Study on the date of compilation of Wen bing tiao bian (Systemic Discourse on Warm Diseases)

It has long been recognized that Wu Jutong compiled Wen bing tiao bian in the year 1798. Through study on the printing time of the book, prefaces in the book written by Zhu Bin and Zheng Bao, and the contents of the book, it is claimed that the book was written in 1798, and by then his work was not yet finished. The first manuscript was completed in 1804, finalized and printed in 1813. The chapter of "Supplemented discourse on predominant qi of autumn dryness" was written in 1835, while Pili (thunderbolt) powder and its description were supplemented in 1836. In other words, the compilation of the whole work, from writing to finalized first manuscript, lasted for 15 years, and that for the completion of the whole book, 38 years.