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Millwoods Acupuncture Center
102, 2603 Hewes Way
Edmonton AB,   Canada

Phone: (780) 466-8683
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 Introduction of Shang Han Lun

 

<<Shang Han Lun>> is one of the very famous books in the history of the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), secondary to the book <<Huang Di Nei Jing>>[1]. <<Shang Han Lun>> is a very useful clinic guide book that has been used by many famous TCM doctors. However, for some reasons, it is no long taught in the current TCM schools in China and the school authority leaves it as an option for student to learn by themselves. This is the same situation in TCM schools out of China.

<<Shang Han Lun>> was written by Dr. Zhang ZhongJing, 2000 year ago in China. It is the first book that introduced the practical way for diagnosis and treatment. The diagnosis system is called “Liu Jing Bianzheng”. The characteristic of the herbal formula introduced is that the kinds of herbs used is less but the dose of the herbs, generally speaking, higher compared with current TCM[2]. We say that the <<Shang Han Lun>> is the first clinic manual because the sister books of the <<Huang Di Nei Jing>> has been missing though we know the names of the missed books.

We say that the <<Shang Han Lun>> is the most important TCM clinic manual based on the fact that none of the later TCM books could exceed the achievement of the <<Shang Hang Lun>> in guide of clinic work.

<<Shang Han Lun>> tells how to assess a disorder (diagnosis) and how to use herbs for the treatment. It is very practicable. However, it did not tell why the disease can be assessed as such and why doctor should use this herb not that herb. Follow what it tells you to do, you can enjoy the success in clinic, but to really understand the reason behind the ways for diagnosis and treatment, different later doctors have different explanation. Most of the explanation or interpretations per se were difficult to understand too. This is one of the major reason that it is difficult to teach <<Shang Han Lun>>.

<< Shang Han Lun> also has at least two edits. They are not the same in many aspects. For each edit, there are mis-spelling, mis-writing, and missed paragraph (especially in the last chapter). All make the teaching and study of <<Shang Han Lun>> difficult.

If you are TCM doctor, ask yourself how much do you know about the <<Shang Han Lun>>?


[1] If we say that the <<Shang Han Lun>> is the manual of TCM, the <<Huang Di Nei Jing>> is the spirit of TCM.

[2] For the fact that TCM currently used in clinic by most TCM doctor is different from the old TCM, we term the former as current TCM. Current TCM can be regarded as the textbook TCM, since most doctors are affected or educated for TCM by the textbook they used when they are in TCM schools.