TCM practitioners can view their patients through several different lenses.  Some of these are YIN /YANG, QI and Blood, and the 5 Elements. But perhaps the most interesting and also least known is the Six-Syndrome Diagnostic method. 

This method is known as JING FANG and was developed by the ancient physician Zhang Zhong Jing, but it still remains a jewel in the crown of Chinese medical thought.

JING FANG diagnosis is based on three principles found in the classical book, the Shang Han Lun. Its practice is generally known as Classical Chinese Medicine. The three principles are:

1- “Eight-principle syndrome differentiation (Ba Gang),

2- “Six-syndrome identification” (Liu Jing Bian Zheng)

3- “Formula pattern identification” (Fang Zheng). 

These three methods can be used to diagnose and treat any disease.     

The doctor using this method first identifies the type of disease through the theory of the “eight principles”.  They must determine if it is a hot or a cold disease, an internal or an external disease, or an excessive or a deficiency pattern,  or if it is a half excess and half deficiency pattern. 

Secondly, they must identify the location, determining which channel or channels have been affected according to the “six-channel pattern identification”.

This leads to the formula pattern identification, and guides us to the appropriate formula, which may be modified according to the unique pattern of the patient.