang was very good at diagnosing diseases by reading a patient's facial and other physical traits. Once, Zhang met Wang Can, a famous poet, then only 17. After studying the poet's features and complexion, Zhang told him that he was sick and should seek treatment as soon as possible. Otherwise, in about 20 years, his eyebrows would shed and he would die six months later.
The young poet didn't believe this as he felt fine, so repeatedly ignored Zhang's advice. But unfortunately, the doctor's prognosis proved correct and Wang died when he was only 40.
In his book, Zhang says that for the higher levels of society, medicine is to cure illnesses; for the poor and underprivileged at the lower level, medicine is to save them from plagues; and for people at the middle level, medicine is to keep them healthy and enable them to live longer.
"Shang Han Lun," the reincarnation of Zhang's medical masterpiece, contains 22 chapters in 10 volumes. It describes 398 treatment methods and includes 113 different herbal prescriptions. For instance, it proposes therapies of so-called sweating, cooling, eliminating, harmonizing and warming with supplementing to treat fever-causing epidemic infectious diseases according to their symptoms in different degrees of excess or scarcity of yin or yang.
All the 113 herbal prescriptions dispensed in Shang Han Lun, are still widely applied in the traditional Chinese medicine today because of their unfailing efficacy.
The book is based on medical masterpiece "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases," compiled by Zhang Zhongjing (AD 150-219) in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220).
While the original book was lost in war soon after it was produced, fortunately, a major part of its contents were later recollected and edited by Zhang's disciple Wang Shuhe (AD 210-258) into "Shang Han Lun."
Zhang, one of the most eminent Chinese physicians in history, was born in Nanyang, in today's Henan Province. He became interested in medicine when a child and at 10 began to learn from his uncle, Zhang Bozu, a local herbal doctor.
Young Zhang studied medical classics, such as "Internal Canon of Medicine," and spent much time collecting folk prescriptions and formulas.
Thanks to years of study and diligent practice, Zhang soon became a well-known herbal doctor.
Later, he was appointed by the imperial court the prefect of Changsha in today's Hunan Province. But soon afterward, a plague broke out in the country and thousands of people, including more than 130 members of Zhang's family, died of fever.
Zhang immediately quit his job in Changsha and returned to his hometown to treat patients. However, due to the fast spread of the disease and lack of effective diagnosis and treatment, nearly two thirds of people reportedly died in the country in less than 10 years.
Zhang was so appalled by the death toll that he began work on the monumental medical book "Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscellaneous Diseases."
In his book, Zhang explained ways to diagnose and treat infectious disease caused by the cold and presented a long list of various types of effective recipes. Zhang divided diseases into six categories in terms of their yin and yang symptoms, which are still followed by many TCM doctors today.
Zhang was also the first doctor in the country to introduce emergency resuscitation and enemas, about 1,000 years before they were used in Western countries.
It was said that Zhang was very good at diagnosing diseases by reading a patient's facial and other physical traits. Once, Zhang met Wang Can, a famous poet, then only 17. After studying the poet's features and complexion, Zhang told him that he was sick and should seek treatment as soon as possible. Otherwise, in about 20 years, his eyebrows would shed and he would die six months later.
The young poet didn't believe this as he felt fine, so repeatedly ignored Zhang's advice. But unfortunately, the doctor's prognosis proved correct and Wang died when he was only 40.
In his book, Zhang says that for the higher levels of society, medicine is to cure illnesses; for the poor and underprivileged at the lower level, medicine is to save them from plagues; and for people at the middle level, medicine is to keep them healthy and enable them to live longer.
"Shang Han Lun," the reincarnation of Zhang's medical masterpiece, contains 22 chapters in 10 volumes. It describes 398 treatment methods and includes 113 different herbal prescriptions. For instance, it proposes therapies of so-called sweating, cooling, eliminating, harmonizing and warming with supplementing to treat fever-causing epidemic infectious diseases according to their symptoms in different degrees of excess or scarcity of yin or yang.
All the 113 herbal prescriptions dispensed in Shang Han Lun, are still widely applied in the traditional Chinese medicine today because of their unfailing efficacy.
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