"An annotated translation of Xu Shuwei’s (1080–1154) collection of 90 medical case records – Ninety Discussions of Cold Damage Disorders (shanghan jiushi lun 傷寒九十論) – which was the first such collection in China. The translation reveals patterns of social as well as medical history. This book provides the readers with a distinctive first hand perspective on twelfth-century medical practice, including medical aspects, such as nosology, diagnosis, treatment, and doctrinal reasoning supporting them. It also presents the social aspect of medical practice, detailing the various participants in the medical encounter, their role, the power relations within the encounter, and the location where the encounter occurred" (publisher).