1. 1. Introduction

At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, wars occurred frequently, people’s health level was extremely low, and infectious diseases were prevalent. According to Zhang Zhongjing’s original preface of Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, “There were more than two hundred clan members, but there were still not ten children since the Jian'an period. Two out of three of them died, and seven out of ten were cold damage.” Thus, “feeling the loss of the past, the injury of death can not be saved,” wrote the book Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases. This book was lost in the process of transmission. The existing version has been divided into Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases and Synopsis of Golden Chamber. However, this paper still takes the title Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, aiming to maintain the original corpus of the study. In the process of collecting and sorting out the corpus, the Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases edited by Liu Duzhou and the Notes on Synopsis of Golden Chamber edited by He Ren are used as the research base. The sources of the corpus are based on these two books.

At present, the most important achievement of Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases is to test the practicability of the Chinese medicines and prescriptions recorded in the book from the perspective of TCM, to provide reference and experience for the further development of modern medicine. From the standpoint of linguistics and philology, Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases has included a large number of medical-related words in ancient Chinese. Still researches of them are usually limited to sorting and classifying the nouns in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases according to different naming methods. A small number of studies on infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases are mostly discussed from the perspective of “cold and warm dispute” in classical studies. However, studies in this field are still relatively rare, without forming a complete system, and there is still a lack of comprehensive, systematic and exhaustive descriptions of common infectious disease names.

As we all know, there are many doubts about medical books because of their professional content. Therefore, investigating and analyzing the naming methods of infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases from the perspective of language, and discussing the naming rationale and naming characteristics will help to explore new research corpus and broaden the field of linguistic research. Therefore, on the basis of conventional classification and from the perspective of metaphorical and metonymic methods in cognitive linguistics, this paper discusses the phenomenon of semantic extension of infectious disease names in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, and reveals the cognitive process of the transformation of the meaning of infectious diseases names from the original meaning to the meaning of specific infectious diseases by analyzing the naming ways of infectious diseases seen in the book.

2. General Naming of Infectious Diseases and Their Categories in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases

Based on the names of diseases involved in the Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases and the Notes on Synopsis of Golden Chamber, this paper selected infectious diseases that were clearly recorded as infectious or recognized in the research of traditional Chinese medicine to sort out the terms. At present, the terms of diseases that have not reached a conclusion in the academic circle are excluded from the discussion. On the whole, the infectious diseases nouns involved in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases can be divided into four categories, a total of 18. Monosyllabic nouns such as malaria are often the names of a wide range of infectious diseases, in addition to “cold damage”, which covers a wide range of names, there are broad and narrow divides, its overview is as follows:

Table 1 Overview of the names of infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases

As can be seen from the above table, the infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases are named in various ways, which can be mainly divided into three categories: named according to the causes, time and symptoms of the diseases.

2.1. Naming according to the causes

According to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, human diseases are mostly induced by external infection (evil invasion of the outside world, etc.) or internal injuries (interference of bad living habits, etc.), which can induce human diseases are collectively referred to as causes. The name of some infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases is based on the naming elements of the disease, such as wind warm disease, warm malaria, chronic malaria and roundworm disease, etc., taking “wind warm disease” as an example.

[Wind warm disease] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “If sweating, body burning, name wind warm disease.”

In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, “wind” often refers to a kind of pathogenic factor of external infection. Shuo Wen·Feng Bu, “风,八风也｡从虫,凡声｡” The original meaning is eight kinds of wind in nature, “the wind hurt, or for cold heat, or for heat, or for cold, or for the wind, or for the withered, its disease is different, its name is different.” Its meaning in Chinese medicine is extended to have similar characteristics of the evil of diseases, which are the common pathogenic factors in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of Chinese medicine, can lead to different symptoms of the disease. The combination of “wind” and “warm” forms the name of the traditional Chinese medicine disease “wind warm disease”, which means acute exogenous fever caused by external infection. Spring Yang rising, warm and windy, the most easily shaped into a fever. If careless living at this time, cold and warm disorder, the invasion of external factors is wind warm disease.

2.2. Naming according to the time

Some infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases are named according to the time of onset or season, such as winter warm disease and so on. In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the terms of infectious diseases named after the time of onset not only reflect the delicacy and depth of the classification of diseases, but also contain the understanding of the law of disease occurrence and season development.

[Winter warm disease] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “A disease caused by abnormal winter temperatures, named winter warm disease.”

In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, “warm” often refers to the evil of warmth, which is opposite to the cold evil and is one of the main causes of exogenous fever. Guang Yun·Hun Yun, “温,暖也｡” The original meaning is moderate temperature, but in the specific context of traditional Chinese medicine, its meaning is specifically referred to as warm heat disease. “Winter” points out the season of it, winter warm disease refers to a kind of warm disease caused by the abnormal climate in winter.

