ABSTRACT
One of the most frequently used tropes in the literature on the materia medica is that of gathering, especially from mountains and wild and far places. Qualities of rarity, multiplicity, and dispersion are embodied in prescriptions, gathered together in a bundle to correspond exactly to the illness, the person, and the historically informed syndrome. Because Chinese medical classification always implies a dynamic, the discernment and manipulation of differences and resemblances in the bianzheng lunzhi process are more than symbolic correlations of unrelated things. One important aspect of the relationship between sources and manifestations in medical practice is the specificity that is sought and generated all along the kanbing path. Classification has emerged from the considerations as a method that guides action rather than as a taxonomic description of the fixed natural essences of things. As method, classification can be highly variable. The kanbing process incorporates strongly parallel relationships on the basis of which certain alternative procedures can be justified.
