Research On The Clinical Academic Thought Of Zheng Qin-an Who Was The Founder Of "Huo Shen" Academic School

In thousands of years, Traditional Chinese Medicine has developed many academic schools. In Qing Dynasty, a new academic school emerged---- school of "Huo Shen".The reason for the name of "Huo Shen", was they followed the clinical Methods of Zhang Zhong-jing who was a famous physician of traditional Chinese Medicine. They were good at using traditional Chinese drugs with property of "hot", such as aconite, ginger and so on, to treat a variety of critical and serious diseases. Its unique theory and superior efficacy were remarkable, which attracted numerous clinical physicians to follow. The school of "Huo Shen" was founded by Zheng Shou-quan, who was a famous physician of late Qing Dynasty. Zheng Shou-quan was born in Sichuan Province. He studied medicine following Liu Zhi-tang, and deeply researched Huangdi Neijing, Zhou Yi, Shang Han Za Bing Lun, and so on, gradually formed his own reinforcing yang theory. Zheng has his own unique theory system, medicine system and syndrome differentiation system. This paper will summarize and analysis his academic thought in three parts.The Modern research on the theories of school of "Huo Shen" and Zheng Qin-an consists of five aspects. First, Zheng Qin-an’s life and transmission research; Second, the unique theory of Zheng dissertation; Third, research on the regularity of prescription drugs that Zheng and school of "Huo Shen" commonly used; Fourth, excerpts and discussion the school of "Huo Shen" Medical records; Fifth, application of Zheng’s theory or prescription in clinic.Many doctors and scholars have studied on the school of ’"Huo Shen" origin, academic characteristics, drugs and modern clinical applications from multiple angles at different levels, so the school of "Huo Shen" academic theories have been spread, however, the theory that the deduction of the interpretation of yin and yang by the images have not been systematically expounded by these scholars. It was indeed unfortunate. For physicians, drugs are weapons to treat disease, so Zheng combined with his own theoretical perspectives to describe drugs, such as Aconite’s comments, Zheng said: ’Aconite enhances Yang which comes from lower body’. Scholars only knew in the aconite dose and the general efficacy, but not comprehensive enough. Therefore in order to better understand Zheng and school of "Huo Shen", prescriptions should be systematically summarized.The first part summarizes the unique clinical basic theory of Zheng. He mainly used gua xiang that was the theory of Zhou Yi to analyze the importance of Jun Xiang Huo and kidney-yang, using yin and yang syndrome differentiation theory and six meridians theory. He thought that yang was more important than Yin, and advocated to use Yin Yang and six meridians to understand diseases. Disease pathogens were divided into yang deficiency and yin deficiency, yang deficiency included three aspects that were chill caused by surplus Yin injuries Yang, Yang Qi deficiency and Yang Qi pole; Yin deficiency included three aspects that were "real fire injuries Yin", "Yin Jin inadequate" and "extremely Yin deficiency". In addition to that, he also focused on Zhang Zhong Jing’s six meridians theory. He comprehensively applied these theories to treat various diseases.Zheng Qin-an medical theory’s major source is Zhou Yi, so in his works we can see that he often used images of Gua to analog images of internal organs and the complex relationships between organs, as well as explain physiological and pathological features of various organs, which was easier to understand for the future generations of scholars. Qian-Kun was congenital, Kan-Li was postnatal. Other images of Gua came from image Qian-Kun, through a combination of the diagrams, give birth to the remaining six Gua. It plays a more important role in Zheng’s theory. In humans, Kan-gua corresponds to the kidney, and Li-gua corresponds to the heart. Zheng used Kan-Li two diagrams to describe the kidney and the heart. He also believed that Jim-fire and Xiang-fire were very important.Zheng indicated that it is first to differentiate yin and yang, and through the theory with practice, disease can be divided into yang and yin two aspects. Yang deficiency contained three meanings that were filled with chill injuries yang, yang deficiency, and yang extremely weak; yin deficiency included three meanings that were real fire injured yin, yin deficiency and yin extremely weak. According to different situations, Zheng made different policies with typical prescriptions to deal with. He treated yang deficiency with three methods:saving yang by warming the meridians, reinforcing yang by warming the middle Jiao and help yang by warming kidney. Zheng believed that the body was mainly composed of both yin and yang, and from the pathological point of view, yin and yang are two main aspects. If we can grasp the essence of yin and yang, it is equivalent to seize the origin of the disease.Zheng followed Zhang Zhong-jing’s theories, which were also based on yin and yang differentiation. Zhongjing used six meridians to divide body into different parts, trying to find the location of the disease in this way for the later treatment. In his book Yi Li Zhen Zhuan he summed up Zhongjing’s six meridians features, and used Zhongjing’s six meridians theory to treat diseases.He believed that Zhongjing wrote Shang Han Za Bing Lun not only to discuss the treatment of the cold syndrome, but also to describe how to understand the disease process. By understanding the development process of the disease, doctors can better grasp the nature of disease for treatment to achieve good results.The second part summarizes his use of Chinese herbs and prescriptions. The rules and the theories of his use of Chinese medicine are closely related. For example: Aconite can enrich the yang, so Jun-fire can be added. This part sorts out his prescriptions which mainly belonged to the "Zhongjing prescriptions" of Yin and yang treatment, for example, Si Ni Decoction, Li Zhong Decoction, Gan Cao Gan Jiang Decoction, Fu Zi Xi Xin Decoction, Zhen Wu Decoction, Ren Shen Bai Hu Decoction, Zheng Qi Decoction, Shao Yao Gan Cao Decoction, Huang Lian E Jiao Decoction, Hua Shi E Jiao Decoction, Liu Wei Di Huang Decoction, and so on. This part facilitates readers to understand the Zheng’s theory.The third part summarized the clinical applications of his theory. Zheng comprehensively applied "Jun Xiang Huo", "Yin Yang" and six meridians theories in clinical treatment to treat various diseases. Other doctors can learn Zheng’s clinical theory to treat more patients.Zheng’s theory is a unique clinical theory, which can be understood only by systematic study. This article systematically sort out his clinical theory, hoping that can be helpful to other doctors.