ICEAM Gdansk

The Shanghan Zabing Lun is the first historical manual to teach the treatment of both acute and chronic complex diseases that have been triggered externally or have arisen from internal damage. Though a classical work, it is of great clinical value for modern day practice.

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.

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.

The Treatise on Cold Damage shanghan lun is the oldest surviving clinical handbook in the history of Chinese medicine. Written by Eastern Han dynasty (circa 200 CE) imperial envoy Zhang Zhongjing, it is an integral part of his collective writings once labeled the Treatise on Cold Damage and Complex Diseases shanghan zabing lun. But the contents of the Shanghan Lun as we know it in current day is far from complete. The present versions studied in Chinese medical schools as well as in the West, do not include the original first three chapters of Rules for Pulse Differentiation bianmai fa, Rules on Pulse Assessment pingmai fa and Cold Damage Outline shanghan li. Regardless whatever motivation was behind the historical deletions of these passages, of the aforementioned chapters, the chapters on pulse instructions are crucial for anyone desiring to fully grasp Zhang Zhongjing’s clinical instructions. Especially since the pulse patterns maizheng form the core diagnostic parameters in the establishment of the formula patterns fangzheng by which the canonical clinician categorizes disease and therapy.

Japanese abdominal diagnosis or Fukushin is the diagnostic art developed in medieval Japan based on the canonical writings by Zhang Zhongjing. Careful inspection of the Shanghan Zabing Lun reveals countless references to abdominal conditions that could only have been diagnosed by actual palpation of the abdomen. The skill however never fully developed in China but flourished in Japan. Throughout history, two major trends and types of abdominal diagnosis developed, being the Nanjing and Shanghan Lun schools, which respectively diagnose the abdomen in service of either acupuncture or meridian treatment, and herbal treatment. Fukushin refers specifically to Shanghan Lun style of abdominal diagnosis developed by Japanese scholars during Edo period (1603-1867 CE) for the purpose of prescribing the Han dynasty formulas of Zhang Zhongjing.

The Treatise on Cold Damage or Shanghan Lun is one of the most prominent Eastern Han-dynasty (circa CE 200) classics in Chinese medicine and the first clinical handbook in China’s medical history. It is also the center of the Canonical Chinese Medicine Training.

This three weekend course is the instruction of specialized Materia Medica and formula studies in the service of canonical Chinese medicine as practiced by Zhang Zhongjing in the Shanghan Lun and the Jingui Yaolue.