Biography of Zhang Zhongjing

Author: Kuang Yaming
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Zhang Zhongjing guided by simple materialism advocated the "Three Causes Theory" and developed etiology. On one hand, he inherited the materialistic ideas of understanding diseases from the Neijing and Nanjing before the Qin and Han dynasties, believing that the relationship between humans and the four seasons' climates was extremely close, and that the zang-fu organs were an inseparable whole that were interrelated and mutually restricted. On the other hand, he summarized the causes and conditions of diseases at the time, pointing out that the reasons for human illness were due to changes in internal functions, invasions of external pathogens, or physical factors. At the same time, he used the theories of yin-yang and the five elements, zang-fu organs and meridians, as well as ying and wei Qi, as the basis for differential diagnosis and treatment. This scientific insight of Zhang Zhongjing was a heavy blow to the practices of seeking fortune-tellers, divination, and mystical theologies of the time.