Zhang Zhongjing
A physician and pharmacologist (150–219), hailed as medical sage, from Eastern Han Dynasty, China
About Zhang Zhongjing
Lived 150 – 219 (aged 68–69). Zhang Zhongjing was a Chinese physician, herbalist, harii and pharmacologist.
Zhang Zhongjing (; 150–219), formal name Zhang Ji , was a Chinese pharmacologist, physician, inventor, and writer of the Eastern Han dynasty and one of the most eminent Chinese physicians during the later years of the Han dynasty. He established medication principles and summed up the medicinal experience until that time, thus making a considerable contribution to the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine. According to later sources, he was born in Nanyang, held an official position in Changsha and lived from approximately 150 to 219 AD.
It is also speculated that he created jiaozi ( - gyoza / dumplings / guōtiē; potstickers) to help people with frostbitten ears.
During his time, with warlords fighting for their own territories, many people fell victim to infectious diseases. Zhang's family was no exception. He learned medicine by studying from his towns fellow and later teacher Zhang Bozu, assimilating from previous medicinal literature such as Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic Huangdi Neijing , 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 the wars that ravaged China during the period of the Three Kingdoms. Because of 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 and organised later by physicians, notably Wang Shuhe from the Jin Dynasty and various court physicians during the Song Dynasty into two books, namely for the former, the Shang Han Lun (, lit. "On Cold Damage"), which was mainly on a discourse on how to treat epidemic infectious diseases causing fevers prevalent during his era, and the latter, the Jingui Yaolüe (, lit. "Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer"), a compendium of various clinical experiences which was regarded as a main discourse on internal diseases. These two texts have been heavily reconstructed several times up to the modern era. Revered for authoring the Shāng Hán Zá Bìng Lùn, 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.
Influence Zhang Zhongjing left behind Zhang Zhongjing Liu Wei Di Huang Wan. There is also the Medical Sage Temple (医圣祠) in Nanyang, which is a place to commemorate Zhang Zhongjing. Zhang Zhongjing's treatment of diseases has unique effects. The key points of his medication are to be precise, concise, and straight to the condition. Unlike modern Chinese medicine, which uses Western medicine's way of thinking and logic to treat diseases. Zhang Zhongjing is a role model and model of learning for later generations of Chinese medicine.
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Important facts
People in Zhang Zhongjing's life
Named in this biography and alive at the same time
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Zhang Zhongjing's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Zhang Zhongjing?
a physician and pharmacologist (150–219), hailed as medical sage, from Eastern Han Dynasty, China
When was Zhang Zhongjing born?
Zhang Zhongjing was born in 150 in Dengzhou.
When did Zhang Zhongjing die?
Zhang Zhongjing died in 219.
What was Zhang Zhongjing's occupation?
Zhang Zhongjing was a physician, herbalist, harii and pharmacologist.
What nationality was Zhang Zhongjing?
Zhang Zhongjing was Chinese.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Zhang Zhongjing. https://biography.guide/zhang-zhongjing/
MLA: "Zhang Zhongjing." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/zhang-zhongjing/.
Chicago: "Zhang Zhongjing." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/zhang-zhongjing/.
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