Shang Han Lun ((traditional Chinese: 傷寒論; pinyin: Shāng Hán Lùn), or Shang Han Za Bin Lun, English translation 'On Cold Damage' or 'On Cold Disease Damage', is a medical treatise by Zhang Zhongjing published in 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[1] :
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.
^ Shang Han Lun (On Cold Damage), Translation & Commentaries by Zhongjing Zhang, Feng Ye, Nigel Wiseman, Craig Mitchell, Ye Feng. Blue Poppy Press 2000
