Introduction of Shanghan Zabing Lun: The Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases
-
✵Shanghan Zabing Lun—the Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, also known as the Treatise on Cold-induced and Miscellaneous Diseases—was compiled by the physician Zhang Zhongjing near the end of the Eastern Han dynasty (c. 200–210 CE). Though traditionally attributed to Zhang Zhongjing, the original text was lost and later reconstructed and edited by the Jin-dynasty physician Wang Shuhe. It systematically addresses the diagnosis and treatment of cold-induced diseases and a wide range of miscellaneous internal diseases. Wang Shuhe rearranged the material in the 3rd century CE; centuries later, during the Northern Song dynasty, the Imperial Medical Bureau Jiao Zheng Yi Shu Ju (the Bureau for Rectifying and Publishing Medical Books) formally divided the reconstructed work into two canonical texts: Shang Han Lun (The Treatise on Cold-Induced Diseases) and Jin Kui Yao Lue Fang Lun (The Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber).
- Shanghan Zabing Lun (The Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases)
-
Brief Introduction Chinese Name: 《傷寒雜病論》(Shanghan Zabing Lun) English Name: The Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, (or The Treatise on Cold-Induced and Miscellaneous Diseases) Author(s): ☯Zhang Zhongjing (張仲景, Zhāng Zhòngjǐng) Edition Age: Late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 200–210 CE) Introduction of Shanghan Zabing Lun
Shanghan Zabing Lun—the Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, also known as the Treatise on Cold-induced and Miscellaneous Diseases—was compiled by the physician Zhang Zhongjing near the end of the Eastern Han dynasty (c. 200–210 CE). Though traditionally attributed to Zhang Zhongjing, the original text was lost and later reconstructed and edited by the Jin-dynasty physician Wang Shuhe. It systematically addresses the diagnosis and treatment of cold-induced diseases and a wide range of miscellaneous internal diseases. Wang Shuhe rearranged the material in the 3rd century CE; centuries later, during the Northern Song dynasty, the Imperial Medical Bureau Jiao Zheng Yi Shu Ju (the Bureau for Rectifying and Publishing Medical Books) formally divided the reconstructed work into two canonical texts: Shanghan Lun (The Treatise on Cold-Induced Diseases) and Jin Kui Yao Lue Fang Lun (The Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber).
Shanghan Lun (The Treatise on Cold-induced Diseases) is a redacted and systematized version of Zhang Zhongjing’s original work. Wang Shuhe organized it into ten juan (volumes), structuring its clinical framework around the Six-Channel theory for diagnosing and differentiating acute febrile diseases. It remains one of the most influential and foundational texts in the history of traditional Chinese medicine.
The book Jin Kui Yao Lue Fang Lun (The Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber)—also known simply as Jin Kui Yao Lue (The Synopsis of the Golden Chamber)—is the second major component derived from the reconstructed Shanghan Zabing Lun. Wang Shuhe compiled it into three juan (three volumes), focusing primarily on miscellaneous diseases of internal medicine, with additional coverage of surgical conditions and gynecological diseases across 25 chapters and containing 262 prescriptions. During the Northern Song dynasty, fragments of an earlier manuscript titled Jin Kui Yu Han Yao Lue Fang were rediscovered.The imperial editors Lin Yi and Gao Baoheng authenticated this text as the surviving remnant of Zhang Zhongjing’s original work, previously edited and arranged by Wang Shuhe into three juan.
The Shanghan Zabing Lun (The Treatise on Cold-induced and Miscellaneous Diseases) survives today not as a single intact manuscript but through multiple transmitted versions—most notably the Shanghan Lun and Jin Kui Yao Lue. It stands as a seminal masterpiece by Zhang Zhongjing and the cornerstone of clinical TCM theory and practice.
References:
-
- 1. Introduction of Shanghan Zabing Lun: The Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases
- 2. Shanghan Zabing Lun: The Treatise on Cold-induced and Miscellaneous Diseases, attributed to Zhang Zhongjing
- 3. Shanghan Lun: The Treatise on Cold-induced Diseases, edited by Wang Shuhe
- 4. Jin Kui Yao Lue Fang Lun: The Synopsis of Prescriptions of The Golden Chamber, attributed to Zhang Zhongjing
- 5. Zhu Jie Shang Han Lun: Commentary on The Treatise on Cold-induced Diseases, by Cheng Wuji
- 6. Zhongjing Quanshu: The Complete Works of Zhang Zhongjing, compiled by Zhao Kaimei
