[The characters "" and "" in Annotated Treatise on Febrile Diseases].

Annotated Treatise on Febrile Diseases by Cheng Wuji is believed to be the earliest and fully annotated Treatise on Febrile Diseases remaining in China. It has had a profound influence because it was once a popular version of Treatise on Febrile Diseases. It was found that in this book "once constipation lasted for six or seven days, there might be dry excrement. In this case, Xiao Chengqi decoction should be taken (was used here in Chinese) for this condition". However, "" seems not to be used appropriately in this context. Therefore, archival research was used to analyse the meaning of "" and "" and Chinese Textual Bibliography was used to review the use of "" and "" in main versions of Annotated Treatise on Febrile Diseases. It was found that "" occurred as a misunderstanding of "" after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, "" in this book should be "".