ABSTRACT
Syndrome differentiation in Chinese medicine considers the human body in conditions of pathology, its functional state during some given time period. It recognizes the essence of disease from the point of view of organic responses, and by analyzing disease through the symptoms and signs that manifest at that time, it further comprehends the internal connections of these clinical manifestations. The syndrome is the highest epitomizing point of the bianzheng process. It encapsulates the various aspects and components of the illness that have been revealed through analysis and is the most complete unified summary of the illness. In treating illness, one must both control the principles and pay attention to flexibility. The Chinese medical past is important in present practice partly because medical discourse is consequential discourse. The archive as a record of practice is often conceived of nowadays as the "laboratory" in which the "essential" effective elements of Chinese medicine have been tested and distinguished from "the dross".
