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Formulated under the guidance of the concept of holism and treatment based on pattern differentiation*, therapeutic principles are criteria for treating all diseases. These principles should be followed throughout the process of designing therapeutic methods, selecting prescriptions, and administering drugs. Therapeutic principles can be categorized into three groups: basic treatment, routine treatment*, and paradoxical treatment*.

Basic treatment is the treatment that you need to follow under all circumstances. Reinforcing healthy qi* and eliminating pathogenic factors* are two general principles of treatment — to reinforce the patient's healthy qi and to eliminate invading pathogenic factors, which can be applied separately or in combination according to the particular condition of the case. Treating the acute before the chronic* condition is another basic treatment.

Treating the exterior before the interior* suggests that the exterior syndrome should be treated first. Treating the tip in critical cases and treating the root in chronic cases* means that the secondary aspect of a disease should be treated first in case of emergency and the primary aspect of a disease should be taken care of first in case of a chronic disease or during recovery; however, in modern treatment, treating the tip and root simultaneously* is likely to be used more.

The principle of same treatment for different diseases* means to apply the same method of treatment to patients with different kinds of disease that have the same pattern; and the principle of different treatments for the same disease* means to apply different methods of treatment to the same kind of disease having different patterns.

Routine treatment means to use medicines opposite in nature to the disease, e.g. treating heat syndrome with medicines cold in nature. Treating cold with heat* is a routine treatment principle in which the cold conditions are treated with warming or heating medicinals; while treating heat with cold* is another routine treatment principle in which heat conditions are treated with cold or cooling methods. The principle of treating deficiency by tonification* means to apply supplementation or tonification methods to treat deficiency conditions. Treating excess by purgation* is a routine treatment in which excess conditions are treated through purgation* or reduction.

Paradoxical treatment means to use medicines similar in nature to the disease in treating patients. Treating cold with cold* is a paradoxical treatment in which pseudo-cold symptoms are treated with medicines cool or cold in nature. For example, a patient with high fever, severe thirst, profuse sweat, surging pulse and reversal cold of the extremities should be treated with medicinals cold in nature, though the patient has reversal cold, because the disease is a heat pattern and the reversal cold is a false manifestation of the disease. Treating heat with heat* is applied when treating pseudo-heat symptoms since pseudo-heat symptoms should be treated with medicines warm or hot in nature. Treating the unstopped by unstopping* applies the unstopping method to unstopped conditions, e.g. using purgation to treat diarrhea caused by food stagnation; and treating the stopped by stopping* means to apply the stopping method to stopped conditions, e.g. using tonification to treat constipation due to qi deficiency.