The Shanghan Zabing Lun or the Treatise on Cold Damage and Complex Diseases is considered the forefather of all formula books. The original work was lost to the tooth of time, but most of its contents are preserved in two extant works called the Treatise on Cold Damage shanghan lun and the Concise Essentials of the Golden Cabinet jingui yaolue. The first work primarily addresses externally triggered disorders while the latter work describes the pathology and treatment of complex diseases generated internally.

Canonical Chinese Medicine is the style of Chinese medicine practiced along the tenets codified in the Western and Eastern Han dynasty (approx. 200 BC- 200 CE) medical classics or canons. It is the foundation of both clinical and theoretical Chinese medicine as we know it. Canonical Chinese medicine is comprised of two main schools being the Yellow Emperor huangdi 黄帝school of Medical Canons yijing pai 醫經派and the Divine Farmer shennong 神农school of Canonical Formulas jingfang pai经方派.

During this course, a strict system of clinical modification will be taught. The system was developed by Dr. Versluys over the course of the last ten years by analyzing both Zhang Zhongjing’s prescriptions as well as the characteristics of the Tian-Zeng lineage’s clinical practice. It is fully grounded and based in the classical writings of the original designer of the formulas, Zhang Zhongjing. The system is organized along a hierarchical system of formula modifications and provides a failsafe method for modification to adapt to a broader collection of complex clinical manifestations as often encountered in Chinese medicine clinic in the West. A waterproof modification system forms the basis of classical herbal practice and the elimination of random clinical variables which are the greatest cause for failure in clinic.