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The superior physician treats disease before it arises; in this regard, prescriptions hold the highest status, and thus classical treatises were established. Classical treatises represent the profound aspects of medicine. The average physician treats disease after it has manifested; it was then that prescriptions began to exist. Prescriptions are the more rudimentary aspect of medicine. This is not by choice, but rather because [physicians] observe the suffering of the people and therefore formulate prescriptions based on specific diseases. In later generations, the reverence for medicine has been long-standing. Learning prescriptions is favored because they are concise and simple; exhausting oneself with classical treatises is avoided because they are tedious and complex. Consequently, instruction is predominantly passed down through prescriptions, while those seeking to explore classical treatises are nonexistent. To abandon the profundity of the Way while cherishing its rudiments—how can one hope for miraculous and excellent medical skills? At the age of fifteen, I resolved to study medicine. Eighteen years have now passed. Fearing to bring disgrace upon the medical profession, I day and night remain anxious, revering only the classical treatises and daring not to consider myself correct. Although I have wandered through various prescription texts, I still feel I have not attained full comprehension. If one does not understand the purport of prescriptions, their indications, the ascending/descending, floating/sinking, cold/hot/warm/neutral properties, and benign/toxic natures of various herbs, nor the principles of dispersing, unblocking, tonifying, draining, lightness/heaviness, slipperiness/astringency, dryness/moisture, and the logic of opposites complementing each other or similars following each other, but merely clings to prescriptions to treat disease, how can one ensure no harm comes to others? Thus, moved by compassion, I selected over seven hundred prescriptions from ancient skilled physicians, measured them against the classics, refined them with my own insights, corrected them according to clinical manifestations, and elucidated their subtle meanings. I compiled them into six volumes, titling the work *Yifang Kao* (Investigation of Medical Prescriptions). The purpose is to investigate the herbs and formulas, the clinical signs, the nomenclature, the historical accounts, the variations and adaptations, the merits and faults, and the underlying reasons, rather than merely recording prescriptions casually. A gentleman remarked: "This person, young and lacking in depth, rashly discusses the ancients; thus, Wu Kun bears guilt." If there are awakened individuals in the world who point out flaws upon seeing this work and offer criticism or approval, I shall be grateful as if gaining a teacher. Those engaged in the art of healing who ponder and cherish this work, keeping it close for reference, I shall be grateful as if gaining companions. In remote mountain corners or distant lakes and seas, where finding a skilled physician is difficult, if opening this book to inspect prescriptions allows one to study these humble arguments and self-prescribe with discretion, then fulfills my intention to save lives. However, if some still discuss antiquity, slighting Zhang Zhongjing and Sun Simiao while venerating Xuanyuan and Qibo, disparaging general prescriptions while exalting classical treatises, then they fall into the category Mencius described as "difficult to converse with those who wander in the gate of the Sages," rendering this volume superfluous!

Preface by Wu Kun of Gushu, in the first month of winter in the year Jiashen, the 12th year of the Wanzhi reign of the Great Ming.