shanghanlun

Definition of Greater Yang in Shang Han Lun (line 1)

By Fornia ⋅ February 20, 2008 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

太阳之为病，脉浮，头项强痛而恶寒。 (line 1)

Line 1 tells you what a Greater Yang disease encompasses. In this case, three things

1. floating pulse
2. stiffness and pain in the head and nape
3. aversion to cold

This line tells three features of a Greater Yang disease.

It sounds like symptoms of flu here. In fact, most of us will call this an “exterior pattern,” the result of being infiltrated by an external pathogen.

Think: If Monsieur Zhang didn’t go any further, I think most of us would GET IT. We would understand that a Greater Yang disease is a pattern that manifests when the pathogen is at the exterior.

But he did go further, and defining three sub-categories of the Greater Yang disease.

1. Wind Strike (中风)
2. Cold Damage (伤寒)
3. Warm Disease (温病)

it’s useful to ponder why he did.

In my opinion, the overarching idea that Monsieur. Zhang (张仲景) is playing around with is the various ways different people react to an opportunitistic infection. Some bodies react by having  fever, with sweat breaking out and they obviously feel the chills (Wind Strike). For others, the chills are more protracted, and it takes longer for the internal thermostat to adjust to a higher temperature (Cold Damage). Yet others get infected, but show another set of signs – heat effusion and thirst, but without any aversion to cold (Warm Disease).

Using what he then knew, he proposed three sub-categories – “patterns” if you may – and proposed different treatment strategies.

Today, we can look back and say to Mr. Zhang, “Hey dude, we found these microbes in the air, and different microbes will cause different reactions.” I think he’d be very interested in finding out more – the diligent bloke he is. The existence of microbes notwithstanding, we still have to take a person’s unique immune reaction into account, that is, people possess different degrees and dimensions of health, and are suited to different kinds of medicines. Had there been no advance in pharmaceutical technologies, Ephedra Decoction and Cinnamon Twig Decoction would still be proposed.

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