The current edition of Shanghan Lun is divided into 10 chapters and 22 sections, containing 397 articles and 112 prescriptions. Among them, the major clinical manifestations, key points for differentiation, therapeutic rules and relevant formulas for basic patterns are the core contents. The important and most commonly used articles and formulas are selected and compiled into this teaching text book for the course.

The major contribution of Shanghan Lun to TCM can be expressed as the following three aspects:

① First setting up a complete diagnosing-treating system for exogenously contracted disease according to the six meridian patterns, entailing consistency of symptoms, pathogenesis, therapeutic rules and prescriptions.

② Formulation of very effective and concise prescriptions used for different patterns and syndromes, which have been known as classical formulas,and extensively applied not only in exogenously contracted diseases, but also in endogenously miscellaneous diseases.

③ Initiating a series of clinical thinking models which have guided TCM clinical work over 1800 years, especially in syndrome differentiation.

For this reason, this book has been considered as an ancestor to medical recipes, while Zhang Ji has been referred to as a medical sage.