Zhang Zhongjing circa Plague prompts doctor’s work
3 min readZhang Zhongjing was a famous doctor in the late years of the Eastern Han Dynasty（25-220 AD）.His medical master-piece”Shanghan Zabing Lun，”or“Treatise on Febrile Dis-eases and Miscellaneous Diseases，”is widely regarded as a cornerstone in traditional Chinese medicine.
Zhang was born in Nanyang，in today’s He’nan Province.
Zhang became interested in medicine when he was a child.At 10，he began to learn from his uncle Zhang Bozu，who was a local herbal doctor.
Zhang arduously studied medical classics，such as “Internal Canon of Medicine，”and spent a lot of time collect-ing folk prescriptions and formulas.Thanks to years of study and diligent practice, Zhang soon became a well-known herbal doctor.
He was later given the honorary title of being “filial and incorrupt”by the imperial court, an essential qualification for becoming a candidate of civil offices. Thereafter, Zhang was appointed the prefect of Changsha in today’s Hu’ nan Province.
But soon afterward,a plague broke out in the country and thousands of people, including more than 130 members of Zhang’s family, died of febrile diseases.
Zhang immediately quit his job in Changsha and returned to his hometown to help treat patients. However, due to the fast spread of the diseases and lack of effective diagnosis and treatment, nearly two thirds of people reportedly died in the country in less than 10 years.
Zhang was so saddened by the casualties caused by the diseases that he began to concentrate on writing the monumen-tal medical book “Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscella-neous Diseases.”
However, shortly after the book was published, it was lost in wars. The version people see today was later recollected and edited by Zhang’s disciple Wang Shuhe.
In his book, Zhang explained ways to diagnose and treat infectious disease caused by the cold and presented a long list of various types of effective recipes. Zhang invented the prin-ciple of treatment according to six channels, which are still followed by many TCM doctors.
Zhang was also the first doctor in the country to introduceemergency resuscitation and enemas, about 1,000 years before they were used in Western countries.
It was said that Zhang was very good at diagnosing dis-eases by reading a patient’s facial and physical signs.
Once, Zhang met Wang Can,a famous poet, when he was only 17. After looking at the poet’s features and complexion, Zhang told him that he was sick and should seek treatment as soon as possible. Otherwise, in about 20 years, his eyebrows would begin to shed and he would die six months later.
The young poet wouldn’t believe this because he felt good and saw no problems with his body. So, he repeatedly ignored Zhang’s advice. But unfortunately, the doctor’s prog-nosis proved to be true and the poet died when he was only 40.
In his book “Treatise on Febrile Diseases and Miscella-neous Diseases,”Zhang said that for nobles and others at the higher level, medicine is to cure their illnesses; for the poor and underprivileged at the lower level, medicine is to save them from plagues; and for people at the middle level, medicine is to keep them healthy and enable them to live longer.
