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Question: Are there differences in the complications arising from erroneous fire therapy?
Answer: In Taiyang disease (Taiyang Syndrome), when the pulse is floating, it should be resolved by inducing sweating. Sweat is the fluid of the Heart. The Heart governs Ying-Nutritive Qi (Ying-Qi). It is necessary to harmonize Ying-Qi and Wei-Defensive Qi (Wei-Qi), so that sweat emerges gently and the disease resolves. If fire therapy is used to force sweating, the pathogenic fire attacks inward, scorching the Ying-Qi. Consequently, one may experience rectal bleeding (Qingxue), jaundice, or delirious speech (Zhanyu). In severe cases, dry mouth, ulcerated tongue, withered bones, and damaged sinews occur. All these are manifestations of Yin depletion. This type of syndrome is easy to differentiate. Furthermore, in individuals whose Heart Yang is inherently deficient, exposure to fire scorching causes Heart Yang to float outward, leading to palpitations, mania, restlessness, and inability to lie still. Urgent measures are needed to retrieve the fleeing Yang spirit; occasionally, rescue is possible, but the condition remains critical. Although both involve erroneous fire therapy, the resulting complications differ between Yin depletion and Yang depletion. Nowadays, people dare not recklessly attempt fire therapy due to its dangers. However, during Taiyang disease, habitually using acrid-warm herbs to force sweating has consequences equivalent to erroneous fire therapy. How can one not be cautious?

Question: How does one identify Yangming disease?
Answer: The defining characteristic of Yangming disease is "Stomach-Fullness" (Weijia Shi). However, speaking generally of Stomach-Fullness, from where does one differentiate to know it is Yangming disease? There is a distinction between Meridian syndromes (Jing) and Fu-Organ syndromes (Fu). Fever, spontaneous sweating, aversion to cold absent, but aversion to heat present, along with dryness on the tongue, irritability, and thirst with desire to drink water, constitute a Yangming Meridian syndrome. If tidal fever, constipation, delirious speech, abdominal fullness, and pain are present, it belongs to a Yangming Fu-Organ syndrome. Pathogenic factors transmitted via meridians continue to transmit while in the Meridian, but cease transmitting once they enter the Fu-Organ. Thus, it is said that Yangming resides in the center, corresponding to Earth, serving as the destination for all pathogens, where transmission ceases. Resolution requires urgent purgation from below. Regarding transmission pathways, Yangming comes from Taiyang and goes to Shaoyang. If Taiyang symptoms have not yet resolved but Yangming symptoms have appeared, one must urgently extract the pathogen from Taiyang to cut off the pathway into Yangming. If Yangming symptoms are fully present but Shaoyang symptoms are absent, one should directly suppress the scattered heat of this meridian, harmonizing the Stomach fluids to achieve cure, thereby cutting off the exit pathway from Yangming. If Yangming symptoms persist but Shaoyang symptoms appear, one must urgently employ the Harmonizing method for Shaoyang to cut off the pathway from Shaoyang into the Three Yin meridians. For such transmitted pathogens, one must urgently assess the patient's Stomach fluids, attend to both preceding and subsequent conditions, and prevent adverse transformations; not all cases are suitable for purgation. Once pathogens enter the Fu-Organ and transmission ceases, if urgent purgation is not administered, fluids will be exhausted. In such cases, only urgent purgation to preserve Yin is appropriate, without hesitation. To identify Yangming disease, one must first accurately differentiate between Meridian and Fu-Organ syndromes. Those who claim that any Yangming disease should be uniformly treated with cooling and purgative methods are employing incorrect methods.