2.3. Naming according to symptoms

Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases in the name of some infectious diseases after the disease can be observed pathological phenomenon as the naming elements, focusing on highlighting the symptoms of such infectious diseases, such as scabbed scabies, diarrhea with undigested food, diarrhea and so on, to “diarrhea” as an example:

[Diarrhea] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “Shao Yin disease, dysentery stool pus blood, can be prickly.”

Diarrhea, in Chinese means “下痢”. Ji Yun·Zhi Yun, “痢,病也｡” This explanation is broader, Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases in the “diarrhea” is mainly caused by the external pathogenic diseases, internal injury and unclean diet and other reasons, resulting in damp heat, epidemic toxicity, cold and damp and other evil in the gut and turned into pus and blood.

3. Cognitive Analysis of the Naming of Infectious Diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases

Language is a direct reflection of human cognition. In addition to the above way of naming diseases according to the cause, time of disease and symptoms, the core driving force of cognitive factors cannot be ignored when studying the names of infectious diseases contained in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases. The transmission from generation to generation is carried out on the basis of cognitive understanding, so it is necessary to explore the meaning behind the naming of these diseases from the perspective of metaphor and metonymy in cognitive linguistics.

3.1. Metaphor Analysis of Naming Infectious Diseases

In Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, the naming of infectious diseases is mainly based on ontological metaphor, which is of great significance for enriching the images of infectious diseases. According to the different nature of the ontological metaphor, it can be divided into three categories: abiotic metaphor, plant metaphor and animal metaphor.

3.1.1. Abiotic Metaphor

The infectious naming of “wind warm disease” falls into the category of abiotic metaphor by using the characteristic properties of an abiotic thing, such as an abstract concept, an inanimate object, or a natural phenomenon, to describe or illustrate another issue or concept that is not directly related to it.

[Wind warm disease] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “A disease caused by abnormal winter temperatures, named winter warm disease.”

From the above, “wind” originally refers to the eight different directions of the wind in nature, the ancient doctors noticed that “the wind is changeable”, and then mapped the variability of symptoms with the variability of natural winds. At the same time, the pathogenic factors moving and transferring in the body are similar to the movement and propagation of the wind, so the wind is used as the source domain to map such diseases. Under the influence of different environments and times, the diseases caused by wind as a pathogenic factor are also different.⁴

3.1.2. Plant Metaphor

[Gu jaundice] The Notes on Synopsis of Golden Chamber, “The stomach is bitter turbid, turbid gas is low, urination is blocked, Yin is cold, heat flow bladder, the body into yellow, name gu jaundice.”

In Synopsis of Golden Chamber, gu jaundice refers to the jaundice caused by hunger and discomfort, the stomach is full of congestion, the qi of gu is not melted, the dampness and heat fumigation, and the bile fluid leakage. It is mentioned in Huangdi Neijing, the qi of gu, also known as “水谷之气”, refers to the fine substances derived from digestion and absorption of diet by the spleen and stomach. In the naming of the disease “gu jaundice”, “gu” is taken as the source domain, and its attributes (such as dampness and heat during food digestion) are mapped to the target domain, namely the human health state. This mapping is not only an intuitive description of the characteristics of the disease, but also reflects the ancient people’s simple cognition of the mechanism of disease occurrence and development. Synopsis of Golden Chamber·Jaundice Syndrome Treatment, “Jaundice is a disease, cold and heat do not eat, eat that is head daze, heart upset, yellow for a long time...... ” Can be accompanied by food difficult to use full, urination unfavorable, heavy pulse and so on.

3.1.3. Animal Metaphor

[Mu malaria] The Notes on Synopsis of Golden Chamber, “Malaria occurs when the cold is felt, known as Mu malaria.”

In ancient Chinese, “Mu” (Chinese means 牡) usually refers to male animals, opposite to “Pin” (Chinese means 牝, female animals). Shuo Wen·Niu Bu, “牡,畜父也｡从牛,土声｡” In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, “Mu” is sometimes borrowed to indicate a disease with a certain nature or performance, implying that its disease is biased to Yang heat or has some unique pathological characteristics.

3.2. Metonymy Analysis of Naming Infectious Diseases

In addition to metaphorical language, when naming most infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, the words directly express the concept of disease, and most of them are named by the most distinctive and representative feature of diseases, that is, the salient attribute. The process of choosing the salient attribute to represent the whole concept of disease is metonymy.⁴

3.2.1. Disease Represented by Its Cause

[Warm disease] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “Not that the disease, cold hidden in the skin, to spring into warm disease.”

From the above, “warm” refers to the warm evil, is the main cause of warm disease, warm disease refers to the body feeling the warm evil caused by a class of exogenous fever. Another example is the Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “Tai Yang disease, fever and thirst, do not hate cold, for warm disease.” Taking “warm” as the cause to represent this kind of fever caused by warm pathogenic factors is more helpful for TCM to summarize the cognition and treatment of infectious diseases.

3.2.2. Disease Represented by Its Symptom

[Cholera] The Notes on Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases, “What are the people who have cholera? Vomiting for profit was called cholera.”

