Cao Yingfu is the foremost expert on the subject of Cold Damage in early twentieth century Chinese medicine. This book is a collection of his case histories and essays on this demanding topic.
Due to his deep scholarship in other areas of CHinese culture, and thus a particulary difficult style of writing, there is not much in English on Cao Yingfu, but his Jing Yan Shi Yan Lu (Records of Experiences with Classical Formulas), as well as his commentaries on both the Shang Han Lun and Jin Gui Yao Lue, were extremely influential on a whole generation of Chinese medicine luminaries, including Qin Bowei (whose personal reflections of Cao as a teacher are translated here), Zhang Cigong, Jiang Zuojing (who was instrumental in collecting these case histories, comments and records).
What is unique about Cao's writings is how he shares his intimate thought processes regarding diagnosis, differentiation, and choosing a formula. More, he goes beyond that and shares his doubts and trepidations when handling a particularly difficult case, and why he ultimately selected the approach he used.
