[2] Exact dates regarding his birth, death and works vary, but an upper limit of 220 AD is generally accepted.

He learned medicine by studying from his towns fellow and later teacher Zhang Bozu,[5] assimilating from previous medicinal literature such as Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内經), and collecting many prescriptions elsewhere, finally writing the medical masterpiece Shanghan Zabing Lun[6] (Chinese: 傷寒雜病論; pinyin: Shānghán Zábìng Lùn, lit.

Zhang's masterpiece, Shanghan Zabing Lun, was collected and organised later by physicians, notably Wang Shuhe (王叔和) from the Jin Dynasty (晋) and various court physicians during the Song Dynasty (宋) into two books, namely for the former, the Shang Han Lun (傷寒論, lit.

"On Cold Damage"), which was mainly on a discourse on how to treat epidemic infectious diseases causing fevers prevalent during his era, and the latter, the Jingui Yaolue (金櫃要略, lit.

"Essential Prescriptions of the Golden Coffer"), a compendium of various clinical experiences which was regarded as a main discourse on internal diseases.