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Previous authors mostly discussed fever due to Yin deficiency, rarely mentioning fever due to Yang deficiency; only Li Dongyuan (Li Gao) had vigorously differentiated it. The so-called Yang deficiency caused by labor injury often results from excessive fatigue, profuse sweating, or strenuous sexual intercourse, leading to sweat pouring like a bath and internal exhaustion of Yang Qi, which is an example of the loss of Yang Qi (Wang Yang). This manifests as superficial heat; at first glance, it is indistinguishable from exterior syndrome (Exogenous Disease), and if complicated by an exogenous pathogen, differentiation becomes even more difficult. The head, face, chest, and abdomen burn like fire, with a subjective sensation of burning in the heart, resembling warm disease (Warm Pathogen Disease). However, its treatment has nothing to do with that for exterior syndromes or warm diseases. If mistaken, death may occur within moments; even in mild cases, death occurs within five to seven days.

The points of differentiation are as follows: In exterior syndromes, the pulse must be string-tight (Xian Jin); in warm diseases, the pulse must be surging-large (Hong Da), surging upward and forceful; whereas in labor injuries, the pulse must be slow-weak (Chi Ruo) and powerless, or floating-empty and hurried (Fu Xu Cu), or deep-thin and rapid (Chen Xi Ji), or intermittent and gurgling like rolling pearls, or choppy and irregular (Can Wu Bu Tiao), or rebounding immediately upon pressure without momentum, or soft, long, round, and clean without turbidity. In exterior syndromes, all four limbs are hot; in labor injuries, both feet must be cold and cannot be very hot. Upon manual pressure on the skin, warmth increases the longer one presses in warm diseases; in labor injuries, prolonged pressure feels like cold air invading. In exterior syndromes with intense heat, there is necessarily irritability and coarse breathing; in labor injuries, the breath is calm and the body is still, unable to turn over. In warm diseases with internal heat, the entire abdomen from top to bottom is hot; in labor injuries, only the heart region feels hot, indicating that Yang Qi has detached from its root and gathered above. In warm diseases with internal heat, there is necessarily thirst and an insatiable desire to drink; in labor injuries, the mouth is dry, the patient desires water but does not want to drink, and if they do, they drink little. In exterior syndromes, the tongue coating turns from white to yellow; in warm diseases, the coating turns from white or yellow to black, becoming dry with prickles; in labor injuries, the tongue may have thin white coating, be pale red without coating, be black and moist, or have red-purple-black spots on the tip while the center remains clean. In exterior and warm diseases with intense heat, the complexion must be red; in labor injuries, the complexion is not red, or shows floating redness on the malar bones while the forehead appears dull. In exterior and warm diseases with intense heat, there is necessarily confusion, delirium, and restlessness of hands and feet; in labor injuries, consciousness is clear, but the patient lies down with a heavy body difficult to move, muttering one or two sentences in sleep with very faint voice and breath. Among the aforementioned signs, even if not all appear, two or three places can always be used for differentiation. If the tongue is slightly stiff and short, or speech is overly polite and detailed, differing from usual, this indicates that the True Qi has departed, and no divine medicine can save them.

Treatment should initially involve adding a slight amount of sour flavor to warming tonics to astringe Yang Qi and return it to its root. If there is an exterior syndrome, wait until the Middle Qi regains strength and signs of restlessness appear, then use Buzhong Yiqi Tang (Tonify the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction) with added dispersing herbs to cure it. Differentiation is also needed for complications involving food retention, blood stasis, phlegm-dampness, dampness, and qi stagnation, as well as concurrent Yin deficiency, all of which require simultaneous consideration. If there are pre-existing masses (Pi Kuai), treatment is particularly difficult. Misuse of Baihu Tang (White Tiger Decoction), Sanhuang Xie Xin Tang (Three Yellow Heart-Draining Decoction), or Xijiao Dihuang Tang (Rhinoceros Horn and Rehmannia Decoction) will cause immediate decline of Heart Qi and faintness, inability to speak, with no hope of recovery. If the exterior syndrome is severe and the labor injury is mild, this is what Tao Jian'an called "labor-induced cold damage" (Laoli Shanghan), similar to exogenous disease in deficient individuals; it can be cured by adding tonifying herbs to dispersing formulas.