Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber

Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber (Jingui Yaolue) -Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English
Compiled by Zhang Zhongjing, Eastern Han Dynasty, translated into English by Luo Xiwen
Published by New World Press, 2008
Library binding book, dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16, 1 Volume, 311 pages
ISBN: 9787801878267

Jinkui Yaolue, Synopsis of Golden Chamber in medical book or Essential Medical Treasures of the Golden Chamber in prescription book is a classic clinical book of traditional Chinese medicine written by Zhang Zhongjing (150-219) at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty and first published in the Northern Song Dynasty. The oldest known extant copy, believed to be bibliographically closest to the original, dates to 1340 and was printed with woodcuts in the early Ming dynasty.

Zhang Zhongjing, formal name Zhang Ji, was an Eastern Han physician and one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Eastern Han. He established medication principles and summed up the medicinal experience up until that time, thus making a great contribution to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

He learned medicine by studying from his townsfellow Zhang Bozu, assimilating from previous medicinal literature, and collecting many prescriptions elsewhere, finally writing the medical masterpiece "Shanghan Zabing Lun" (lit. "Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases"). Shortly after its publication the book was lost during wartime. Due to Zhang's contribution to Traditional Chinese medicine he is often regarded as the sage of Chinese medicine.

Zhang's masterpiece, Shanghan Zabing Lun, was collected by later people and compiled into two books, namely the Shang Han Lun (lit. "On Cold Damage"), which was a discourse on how to treat epidemic infectious diseases causing fevers prevalent during his era, and the other, highly influential doctrine Jinkui Yaolue (lit. "Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer"), a compendium of his clinical experiences. These two texts have been heavily reconstructed several times up to the modern era. Revered for authoring the Shang Han Za Bing Lun, Zhang Zhongjing is considered to have founded the Cold Damage or "Cold Disease" school of Chinese medicine and is widely considered the seminal expert to this day.