Brief Introduction to the Study on Warm Disease

1.What is the Study on Warm Disease

The Study on Warm Disease belongs to the clinical fundamental disciplines in TCM and is one of the four great classical courses in the TCM educational system. It studies the principal laws of occurrence,development and outcome of warm disease, as well as the main techniques of its diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Warm disease refers to all the acute, exogenously affected febrile diseases excepting the exogenous cold-induced diseases, and can cover the most acute, infectious and febrile diseases, and is basically caused by the invasion of different warm pathogens.

2.Brief history of Study on Warm Disease

Huangdi Neijing first put forward the concept, range, pattern classification, acupuncture treatment and prognosis of warm disease.Nanjing points out that cold-induced disorder in a broad sense covers the following five kinds of exogenous diseases: wind invasion, coldinduced disorder in a narrow sense, damp warm, heat disease and warm disease.

Zhang Zhongjing inherited the definition, classification and main idea of pattern differentiation of the exogenous febrile disease in the Neijing, considered warm disease to be one of 3 types of Taiyang pattern, and many formulas in his Shanghan Lun can be effectively used also for the warm diseases in the later ages.

There were some medical specialists on Shanghan Lun in Song Dynasty found out that the therapeutic rules and formulas are unable to cure all syndromes of exogenous diseases, so they should be modified or changed to a certain degree.

Liu Wansu（刘完素）, the chief representative of the Cold School of Medicine（寒凉学派）during Jin and Yuan Dynasties, emphasized the six patterns in the exogenous diseases may be all transformed into excess-heat syndrome, and thus advocated the use of medicines of cold nature and created the famous prescriptions for both clearing away heat and relieving exterior syndrome, such as Shuangjie San（双解散）and Fangfeng Tongsheng San（防风通圣散）.

Another medical specialist Wang Andao（王安道）at the end of Yuan Dynasty, clearly distinguished the warm disease from the coldinduced disease in concept and treatment, and opposed to obscure the both.

The theoretical and clinical systems of the warm disease had been completed by a lot of medical scholars and physicians during Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. Among them, the following five medical specialists had made the most outstanding contributions.

Wu Youxing（吴有性）, lived at end of Ming Dynasty, a pioneer medical scholar of Warm Disease School, wrote the first monograph in TCM history, i.e., Treatise on Warm Pestilence（Wenyi Lun 温疫论）, put forward new viewpoints of etiology, intruding way and pathogenic features of the warm pathogens, and created the rules and basic formulas for dispersing the pathogens from the Moyuan（膜原）onto the exterior body outwardly.

Ye Gui（叶桂）at the beginning of Qing Dynasty, a recognized leader of the School of Warm Disease, first advocated the pattern differentiation of Wei→Qi→Ying→Xue phases of warm disease, and corresponding therapeutic principles in his famous academic work,Treatise on Warm Febrile Disease（Wenre Lun 温热论）, greatly enriched the diagnostic techniques in inspection of tongue, teeth with gums and skin eruptions, and left a lot of valuable and effective medical records of warm disease for later generations.

Xue Xue（薛雪）. as famous a physician as his contemporary Ye Gui and specially skilful in dealing with damp-heat category of warm disease, and laid a solid foundation of the cause, pathogenesis,symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of this category of warm disease in his monograph, Detailed Analysis of Damp-Heat（Shire Tiaobian湿热条辨）.

Wu Tang（吴瑭）, a noted expert of warm disease in the middle period of Qing Dynasty, wrote a representative work of the School of Warm Disease, named Detailed Analysis of Warm Diseases（Wenbing Tiaobian 温病条辨）, in which he systematically summarized his own clinical experiences in diagnosis and treatment of various warm diseases, created the differentiation outline based on the Sanjiao patterns, and collected and formulated a series of effective prescriptions for the warm diseases.

And Wang Shixiong（王士雄）, a well-known specialist of warm disease just after Wu Tang, compiled another representative work of the School of Warm Disease, namely, Compendium of Warm Febrile Disease（Wenre Jingwei 温热经纬）, that has been considered as a completely theoretical collection of the warm diseases from Neijing to the middle period of Qing Dynasty, so has profoundly influenced the development of warm disease afterward.

(1) Large quantities of TCM universities, colleges and schools have established at home and abroad, and Study on Warm Disease has been taught as a required clinical course.

(2) The textbook of Study on Warm Disease has been published in many editions, and its quality improves gradually.

(3) The level of diagnosis and treatment of some commonly seen warm diseases has raised evidently, especially in influenza, epidemic encephalitis B, mumps, acute viral hepatitis and so on.

(4) Modern research on warm disease in pathogenesis, tongue inspection, basic therapeutic principles and commonly used formulas has made a great progress.

3.Difference between cold-induced disease and warm Disease

The cold-induced disease in a broad sense includes all of exogenous affected diseases, however,that in a narrow sense refers only to the exogenous disease caused by wind-cold pathogen.Shanghan Lun had laid the first theoretical and practical foundation for the exogenous diseases though it mainly discusses the cold-induced disease in a narrow sense actually, while the School of Warm Disease is a necessary development and supplementary to the Shanghan Lun.

Comparison between Cold-induced disease and Warm Disease