Cholera, in Chinese means “霍乱”. The name “cholera” is based on the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. Yu Pian·Zhui Bu, “霍,鸟飞急疾也｡” Then its meaning extended for “rapid, violent” , and “乱” refers to chaos and serious, “霍” and “乱” together constitute the description of the sudden and complex symptoms of the disease, with the most prominent symptoms of the disease to name in line with the salient principle of human cognition, that is, people tend to use the most significant, the most easily noticed features to name things.

4. Chinese Medicine Culture in the Naming of Infectious Diseases

Language is the carrier of culture. The vocabulary system of any language is influenced and restricted by many cultural factors such as social conditions, religious beliefs, geographical environment, customs, and kinship. The names of infectious diseases in TCM classics, as special nouns, are an important part of TCM pathological vocabulary, which is rooted in the traditional culture and carries the profound traditional cultural connotation of the Chinese nation.

4.1. Yin and Yang Philosophy Thought

Yin-yang is a pair of core categories in Chinese traditional philosophical system, which carries the basic world outlook of the ancients to understand the world, explain the changes of nature, and trace the origin of the universe. The theory of TCM is directly influenced and shaped by the concept of Yin and Yang, which has also been skillfully used to explain the intricate relationship between man and nature, reveal the internal laws of the operation of various organs and organs of the human body, and provide a guiding framework for the emergence, evolution, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. “The popularity of yin-yang theory directly affects the use of intertextuality in language. Two opposite or opposite words often appear at the same time and are used symmetrically... ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ have become internal components, a classification, or a combination of things, so a large number of compound word families made up of ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ have emerged.”

Under the influence of Yin and Yang, the ancients had a deep understanding of the two halves of things. They regarded things as two halves, and also saw the relationship between them, as mutual cause and effect, and mutual transformation. The naming of infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases also reflects the ancient people’s idea of separation of Yin and Yang, “Yang toxicity shows, the face is red like brocade, the throat is sore, the saliva is full of blood... Yin toxicity shows, the face is black, the body is painful, and the throat is sore.” The disease of toxicity is divided into Yin and Yang two sides, pointing out its different symptoms. In addition, in the book, Zhang Zhongjing classifies the disease “cold damage” in a broad sense into six categories— “Tai Yang disease”, “Yang Ming disease”, “Shao Yang disease”, “Tai Yin disease”, “Shao Yin disease” and “Jue Yin disease”, which also reflects the practical application of Yin and Yang harmony thought in ancient philosophy when Chinese medicine named the disease.

4.2. Qi

In the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, “qi” usually refers to the power that can make human organs function, and the operation of the body depends on the existence of “qi”. Under normal circumstances, wind, cold, heat, dampness, dryness and fire are six kinds of climate changes in nature, which are six “qi”. If the six “qi” is too much or not enough, the climate is abnormal, and when the human body’s resistance is low, it can become a pathogenic factor, which is called “six evils”. “Epidemic qi” is from this, wind warm disease and warm disease mentioned in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases, etc. are evil into body diseases. “Qi accumulation is health, qi dispersion is death”, body is a life system with qi as the core, the movement and change of qi determine the physiological function and pathological changes of the human body. Therefore, in the treatment of diseases, Chinese medicine attaches great importance to the conditioning of the human body’s qi, to achieve the purpose of treating diseases.

5. Conclusion

This paper analyzes the typical naming methods of infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases. From the semantic point of view, the naming elements of infectious disease names in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases are diverse, which can be divided into three categories— naming according to the cause, the time and the symptoms of the disease. From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, the names of infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases involve both metaphor and metonymy. The types of metaphors are mainly ontological metaphors, including abiotic metaphors, plant metaphors and animal metaphors, while metonymy is mainly embodied in the principle of highlighting and strengthening people's cognition of the most representative parts of infectious diseases. Through the cognitive study of disease names, it can be seen that the ancient people's understanding and naming of infectious diseases were rooted in the material world and real experience, and they used metaphor and metonymy as tools to transform abstract and difficult to perceive pathological phenomena into tangible concepts. In other words, the naming of infectious diseases seen in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases follows the principle of simplicity and visualization, which not only reflects the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine under the influence of traditional Chinese culture, but also contributes to the inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine theory from generation to generation, and provides reference for the development of medical science in the future.

The treatment of epidemic diseases in China has a long history, and the names of diseases in Chinese medicine are just the concepts produced and developed in long-term clinical practice, and are an important part of the academic system of Chinese medicine. The study of the naming methods of common infectious diseases in Treatise on Cold Pathogenic and Miscellaneous Diseases not only deepens the methodological understanding of how to apply the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics to the analysis of TCM naming methods, but also contributes to the interdisciplinary communication and cooperation between philology and TCM research. By revealing the cognitive mechanism of TCM naming, we can better understand the connotation of TCM culture, promote the spread and development of this traditional medical system in modern society, provide more scientific naming and translation principles for TCM teaching and translation workers, and improve the teaching quality and accuracy of translation.