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The prescriptions of later generations have numbered in the hundreds of millions, none of which are sufficient to be compared with ancient prescriptions. In antiquity, when the Sages formulated prescriptions, they deduced the fundamental principles of materia medica, identified the specific efficacies of herbs, examined the compliance or opposition of their qi and flavor, assessed the preferences and aversions of the zang-fu organs, and matched the relationships between sovereign, minister, assistant, and envoy herbs; furthermore, they explored the origins of diseases and traced the pathways of the meridians. Their thinking was far-reaching, and their meaning profound; using no more than three or four herbs, yet their applications were inexhaustible. The wisdom of the Sages truly embodied the unity with Heaven and Earth, surpassing the capacity of ordinary human thought. From antiquity to the present, transmitted through thousands of sages, there has been no daring to let it fall into disuse. When Mr. Zhang Zhongjing (Zhang Jingyue) came along, he further clarified the methods of application, posed questions and difficulties, and specified the symptoms for primary treatment. His *Shanghan Lun* (Treatise on Cold Damage) and *Jingui Yaolue* (Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Cabinet) gathered the greatness of a thousand sages, inheriting from the past and enlightening the future, such that ten thousand generations could not transcend its scope. These are called ancient prescriptions, immortal alongside the *Huangdi Neijing* (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon). Later famous masters, such as Cang Gong, Bian Que, Hua Tuo, and Sun Simiao, each had their own lineages of transmission, and although their origins differed slightly from those of Zhongjing, they still established their own schools. However, they could not maintain the continuous lineage passed down from the *Lingshu* (Spiritual Pivot), *Suwen* (Basic Questions), and *Shennong Bencao Jing* (Divine Farmer's Materia Medica) as the orthodox main stem. Subsequently, habits accumulated and persisted; whenever writing a book, one would inevitably compose hundreds or thousands of new prescriptions. The scholars of the Tang Dynasty, while broad in their use of herbs, lacked the subtlety of transformation. As for the Song Dynasty people, they did not understand herbs well, and their prescriptions were rigid, substantial, and superficial. The Yuan Dynasty was hailed as extremely prosperous, with various schools establishing their own domains, merely indulging in personal views. By the Ming Dynasty, practitioners merely followed the remnants of the Yuan traditions. Today's physicians often speak of "ancient prescriptions," unaware that the term refers to different things. If referring to prescriptions from antiquity, then apart from those transmitted by Mr. Zhang Zhongjing, there are very few left; if referring to prescriptions made in the Song and Yuan dynasties, then those worthy of emulation and transmission are extremely rare, while many are unlawful and absurd—how can they be regarded as canonical? If considering all prescriptions before the Ming Dynasty as "ancient," then there are not less than several million. Commonly used herbs number only in the hundreds, yet prescriptions number in the millions; picking a few herbs at random already constitutes a prescription, so why must one insist on naming a specific formula? Alas! Alas! How rigorous were the ancient prescriptions, and how easy are the modern ones! Among them, there may indeed be ingenious methods and subtle uses of herbs, which might possibly supplement what the ancients missed and serve as references. However, regarding the great principles and laws, they certainly cannot compare. Moreover, some prescriptions violate classics and laws, potentially causing harm. Would that there were learned scholars to select and preserve the best, gather the greatest achievements, and delete the inappropriate; this would indeed be a magnificent undertaking for millennia. I harbor this ambition but lack the time to accomplish it!