Zhang Zhongjing - Sage of TCM

Who is Zhang Zhongjing 张 仲景

Zhang Zhongjing (AD 150 - 215) is the Sage of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), he establishes the principle of treatment based on syndrome differentiation, this principle is the fundamental principle of TCM and is the soul of TCM. His representative medical book is the Shanghan Lun, English as the Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders or the Treatise on Cold Injury.

Zhang Zhongjing was born into a bureaucratic family in decline. His father was a scholar who held an official position in the government. Given his particular family background, Zhang Zhongjing had the opportunity to have access to many books since childhood. He read in historical records the story of Bian Que, an eminent physician in China’s Warring States period and much admired his superb medical skills. Since then he developed a keen interest in medicine.

Love medicine

In Zhang Zhongjing's childhood, the country plagued by political darkness and corrupt imperial government, and the misery of war stretched far and wide. The folk suffered amidst the flames of war. Worse still, epidemics were raging, and thus many died a premature death. Government officials, instead of trying to relieve the people from their misery, scrambled for power, started wars and oppressed the folk. Thus Zhang Zhongjing detested the official circles, made light of a formal career and had compassion for the people since he was a child. He wanted to study medicine to save people.

When he was about 10, Zhang Zhongjing became an apprentice to eminent physician Zhang Bozu to learn medical skills from him. Zhang Zhongjing was a very diligent apprentice and feared neither hardships nor fatigue whether he was visiting his patients at their homes, giving or filling prescriptions, going to the hills to gather herbs or coming back to prepare medicinal powder. Zhang Bozu liked this pupil of his very much and imparted his rich experience as a practitioner of medicine to Zhang Zhongjing without reservation. Zhang Zhongjing read medical books widely and drew on the expertise of famous physicians for clinical diagnoses. He made significant progress and soon became a renowned physician.

As an officer

Zhang Zhongjing detested the official circles and made light of a formal career since childhood, but family honor prompted him to enter the precise circles through being listed as a Filial and Incorrupt nominated candidate. The official-selecting system characterized by the nomination of Filial and Incorrupt candidates came into force during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han. The nominated candidates were supposed to be well-read, talented and more importantly, filial and free from corruption, hence the tern Filial and Incorrupt. The government-appointed the nominated candidates for official positions. The council appointed Zhang Zhongjing as Administrator of Changsha Commandery. Changsha Commandery located in today’s Changsha City, Hunan Province, China. While serving as an official, Zhang Zhongjing still treated the folk.

At that time, an official wasn’t supposed to enter the folk’s houses and get in touch with the people, but he couldn’t treat their sickness without getting in contact with them in the first place. Therefore, Zhang Zhongjing had an idea. He decided to open his government office on the first day and the 15th day of every lunar month to let in people who were ill. He would be seated in his room to see patients. Zhang Zhongjing asked his men to put up a notice to inform people of the news. This move of his spread from mouth to mouth and was applauded by the folk.

The story of the Artificial Respiration

To see more patients, Zhang Zhongjing not only made use of his office hours but also made time to heal the sick when he went out of business.

One day, when he was on his way back home after a trip, Zhang Zhongjing saw many people gathering around a woman supine on the ground and sighing. After inquiring about the situation, he learned what had happened: The woman committed suicide by hanging herself because her family was too poor; someone saw what she was doing and hastened to come to her rescue, but the woman had already lost consciousness. 

Zhang Zhongjing promptly asked people to put the woman on a bed board and then bade two robust young men pull the woman’s arms upwards, while Zhang Zhongjing himself pressed his palms against the woman’s waist and abdomen in rhythm with the rise and fall of the woman’s arms. Before long, the woman began to breathe faintly. Zhang Zhongjing urged them to go on repeating the movement. After a while, the woman finally came. This rescue method of Zhang Zhongjing’s is similar to artificial respiration, emergency treatment in modern times.

The Story with poet Wang Zhongxuan

Through continuous study and practice, Zhang Zhongjing mastered his medical skills to perfection. His contemporaries hailed him as the reincarnation of Bian Que. He could often tell a patient’s disease by observing his complexion.

