傷寒

My recent bedtime reading (believe it or not, I could still keep this habit after the birth of Adler) was Treatise on Cold Injury (傷寒論) by Zhang Zhongjing (張仲景) – the giant of traditional Chinese medicine in the Eastern Han dynasty.

Oh, I didn’t read the original text. It’s an illustrated and modernized version by a Chinese publisher; I bought it last year when I was in Chengdu. I intended to learn nothing. Just that the theory is interesting, and there is a good collection of common remedies that may also prove useful for clinical practice.

In addition to common cold and conditions resembling viral illnesses in western medicine, there are descriptions on several modern infectious diseases in this Treatise, such as cholera, malaria, and (what appears to be) ascariasis.

For those who are not familiar with traditional Chinese literature, the original classic written by Zhang, titled Treatise on Cold Injury and Miscellaneous Diseases (傷寒雜病論), has already been lost. The preserved chapters were reassembled in the Sung dynasty into two volumes: the Treatise on Cold Injury focused on general diagnostic approach and infectious diseases, while the other is known as Synopsis of Golden Chamber (金匱要略), which deals with other chronic medical conditions.

Seasoned audience would note that the arrangement is very much similar to Harrison’s Principle.