Zhang Zhongjing (张仲景) was born during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) in Nieyang, Nan County (now Rangdong Town in Deng County, Henan Province; or Nanyang City, Henan Province). It’s said that he was once conferred an honorary title by the court and worked as the satrap of Changsha. Zhang Zhongjing was fond of medical science since his childhood and he learned medicine from Zhang Bozu when he was young. After many years of hard learning and clinical practice, he was respected and became an outstanding medical scientist in China.

In the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a prevalent pestilence claimed the lives of thousands. According to records, from the first year of the Jian'an reign (196), two thirds of people died of infectious diseases in just one decade of which febrile diseases caused by cold accounted for 70%.
Zhang Zhongjing diligently acquired information from the book, Internal Canon of Medicine, and collected prescriptions extensively. As a result of which, he wrote the monumental work, Treatise on Febrile Diseases Caused by Cold and Miscellaneous Diseases. The principle of treatment according to syndrome differentiation established in the book is the basic rule of clinical medicine of China and is the soul of traditional Chinese medicine. In the study of prescriptions, Treatise on Febrile Diseases Caused by Cold and Miscellaneous Diseases made a great contribution.

It created numerous types of recipes and recorded many effective recipes. The principle of treatment according to the six channels established in the book is held in high regard by doctors of all ages. It is the first monographic medicine work in China that established the principle of treatment according to syndrome differentiation from theory to practice. It is one of the most influential works in the history of Chinese medicine. Thus, it has become a fundamental textbook for medical study in later generations and is highly valued by both medical students and clinical doctors.

There is a paragraph in the book that reads, "In terms of high level, medicine is for curing nobles of their diseases. In terms of a lower level, it is used to save the poor from disaster. In terms of the middle level, it is used to keep us in good health." This shows the kind-heartedness of Zhongjing and marks him as a great doctor. "Saint in Medicine" was the honorific title granted by later generations.