《金匮要略》"历节"病名考释OA

Zhang Zhongjing dedicated a special chapter in Synopsis of the Golden Chamber to elaborate on Lijie disease,yet the connota-tion of this disease name remains ambiguous to this day.Physicians throughout ancient and modern times mostly interpret the term"Li-jie"based on its clinical manifestations,rendering it as successive invasion of joints,sequential joint involvement,joint swelling,or joint pain.Nevertheless,none of these interpretations can accurately reflect the clinical manifestations or the intrinsic pathogenesis of Lijie disease.Starting with philological textual research,this paper integrates Zhang Zhongjing's account of Lijie pathogenesis,anatomical characteristics of joints,osseous lesions and pain characteristics of Lijie documented in medical texts of the Tang and Song dynasties,as well as pathological mechanisms and imaging manifestations of the condition in modern medicine.The character"Li"is defined as"rar-efied",and"Lijie"is thereby interpreted as rarefied joints,namely osteopenia of joints.This interpretation not only conforms to the pathological characteristics of Lijie disease:"sinew injury leading to flaccidity;bone injury resulting in atrophy,"but also aligns with the joint status under the condition of slackened sinews and bones induced by"epletion and stagnation contending with each other."