Poet Wang Zhongxuan was Zhang Zhongjing’s friend. Through his contact with Wang Zhongxuan, Zhang Zhongjing recognized insidious leprosy pathogens in him. Leprosy is a contagious skin disease. Zhang Zhongjing told him, “You’re having a condition and need to treated as soon as possible, or you’ll suffer from eyebrow loss when you reach 40 and six months after that, your life will be in danger. I’d advise you to take some doses of the Five Minerals Decoction.”

Leprosy is a dangerous disease. It’s contagious, and people diagnosed with it would be despised. Thus Zhang Zhongjing didn’t reveal the name of the illness to Wang Zhongxuan and only told him the symptoms. Wang Zhongxuan thought that Zhang Zhongjing was just scaring him and thus didn’t follow his advice.

Before long, the two met each other again, and Zhang Zhongjing asked Wang Zhongxuan if the latter had taken the Five Minerals Decoction. Wang Zhongxuan lied that he had made it. After carefully studying Wang Zhongxuan occupied that he had made it. After carefully reviewing Wang Zhongxuan’s complexion, Zhang Zhongjing said, “Your complexion tells me plainly that you’ve taken none. Why didn’t you listen to me? You’d better take some soon before you get into serious trouble.” But Wang Zhongxuan remained unconvinced and ignored Zhang Zhongjing’s advice.

Sure enough, 20 years later Wang Zhongxuan began to lose his eyebrows and he died six months later. This incident was recorded in the “Canon of Acupuncture and Moxibustion” by Huangfu Mi, a physician in the Jin Dynasty of China.

Curing of typhoid fever and writing Shanghan Lun

The epidemic diseases were raging in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and killed many people in the Nanyang region. The majority of them died of typhoid fever.

Zhang Zhongjing lamented and resented the raging epidemics and resolved to study the diagnosis and treatment of typhoid fever. Zhang Zhongjing collected valid prescriptions extensively and studied various therapeutic methods adopted by the folk, including acupuncture, moxibustion, remedial massage, suppositories, foot bath, ear drops, sublingual drugs and so on. 

After decades of hard work, Zhang Zhongjing eventually produced the Shanghan Lun, the earliest clinical textbook in China. Including 16 volumes and over 300 prescriptions, the work significantly pushed forward China’s clinical medicine and the science of orders. The book has been revered by Chinese physicians through the ages and hailed as the forerunner of treatments and rules as well as a sacred medical text. For this reason, people held Zhang Zhongjing as a master and pioneer of standards.

Influence

The Shanghan Lun widely circulated since the first published. Up to now, most prescriptions from the Shanghan Lun is still used these days clinically. They’re quite efficient and practical with significant clinical implications. Take the treatment of common cold and exogenous diseases for instance. Common prescriptions like Mahuang Decoction, Cinnamon Twig Decoction, and Bupleurum Decoction are all very effective in treating these disorders.

After the test of clinical practice for thousands of years, the prescriptions Zhang Zhongjing recorded in the Shanghan Lun prove their specific significant functions and significant efficiency. These pharmaceutical prescriptions become a treasure of Chinese medicine. Modern TCM doctors still inherit Zhang Zhongjing’s spirit and study his medical principles. Many prescriptions in the Shanghan Lun are more and more valued by modern people after they are improved.

Every year, on the 18th day of the first lunar month, tens of thousands of people come from different places to Chinese Medical Sage Garden, the native land of the medical sage in Nanyang, Henan to show their gratitude to Zhang Zhongjing’s contribution in medicine to people.

key persons in the history of traditional Chinese medicine

Bian Que                 BC 407 - 310      Ancestor of traditional Chinese medicine

Hua Tuo                  AD 145 - 208      Ancestor of Surgery

Zhang Zhongjing   AD 150 - 215      Sage of traditional Chinese medicine

Ge Hong                 AD 284 - 364      Ancestor of first-aid

Sun Simiao             AD 541 - 682       King of the traditional Chinese medicine

Li Shizhen               AD 1518 - 1593   Sage of Medicine and Herbal