[Historical studies of the systems of diagnosis and treatment of exopathogenic diseases].

The systems of diagnosis and treatment of exopathogenic diseases has a long history. The six channel pattern identification and the defense - qi- construction - blood and triple - jiao pattern identifications are the most famous but not complete. The exterior, interior, excess and heat pattern identification and the six channel qi transformation pattern identification, founded by Liu Hejian, Yang Lishan, Yu Shiyu and Yu Genchu et al. during the Jin and Qing dynasties, should be considered the other two important systems, which can be used as supplements to schools of Shanghan (cold damage) and Wenbing (warm disease). Moreover, it should be pointed out that treatment according to the pattern identification is not the only way to treat exopathogenic disease. Rather, treatment according to the disease, which chiefly are the experience of folk doctors recorded in formulary books during the Jin and Tang dynasties, supplied many effective formulas for various systems of the treatment according to the pattern identification in later ages. One of them lays emphasis on the technics of thinking, the other on the accumulation of personal experience. The combination of the two is the right way to promote the therapeutic effect of exopathogenic disease.