Zhang Zhongjing (about 150-219 A.D.), a famous doctor in the Eastern Han Dynasty, was honored by medical specialists after the Song Dynasty as Medical Sage. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, a Memorial Temple to the Medical Sage was built in his hometown Nanyang, Henan Province to commemorate his accomplishments. His book Treatise on Exogenous Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases laid a foundation for the development of clinical medicine in China.

His work was finished in around 200 to 210 A.D. “Shanghan” in traditional Chinese medicine (hereafter shortened as TCM), is actually a generic term for all exogenous febrile diseases. In his work, Zhang created three world firsts, i.e., first records of artificial respiration, drug clysis and treatment for biliary tract roundworm disease. Today, the book is recognized by the academe as the originator of Chinese medical prescription books, as well as the most influential clinical classic. Most of the prescriptions listed in the book are precise and appropriate, with many of them proven by modern science. Up till now, this work, being the source of TCM study, is still one of the major elementary courses offered by TCM colleges in China.

Treatise on Exogenous Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases has not only become a must-read book for Chinese doctors in later dynasties, but also spread to countries such as Japan, North Korea, Vietnam and Mongolia. There was even an ancient prescription school in Japan studying Zhang Zhongjing. Today, in some of the famous TCM pharmaceutical factories in Japan, the febrile prescriptions still account for over 60% of all prescriptions.

Zhang Zhongjing’s whole life was devoted to his patients. Therefore, he was loved and esteemed by civilians and was called “Medical Sage”.