Identification of patterns according to the four stages (溫病辨證)

The four stages differentiate various exogenous heat pathogenic patterns that cause dryness and damage to yin. The major heat diseases are wind-heat, damp-heat, and fire-heat:

● Wind-heat disease generally shows signs of fever, aversion to cold, coughing, sore throat, rapid breathing, flaring of the nostrils, thirst, a thin-white tongue coating, and a superficial-rapid pulse.