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The disease known as *Wenyi* (Warm Pestilence) is not caused by wind, cold, summer-heat, or dampness, but by a specific "abnormal qi" (pestilential pathogen) existing in the heaven and earth. Its transmission follows nine patterns, which constitutes the critical juncture in treating pestilence. Yet from ancient times to the present, no one has ever elucidated this. Although Zhang Zhongjing authored the *Treatise on Cold Damage* (*Shanghan Lun*), his methods begin with Taiyang syndrome (an initial stage of external contraction where pathogenic factors affect the exterior), or transmit to Yangming syndrome (pathogen entering the stomach and intestines transforming into heat), or to Shaoyang syndrome (pathogen between the interior and exterior), or the three Yang meridians transmit directly to the Stomach organ. This is because the *Treatise on Cold Damage* was established for external contraction of wind-cold; thus, its transmission pattern is fundamentally different from that of *Wenyi*.

Subsequently, numerous scholars discussed this topic, numbering more than dozens, all interpreting it through the lens of Cold Damage. Their descriptions of *Wenyi* syndromes were extremely brief. Consequently, medical practitioners possessed much recorded knowledge but had nowhere to apply it, inevitably leading to misidentification, such as mistaking a deer for a horse.

Initially, I followed the prevailing view: that spring, summer, and autumn involve warm diseases, while only winter involves Cold Damage. However, upon comparing years, I found that *Wenyi* occurs in all four seasons. Investigating Cold Damage further, during severe cold, although symptoms such as headache, body pain, aversion to cold, absence of sweating, and fever appeared—generally resembling Taiyang syndrome—if left untreated until the sixth or seventh day, transmission to other stages rarely occurred. Each time dispersing and releasing agents were used, recovery followed immediately after sweating. Occasionally, some recovered without medication. Never did failure to sweat result in severe conditions like jaundice, delirium, mania, or prickly tongue coating. These are merely superficial ailments of common colds, not true Cold Damage. Both Cold Damage and common colds involve contracting wind-cold, differing only in severity. In reality, common colds are frequent, while true Cold Damage is rare. Moreover, the pathogens contracted in *Wenyi* and Cold Damage differ vastly. Now that the distinction between deer and horse is clear, it becomes even more evident that Cold Damage is extremely scarce in the world.

Zhang Zhongjing regarded Cold Damage as an urgent condition; hasty neglect often led to death, so he formulated treatises to benefit future generations, demonstrating great benevolence. However, both Cold Damage and *Wenyi* are urgent conditions. For the rarer disease, he earnestly advised the world. Given that *Wenyi* is a hundred times more prevalent than Cold Damage, how could one bear to ignore it? Some argue that Zhang Zhongjing originally had separate treatises for *Wenyi*, but due to the passage of time and destruction by war, they were lost. Even the *Treatise on Cold Damage* is considered a remnant of scattered texts, compiled and fabricated by Wang Shuhe, who falsely claimed it was the complete work. It is clear that discussions on *Wenyi* may also have been lost due to scattering.

In the Xinsi year of the Chongzhen reign (1641), pestilential qi spread widely. Shandong, Zhejiang, and the two Directly Governed Prefectures (Beizhili and Nanzhili) saw high infection rates, worsening in May and June, sometimes infecting entire households. At the onset, contemporary physicians mistakenly treated these cases using methods for Cold Damage, resulting invariably in danger. Some families, misled by the belief that "the seventh day brings self-healing, otherwise the fourteenth day cures," delayed treatment, causing deaths before the expected period. Others recklessly used harsh purgatives or tonics without proper sequence, leading to death. Some encountered physicians lacking insight, who, due to doubt and timidity, used mild remedies for urgent conditions. Although immediate harm was avoided, delays often proved fatal, a phenomenon seen everywhere. Those with mild infections survived by luck; those with severe infections, compounded by mismanagement, died in uncountable numbers.

Alas! Adhering to ancient methods does not suit current diseases. Reducing current diseases to fit ancient texts, which lack explicit discussions, leads to ineffective prescriptions. Physicians wander aimlessly, patients grow increasingly critical, and as urgency increases, medication becomes chaotic. Patients do not die from the disease itself, but from physician error; nor do they die from physician error, but from the loss of canonical wisdom. Alas! How unfortunate the people have been for millennia. Though I am humble and uncultured, I have calmly investigated the principles, analyzing the nature of the contracted qi, the portals of entry, the sites of residence, and the patterns of transmission. Below, I detail the methods I have personally verified and applied, awaiting correction by superior experts.

Written in mid-autumn of the Renwu year of the Chongzhen reign (1642) at Dan Dan Zhai by Wu Youxing (courtesy name Ke Yi) of Dongting, Gusu.