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A question was asked: "The principles of medicine are extremely complex; how can one grasp the essentials to manage the complexity with simplicity?" I replied: "Diseases do not exist outside the human body, but within it. Try sitting quietly and observing inwardly. Visualize from the head and face, extending down from the chest to the feet, and from the soles of the feet upward to the back and head; visualize from the skin and flesh, penetrating inward to the sinews, bones, and zang-fu organs. In doing so, the outline of the entire medical text will be revealed." The onset of any disease falls into only three categories: internal injury (internal damage), external contraction (external invasion), and neither-internal-nor-external injury. Internal injuries include qi disorders (disorders of Qi), blood disorders (disorders of Blood), food stagnation (food retention), and the seven emotions: joy, anger, worry, thought, sorrow, fear, and fright. External contractions refer to the six climatic pathogens: wind, cold, summerheat, dampness, dryness, and fire. Neither-internal-nor-external injuries include traumatic injuries and conditions such as the five types of sudden death (wujue). Although there are three causes of disease, they do not exceed these categories. As for the myriad variations in symptoms, they can all be summarized by eight characters: cold, heat, deficiency, excess, exterior, interior, yin, and yang. Thus, change is governed by constancy. Regarding treatment methods, they are essentially categorized into the Seven Formulas (qifang) and the Ten Agents (shiji). The Seven Formulas are: large, small, slow, urgent, single, paired, and compound. The Ten Agents are: dispersing, unblocking, tonifying, purging, light, heavy, slippery, astringent, drying, and moistening. Mastery of these ensures appropriate therapeutic intervention. Furthermore, pathogenic factors of external contraction enter from the outside and should be treated with purgation rather than tonification. Pathogenic factors of internal injury arise from within and should be treated with tonification rather than purgation. However, tonification contains elements of purgation, and purgation contains elements of tonification; these represent the balancing acts of treatment methods. One must also distinguish between deceptive similarities, such as fire resembling water, water resembling fire, metal resembling wood, wood resembling metal, deficiency resembling excess, and excess resembling deficiency. Understanding these distinctions leaves no room for disease to conceal its true nature. Students of medicine, after reading, should close their eyes, concentrate their spirit, and constantly reflect deeply on these words. Eventually, they will experience a moment of sudden enlightenment, integrating knowledge thoroughly and comprehensively, leaving no doubts. With this mastery, how could one feel ashamed in managing life and death?

Diseases of the human body are inseparable from internal injury and external contraction. Within these two categories, nineteen characters suffice to summarize them all. For example, wind, cold, summerheat, dampness, dryness, and fire constitute external contraction. Joy, anger, worry, thought, sorrow, fear, fright, along with yang deficiency (yang xu), yin deficiency (yin xu), and food stagnation constitute internal injury. In total, there are nineteen characters, from which the thousands of transformations of disease arise. Although diseases vary infinitely, they ultimately revolve around these nineteen characters, which boil down to just internal injury and external contraction. As the saying goes, "He who knows the essence needs but one word to conclude; he who does not know the essence wanders endlessly." In this field, one must grasp the main points to provide effective rescue.