Zhang Zhongjing

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Zhang Zhongjing (simplified Chinese: 张仲景; traditional Chinese: 張仲景; pinyin: Zhāng Zhōngjǐng; Wade-Giles: Chang Chung Ching), formal name Zhang Ji (simplified Chinese: 张机; traditional Chinese: 張機; pinyin: Zhāng Jī, 150 - 219), was an Eastern Han physician and one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Eastern Han. He established medication principles and summed up the medicinal experience up until that time, thus making a great contribution to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Biography

Though extremely well known in modern Chinese medicine and considered one of the finest Chinese physicians in history very little is known of his life.^[1] According to later sources he was born in Nanyang, held an official position in Changsha and lived from approximately 150 to 219AD.^[2] Exact dates regarding his birth, death and works vary; an upper limit of 220AD is generally accepted.^[3]

During his time, with warlords fighting for their own territories, many people were infected with febrile disease. Zhang's family was no exception. He learned medicine by studying from his townsfellow Zhang Bozu, assimilating from previous medicinal literature, and collecting many prescriptions elsewhere, finally writing the medical masterpiece Shanghan Zabing Lun' (traditional Chinese: 傷寒雜病論; pinyin: Shānghán Zábìng Lùn, lit. "Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases"). Shortly after its publication the book was lost during wartime. Due to Zhang's contribution to Traditional Chinese medicine he is often regarded as the sage of Chinese medicine.

Zhang's masterpiece, Shanghan Zabing Lun, was collected by later people and compiled into two books, namely the Shang Han Lun (傷寒論, lit. "On Cold Damage"), which was a discourse on how to treat epidemic infectious diseases causing fevers prevalent during his era, and the other, highly influential doctrine Jinkui Yaolue (金櫃要略, lit. "Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer"), a compendium of his clinical experiences. These two texts have been heavily reconstructed several times up to the modern era. ^[4] Revered for authoring the Shāng Hán Zá Bìng Lùn, Zhang Zhongjing is considered to have founded the Cold Damage or "Cold Disease" school of Chinese medicine and is widely considered the seminal expert to this day.

See also

• Hua Tuo
• Compendium of Materia Medica
• Huang Di
• Chinese herbology
• Traditional Japanese medicine (Kampo)
• Traditional Korean medicine
• Li Shizhen
• Song Ci
• List of Chinese physicians
• Traditional Chinese medicine

References

1. ^ Shāng Hán Lùn: On Cold Damage, Translation & Commentaries. Craig Mitchell, Féng Yè and Nigel Wiseman 1999, p. 2
2. ^ Mitchell et al. 1999, p. 2
3. ^ See Mitchell et al. 1999, p. 1-2, Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Michael Loewe (ed.) 1993, p. 197 for discussion.
4. ^ See Mitchell et al. 1999, p. 1-4.