Based on years of clinical experience， academician TONG Xiaolin proposed the “16-character verse on pulse diagnosis” on the basis of traditional pulse diagnosis theory， namely

yin， yang

， exterior， interior， cold， heat， deficiency， excess，

qi

， blood， water， location， skin， vessel， rhythm （rate）， and minds.

Yin

and

yan

g govern the other six principles and reflect the main principles. Exterior and interior， manifested as floating and deep pulse respectively， reveal the location of disease and indicate that the treatment should follow the tendency of disease. Cold and heat reflect the nature of disease and corresponds to slow and rapid pulse， respectively； positive treatment should be taken to correct the deviation.Deficiency and excess denote that the strength of pulse， and the weak and strong pulse indicate the depletion and fillingness of healthy

qi

and pathogenic

qi

， respectively.

Qi

being in exuberance or not reflects the different degree of pulse tension.Blood circulation fluency is manifested as unblocked pulse flow. Water condition in the body， either in dryness or dampness， can be judged from surging or thready pulse. Location of pulse-taking corresponds to the different disease location at four

jiao

（焦）. Skin warmth and humidity of the wrist reflect the cold-heat and moisten-dryness of the body fluids. Blood vessels physical state denotes the elasticity and stiffness of pulse vessels.Rhythm （rate） disorder of the pulse shows the irregularity of body management. Mind of the pulse manifested as the

qi

condition helps judge the emotional condition. The pulse diagnosis can assist in differentiating the ten states， namely cold， heat， dryness， dampness， constraint， stasis， congestion， tough and deficiency of chronic diseases， which has been the focal point of “syndrome differentiation according to the state target”. This is a way to promote the precision of treatment by precisely understanding， differentiating and regulating the state in relation to the pulse taking， comprehension and differentiation.