典藏书目

One person contracted an epidemic pathogen, presenting with fever, restlessness, and thirst, desiring to drink ice water. The physician believed that all diseases require avoiding cold and raw foods, thus prohibiting it strictly. The patient suffered greatly from the denial of this request, resulting in eyes bulging like fire, scorched and dry throat, frequent rising of smoke-like flames, insomnia day and night, visual hallucinations of numerous ghosts, severe illness with extreme suffering. The patient stated that if only a drop of frozen beverage could be swallowed, they would have no regrets even if they died. Seizing an opportunity, the patient crawled and secretly stole a basin of well water, placing it beside the pillow. After drinking one cup, the eyes suddenly became clear; after two cups, the ghostly visions vanished; after three cups, the voice returned to the throat; after four cups, the sinews and bones felt relaxed; upon drinking six cups, unaware of the cup falling beside the pillow, the patient fell into a deep sleep. Soon after, profuse sweating occurred like rain, soaking clothes and bedding, leading to a spontaneous recovery. This was because the individual was thin and prone to internal heat, possessing a constitution of Yang organ nature. Initially, heat was added, causing dryness of the meridians. Subsequently, the pathogenic factor transmitted to the exterior, preventing resolution through normal sweating. The mistaken use of acrid-warm dispersing agents aggravated the disease. Now, with the frozen beverage, the interior and exterior harmonized and moistened. As the saying goes, removing the detriment is equivalent to promoting the benefit; thus, natural resolution through sweating was appropriate. Furthermore, cases where deficiency sinking occurs due to food stagnation, phlegm obstruction, or the misuse of cold-natured medicines, resulting in non-healing diseases, should all adopt the strategy of "abandoning the disease to treat the detriment." By analogy, one can respond to infinite variations.

All external pathogens have degrees of severity. Only those who contract a mild epidemic pathogen are often unrecognized by people, frequently leading to misdiagnosis and transformation into chronic stubborn diseases. For example, consider dysentery occurring without restraint day and night, with inability to ingest food and fluids; everyone knows this is a critical form of dysentery. In milder cases, although defecation occurs four or five times daily, diet and daily activities remain normal. People recognize this as mild dysentery and do not mistakenly treat it as another disease, attributing it merely to accumulation and stagnation. Conversely, severe cases of warm epidemic present with body heat like fire, headache and body pain, chest and abdominal fullness, prickly tongue coating, delirious speech, macules, jaundice, and mania. Everyone recognizes this as a critical epidemic. However, in shallow infections, symptoms are mild: slight headache and body pain, low-grade afternoon tidal fever, minimal reduction in appetite, occasional postprandial fullness or nausea, and a slightly rapid pulse. Such epidemics are most easily misidentified. Even physicians who usually regard Taiyang syndrome (Taiyang Bing) and warm epidemics as major diseases may fail to recognize them when symptoms are inconspicuous. Moreover, during the initial infection, individuals are unaware of the onset and the presence of the pathogen, lacking objective evidence. Because the contracted qi is weak, the manifested symptoms at onset are not severe. Despite headache and body pain, the ability to eat continuously and walk unaided makes it difficult to identify as an epidemic. Patients, unable to trace the cause, often falsely claim origins. Physicians, failing to examine carefully, may erroneously attribute it to recent minor exertion. Citing Li Dongyuan’s theory of "exhaustion injuring the Spleen, causing Qi collapse," they might rigidly apply the principle of "sweet-warm to remove great heat," prescribing Buzhong Yiqi Tang (Tonify the Middle and Augment the Qi Decoction). This tonifies and obstructs the pathogen, leading to increased heat, emaciation, further unnecessary tonification, and potentially critical danger. If a woman contracts this around the time of childbirth, physicians might diagnose Yin deficiency fever or Blood deficiency pain, administering Siwu Tang (Four Substance Decoction) or Dihuang Wan (Rehmannia Pill), thereby stagnating the pathogen. Prolonged delay solidifies the pathogen. Consulting gynecologists yields only nourishing Yin and Blood strategies, which fail repeatedly. Switching to cooling Blood and moving Stasis treatments fails because the original pathogen remains, and accumulated heat cannot be cleared. The patient gradually becomes emaciated, eventually developing wasting syndromes. Individuals inevitably suffer from emotional stress and depression. Physicians, unaware it is an epidemic, might cite Zhu Danxi’s theory of "five fires fanning each other," diagnosing Heart Fire flaming upward or Liver Fire attacking. They gather cold-natured herbs hoping to directly suppress the fire, but this coagulates the pathogen and injures Stomach Qi. Without eliminating the epidemic pathogen, how can Stasis-Heat be cleared? Delay leads to skeletal emaciation and death. Or, if a patient has a lingering chronic disease and encounters a mild epidemic, presenting with body pain and fever, both physician and patient may assume the original disease has worsened, continuing previous modified prescriptions. This hinders the treatment of the epidemic, worsening the condition until death without realization. Such various scenarios are too numerous to recount. Briefly listing a few allows for extrapolation to handle infinite variations.