During this course, a strict system of clinical modification will be taught. The system was developed by Dr. Versluys over the course of the last ten years by analyzing both Zhang Zhongjing’s prescriptions as well as the characteristics of the Tian-Zeng lineage’s clinical practice. It is fully grounded and based in the classical writings of the original designer of the formulas, Zhang Zhongjing. The system is organized along a hierarchical system of formula modifications and provides a failsafe method for modification to adapt to a broader collection of complex clinical manifestations as often encountered in Chinese medicine clinic in the West. A waterproof modification system forms the basis of classical herbal practice and the elimination of random clinical variables which are the greatest cause for failure in clinic.

The Shanghan Zabing Lun or the Treatise on Cold Damage and Complex Diseases is considered the forefather of all formula books. The original work was lost to the tooth of time, but most of its contents are preserved in two extant works called the Treatise on Cold Damage shanghan lun and the Concise Essentials of the Golden Cabinet jingui yaolue. The first work primarily addresses externally triggered disorders while the latter work describes the pathology and treatment of complex diseases generated internally.

Japanese abdominal diagnosis or Fukushin is the diagnostic art developed in medieval Japan based on the canonical writings by Zhang Zhongjing. Careful inspection of the Shanghan Zabing Lun reveals countless references to abdominal conditions that could only have been diagnosed by actual palpation of the abdomen. The skill however never fully developed in China but flourished in Japan. Throughout history, two major trends and types of abdominal diagnosis developed, being the Nanjing and Shanghan Lun schools, which respectively diagnose the abdomen in service of either acupuncture or meridian treatment, and herbal treatment. Fukushin refers specifically to Shanghan Lun style of abdominal diagnosis developed by Japanese scholars during Edo period (1603-1867 CE) for the purpose of prescribing the Han dynasty formulas of Zhang Zhongjing.

This three weekend course is the instruction of specialized Materia Medica and formula studies in the service of canonical Chinese medicine as practiced by Zhang Zhongjing in the Shanghan Lun and the Jingui Yaolue.

The Treatise on Cold Damage or Shanghan Lun is one of the most prominent Eastern Han-dynasty (circa CE 200) classics in Chinese medicine and the first clinical handbook in China’s medical history. It is also the center of the Canonical Chinese Medicine Training.

This three weekend course is the instruction of specialized Materia Medica and formula studies in the service of canonical Chinese medicine as practiced by Zhang Zhongjing in the Shanghan Lun and the Jingui Yaolue.

This three weekend course is the instruction of specialized Materia Medica and formula studies in the service of canonical Chinese medicine as practiced by Zhang Zhongjing in the Shanghan Lun and the Jingui Yaolue.

This three weekend course is the instruction of specialized Materia Medica and formula studies in the service of canonical Chinese medicine as practiced by Zhang Zhongjing in the Shanghan Lun and the Jingui Yaolue.

Chapter seventy-four of the Great Treatise on the Essence of the Utmost Truth zhizhen yaodalun of the Inner Classic of the Yellow Emperor huangdi neijing records the most encompassing and original rules in Chinese medicine pathology. The nineteen patterns, most commonly known as the Nineteen Lines on Pathology, are considered to be the most authoritative instructions on classical etio-pathology and the only discourse where a differentiation method based on the five phase energetics is presented.

Canonical Chinese Medicine is the style of Chinese medicine practiced along the tenets codified in the Western and Eastern Han dynasty (approx. 200 BC- 200 CE) medical classics or canons. It is the foundation of both clinical and theoretical Chinese medicine as we know it. Canonical Chinese medicine is comprised of two main schools being the Yellow Emperor huangdi 黄帝school of Medical Canons yijing pai 醫經派and the Divine Farmer shennong 神农school of Canonical Formulas jingfang pai经方派.