Shanghan Lun

Shang Han Lun (Chinese: 傷寒論; pinyin: Shāng Hán Lùn), or Shang Han Za Bin Lun, English translation 'On Cold Damage' or 'Treatise on Cold Injury', is a medical treatise by Zhang Zhongjing that was published sometime before 220 A.D. It is the oldest complete clinical textbook in the world, and one of the four most important canonical medical classics that students must study in traditional Chinese medical education.

The Shang Han Lun has 397 sections with 112 herbal prescriptions, organised into the Six Divisions :

Tai Yang (greater yang): a milder stage with external symptoms of chills, fevers, stiffness, and headache. Therapy: sweating.

Yang ming (yang brightness): a more severe internal excess yang condition with fever without chills, distended abdomen, and constipation. Therapy: cooling and eliminating.

Shao yang (lesser yang): half outside, half inside half excess and half deficiency with chest discomfort, alternating chills, and fever. Therapy: harmonizing.

Tai yin (greater yin): chills, distended abdomen with occasional pain. Therapy: warming with supplementing.

Shao yin (lesser yin): weak pulse, anxiety, drowsiness, diarrhea, chills, cold extremities. Therapy: warming with supplementing.

Jue yin (absolute yin): thirst, difficult urination, physical collapse. Therapy: warming with supplementing.

See also

• Compendium of Materia Medica
• Huang Di
• Traditional Chinese Medicine
• Chinese herbology
• Chinese patent medicine
• Medicine
• History of Medicine