Author of the Shanghan Lun and Jingui Yaolüe; the earliest Chinese medical writer with a surviving preface.
神農本草經
Han, attributed to the culture hero Shennong; a compiled text with no single author.
The Shennong Bencao Jing classifies 365 drugs into three grades — superior, medium, inferior — by whether they can be taken long…
傷寒論
Zhang Zhongjing, early 3rd century CE; the received text was reconstituted in the Song.
Written in the aftermath of an epidemic, the Shanghan Lun organises illness into six conformations and matches each to a formula. It…
金匱要略
Zhang Zhongjing, early 3rd century CE; recovered and printed in the Northern Song.
The Jingui Yaolüe is what survived of the Shanghan Zabing Lun once the cold-damage half had been extracted: chronic and miscellaneous conditions,…