A Study of the Origins of the Oriental Medical Term "Half Exterior Half Interior" / 日本東洋医学雑誌

ABSTRACT

The term “half exterior half interior” is not found in the Oriental Medical Classic, the ‘<i>Shang Han Lun</i>’. Rather, the phrase “half outside and half inside” appears. It was Cheng Wu Ji that first used the term “half exterior half interior” in the phrase “Those in whom the disease-causing agent is half in the exterior and half in the interior are considered to be of the fever manifestation-type” appearing in his ‘<i>Shang Han Ming Li Lun</i>’. In the ‘<i>Zhu Jie Shang Han Lun</i>’ which Cheng Wu Ji wrote shortly afterwards, he explains that the phrase “half outside and half inside” found in the ‘<i>Shang Han Lun</i>’ means half exterior and half interior. Since this commentary on the ‘<i>Shang Han Lun</i>’ was more frequently published and more widely circulated than the original text, it is thought to be this explanation that accounts for the popularization of the term “half exterior half interior”.