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The *Huangdi Neijing* (Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon) states: "When humans are injured by cold, they develop a heat disease." It also states: "Heat diseases belong to the category of Shanghan (Cold Damage)." The heat disease mentioned here refers to contracting the pathogen immediately upon exposure to severe cold during the winter season, and is not comparable to summerheat diseases occurring in summer. Summerheat diseases arise after the Summer Solstice, when the pathogenic factor of steaming summerheat from the natural environment injures the human body; this is vastly different from the heat disease caused by Cold Damage in winter. Heat diseases caused by winter cold enter from the exterior, whereas heat diseases caused by summer heat originate from within. Since the onset times differ, the treatment methods must also differ. Acrid-warm exterior-releasing methods and cold-cool clearing-and-resolving methods are incomparable.

Since Wang Shuhe wrote the preface to the *Shanghan Lun* (Treatise on Cold Damage), stating: "Those who contract cold and fall ill immediately are named Shanghan; those who do not fall ill immediately harbor the cold toxin in their skin and muscles, which transforms into Wenbing (Warm Diseases) in spring and Shubing (Summerheat Diseases) at the Summer Solstice. Shubing is extremely hot and more severe than Wenbing." With this statement emerging, physicians of later generations all believed that springtime Wenbing arises from winter cold injury, and summertime Shubing also arises from winter cold injury. Thus, it was held that both Wenbing and Rebing (Heat Diseases) result from winter cold exposure, transforming only in spring and summer. Is this statement not greatly erroneous?

The Classic says: "If one is injured by cold in winter, one will surely suffer from Wenbing in spring." This implies that if one fails to store essence during winter and is exposed to cold pathogens, one will inevitably exhibit symptoms of Wenbing in spring; it does not mean that springtime Wenbing necessarily transforms from winter cold. Furthermore, it states: "Heat occurring after the Summer Solstice is called Shu (Summerheat)." This originates from the intense heat qi of the natural environment, contracted immediately upon exposure. How could there be a logic where cold toxin hides in the skin and muscles, does not manifest in spring, lies dormant through the three months of spring, and then transforms into heat after the Summer Solstice? Such reasoning is untenable.

Wang Shuhe further stated: "In the third and fourth lunar months, yang qi is still weak; restrained by cold, the resulting heat illness is mild. In the fifth and sixth lunar months, yang qi is abundant; restrained by cold, the resulting heat illness is severe." The cold in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth months is sudden seasonal cold, distinct from the severe cold stored away in winter. If it is said that spring transforms into Wenbing and summer transforms into heat due to the transmission of winter cold, yet it is also said that abundant yang qi is restrained by cold, then regarding the transformation into Wenbing or heat, does it stem from winter cold or from seasonal epidemic cold? His statements are contradictory.

When wind-cold injures the human body, before the disease manifests, one cannot predict which meridian or zang-fu organ the pathogen resides in; only after manifestation can one ascertain the cause and nature of the contraction. To claim that winter cold exposure necessitates the prediction that spring will definitely transform into Wenbing and summer into heat is rigid and unverifiable.

Generally speaking, cold damage contracted in winter with immediate onset is called Shanghan; illness arising in spring due to failure to store essence in winter is called Wenbing; heat illness contracted from summerheat in summer is called Rebing. These three conditions each arise from pathogenic factors contracted in their respective seasons, and do not refer to cold transforming into Wenbing or heat.