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Deng Tie-tao (1916～), a Chinese medicine practitioner. For over 50 years, he has meticulously researched Chinese medicine theory, strongly advocating for the unified pattern identification and treatment of "cold-damage disease" and "warm disease". He emphasizes the important role of pattern identification methods in diagnostics and has proposed new insights into the connotation construction of Chinese medicine diagnostics. Clinically, he is skilled in treating digestive and cardiovascular system diseases. He is dedicated to the education of Chinese medicine, nurturing a large number of Chinese medicine talents. His works are highly regarded by scholars both domestically and internationally.

Deng Tie-tao was born into a Chinese medicine family, with his father named Meng Jue, who practiced medicine throughout his life. Influenced from a young age, he witnessed how Chinese medicine could save the masses from suffering, thus aspiring to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a path in Chinese medicine. In September 1932, Deng Tie-tao was admitted to the Guangdong Chinese Medicine Specialized School, where he systematically studied Chinese medicine theory. During his studies, following his father's advice to "practice early and follow famous teachers", he apprenticed under renowned experts such as Chen Yueqiao, Guo Yaoqing, and Xie Gengping, each with their own specialties. In August 1937, Deng Tie-tao completed his studies. The five years of study broadened his knowledge and horizons, deeply feeling the vast and profound wealth of Chinese medicine. He resolved to devote his life to inheriting and promoting Chinese medicine.

In 1938, when Japanese invaders heavily bombed Guangzhou, Deng Tie-tao took refuge in Hong Kong. Together with four classmates, he co-founded the Southland New Chinese Medicine Institute (night school) at the North-South Medicinal Materials Guild on Man Wai East Street and practiced at the Zhilantang Pharmacy in Kowloon. Influenced by the salvation movement and progressive culture, he read books on political economy, materialist dialectics, and introductory knowledge of communism, as well as Mao Zedong's "On New Democracy" and the complete works of Lu Xun. During this period, he deeply felt that historical materialism and dialectical materialism greatly aided his study and research of Chinese medicine, which later became a key to exploring the treasure trove of Chinese medicine. After Hong Kong was occupied by Japanese forces, Deng Tie-tao returned to Guangzhou, moving between Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Wuhan, practicing medicine to make a living.

In October 1949, the People's Liberation Army entered Guangzhou, and the following year he began working at the Guangdong Chinese Medicine College. At the beginning of the People's Republic of China, Chinese medicine was revived from near extinction but did not recover quickly. In 1956, Deng Tie-tao was able to join one of the four early-established Chinese medicine institutions by the state—the Guangzhou Chinese Medicine Institute, where his learning and ambitions could be realized. During the Cultural Revolution, despite being heavily impacted, he never gave up his research on Chinese medicine. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Health successively held the Hengyang Conference, Shijiazhuang Conference, and Xi'an Conference, gradually improving the situation of Chinese medicine. In 1982, the new constitution passed by the Fifth National People's Congress stipulated the development of traditional medicine alongside modern medicine, especially with the establishment of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine on December 20, 1986, marking a milestone in the history of Chinese medicine in China. Deng Tie-tao was delighted to see the true spring of Chinese medicine and was further motivated to contribute to the revitalization of Chinese medicine.

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Deng Tie-tao has achieved success in the fields of Chinese medicine teaching, medical treatment, and scientific research, earning the trust of the people. He has served as the Director of the Academic Affairs Office at Guangdong Chinese Medicine College, the Deputy Director of the Academic Affairs Office at Guangzhou Chinese Medicine College, and the Vice President of Guangzhou Chinese Medicine College. He has also been a member of the 4th and 5th Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Currently, he is a standing council member of the China Association of Chinese Medicine, Deputy Director of the Chinese Medicine Theory Research Committee of the China Association of Chinese Medicine, a member of the Medical History Committee of the Chinese Medical Association and Deputy Director of its Chinese Medicine Theory Research Committee, an advisor to the Guangzhou Science and Technology Commission, the Chairman of the Medical History Committee of the Guangdong Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, and a doctoral supervisor. His major publications and award-winning projects include: "Exploration and Clinical Practice of Theories," which won the third prize in provincial publishing achievements. He participated in the compilation of "New Compilation of Chinese Medicine," "Outline of New Chinese Medicine," "Concise Dictionary of Chinese Medicine," and "Chinese Medicine Dictionary·Basic Theory Volume," which won awards at the Provincial Science Conference and the National Science Conference. The successfully developed Chinese patent medicine "Wuling Pain Relief Powder" won the fourth prize in municipal scientific and technological achievements. Deng Tie-tao often says, "The true beginning of my academic career was after liberation."

