Design Description

From the Han to the Six Dynasties period, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) flourished, with major figures such as Zhang Zhongjing, Hua Tuo, Wang Shuhe, Ge Hong, Tao Hongjing, and Huangfu Mi laying the foundations of TCM theory and clinical practice.

Zhang Zhongjing authored Shanghan Zabing Lun (Treatise on Cold Damage and Miscellaneous Diseases), in which he established the liujing bianzheng (pattern identification of six meridians), systematically discussed both externally contracted diseases and miscellaneous diseases due to internal injury, and laid the foundation for the TCM principle of bianzheng lunzhi (treatment based on pattern identification). Famous formulae such as Guizhi Tang (Cinnamon Twig Decoction) and Mahuang Tang (Ephedra Decoction) from the work remain in use today; Zhang’s approach of “observing the mai (vessel) and zheng (pattern), and treating according to the pattern” pioneered TCM therapeutic approaches.

Hua Tuo is honoured as the “forerunner of surgery”. He created the anaesthetic Mafeisan (Cannabis Boiling Powder), performed abdominal surgery, and, imitating the five animals, devised Wuqinxi (Five-Animal Frolics), pioneering surgery and daoyin (guiding and stretching) techniques.

Wang Shuhe compiled Maijing (The Pulse Classic), categorising pulse conditions into 24 types, establishing the pulse-taking method of “exclusive selection of the cunkou (inch-opening)”, and clarifying the correspondence between the cun, guan, and chi positions and the zang-fu organs.

Ge Hong authored Zhouhou Beiji Fang (Emergency Prescriptions Kept Up One’s Sleeve), the earliest extant clinical emergency manual, recording methods such as Qinghao (Sweet Wormwood Herb, Herba Artemisiae Annuae) juice for malaria treatment. Its characteristics of simplicity, convenience, affordability, and efficacy had a profound influence on later generations and provided key inspiration for the modern discovery of artemisinin.

Tao Hongjing compiled Bencao Jing Jizhu (Collected Annotations to the Classic of Materia Medica), developing the theory of four qi (cold, hot, warmth, and coolness) and five flavours (sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty), pioneering classification by natural attributes and therapeutic effects, and recording 730 medicinal substances, laying the foundation for later bencao (materia medica) studies.

Huangfu Mi compiled Zhenjiu Jiayi Jing (Systematic Classic of Acupuncture and Moxibustion), systematically summarising 349 acupoints and specifying needling depth and moxibustion standards, promoting acupuncture and moxibustion as an independent discipline.

Together, physicians of this period established the foundations of TCM encompassing principles, methods, formulae, materia medica, and acupuncture, marking its transformation from empirical accumulation to a mature, systematised theory.