Cross-page version:
The name of "eighty-one difficulties" was first seen in Zhang Zhongjing's Preface to Treatise on Febrile Diseases in the Eastern Han Dynasty. When Zhong Jing wrote Treatise on Febrile Diseases, he quoted the words of Eighty-one Difficult Cases, which are different from the current edition of Difficult Cases. There are some original texts of "Difficult Classics" in Wang Shuhe's "Pulse Classics" in Jin Dynasty, but these original texts are not found in this edition of "Difficult Classics", so it is estimated that there are other versions.
The earliest bibliography of difficult classics is Sui Shu's Historical Records, in which it is mentioned that Lu Guang, a doctor in the Three Kingdoms period, annotated it, which is the earliest annotation of difficult classics. In the Tang Dynasty, Yang revised it on the basis of Lu Guang's annotation, and clearly put forward that Nan Jing was written.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wang, Wang Dingxiang and Wang successively collated difficult classics, among which the difficult classics collated by Wang, a medical officer of the Hanlin Academy, were completed on the basis of Lu Annotation and Yang Annotation, and have been published. In the Southern Song Dynasty, on the basis of Qin Yueren's manuscript, Li Yuanli sorted out the works of Nan Jing annotated by nine scholars before the Southern Song Dynasty, and compiled ten supplementary notes to Nan Jing.
According to this book, later generations re-engraved and revised it, and compiled Wang Hanlin's Notes on 81 Difficult Classics, referred to as Notes on Difficult Classics, which is a well-known work of later generations. The widely circulated version of Notes on Difficult Classics was introduced to Japan and has been preserved to this day. The photocopied edition of Shanghai Hanfenlou (1924), the printed edition of Four Stories by Zhonghua Book Company and the photocopied edition of People's Health Publishing House (1956) are all based on the Lost Series compiled by Japanese Lin Heng.