Exploring the True Essence of Chinese Medicine Theory through Practice

Deng Tie-tao values both theory and clinical practice, and his academic work is a close integration of theory and practice, which is entirely due to "early clinical experience and following renowned teachers." He witnessed his father using Zhang Zhongjing's "Immature Orange Fruit and Peony Powder" to treat a postpartum woman who could only relieve pain for a few hours with morphine injections before experiencing severe pain again, achieving unexpected results. At that time, he believed that "Immature Orange Fruit and Peony Powder" was just a simple formula, but through his father's practice, the efficacy of the "classical formula" was so extraordinary. In over 50 years of medical teaching practice, he has come to deeply understand that Chinese medicine theory comes from practice and must be continuously verified and explored through long-term clinical experience to grasp its true essence and thus master its key points and promote it.

Unified Pattern Identification and Treatment of "Cold" and "Warm"

For a long time, the treatment of external-contraction fever diseases has been divided into "cold-damage disease" and "warm disease," with centuries of debate in history. Influenced by his father from a young age, Deng Tie-tao was not biased towards either "cold-damage disease" or "warm disease." Later, through practice, he realized that as long as pattern identification and treatment are truly applied, using the appropriate formula for the syndrome, whether it is a cold-damage disease formula or a warm disease formula, can be effective in saving lives. How to view the "cold" and "warm" debate? Deng Tie-tao began researching this in the 1950s. He conducted a comprehensive analysis of the emergence and development of warm disease theory, believing that the cold-damage disease school, with Zhang Zhongjing of the Eastern Han Dynasty as its master and the "Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases" as its classic, laid the foundation. However, after the Song and Yuan dynasties, due to dense urban populations, frequent water and land transportation, and the gradual development of the ocean industry, conditions were created for the spread of pestilence diseases, and the types of pestilence diseases continued to increase. This made physicians feel that using cold-damage disease classical formulas sometimes fell short, leading to the emergence of the warm disease school. By the Ming and Qing periods, through the exploration and research of physicians like Wu You-ke, Ye Tian-shi, Xue Sheng-bai, Wu Ju-tong, and Wang Meng-ying, the warm disease theory matured, forming the warm disease school. From a developmental perspective, the warm disease school advanced on the basis of the cold-damage disease school and can be seen as a development of the cold-damage disease school. However, it would be wrong to think that because it has developed, it can replace the cold-damage disease school and discard its valuable experiences—methods and formulas. Similarly, it is incorrect to consider the warm disease school insignificant, claiming it kills more than it saves, and to dismiss the academic experience of the warm disease school over hundreds of years. He advocated that both cold-damage disease and warm disease theories and methods are valuable legacies of Chinese medicine and should be studied and experimented with through clinical practice using scientific methods. In August 1955, he published an article titled "The Emergence and Growth of Warm Disease Theory" in the "Chinese Medicine Journal," elucidating his academic views, which caused a significant reaction in the Chinese medicine community (this article was later translated by the Japanese Benshen (GB13) Chinese Medicine Research Association and published in the third issue of "Chinese Medicine Clinical Practice" in 1980, having a certain impact on the Japanese Chinese medicine community).

How did "Cold" and "Warm" ultimately converge? Deng Tie-tao raised a higher-level research question. Inspired by Mao Zedong's "Two Theories," he emphasized the importance of theory in guiding practice. The debate between "Cold" and "Warm" primarily revolves around pattern identification. In textbooks, the pattern identification of external-contraction fever diseases includes "Six Meridians Pattern Identification," "Weiqi Nutrient-Blood Pattern Identification," "Triple Energizer Pattern Identification," and "Six Excesses Pattern Identification." While these are necessary for learning different academic schools, they often leave beginners confused in clinical practice. Therefore, Deng believed that the key to the convergence of "Cold" and "Warm" lies in pattern identification, leading him to propose the academic viewpoint of "Unified Pattern Identification of External-Contraction Fever Diseases." He argued that the Cold-Damage Disease school and the Warm Disease school share a common lineage, as both study external-contraction fever diseases. Thus, the unification of pattern identification is not only possible but also entirely necessary. How can divergent pattern identification methods be integrated more comprehensively, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses to achieve unity, making it easier to master and guide clinical practice while advancing the theories of predecessors? Deng Tie-tao conducted extensive research on medical literature and, based on clinical practice, published articles such as "Preliminary Discussion on the Pattern Identification of External-Contraction Fever Diseases" and "Pattern Identification and Treatment of External-Contraction Fever Diseases" in the early 1970s. From historical development, etiology, pathogenesis, pattern identification, and practice, he elaborated on the idea that the pattern identification of external-contraction fever diseases can and should be unified. He proposed a relatively complete set of pattern identification outlines and treatment methods. The content of "Pattern Identification and Treatment of External-Contraction Fever Diseases" was included in the "New Compilation of Chinese Medicine" in 1971.