Glossary

The Five Corpse Disorders are five separate patterns believed to be caused by the dead. It is different from the Three Corpse Possession Disorder which was a single condition caused by three innate parasitic entities. The common theme seems to be that they were fatal and after death, the corpse of the victim would return to infect their relatives. Modern interpretations consider these disorders to refer to diseases such as tuberculosis that were infectious to those living in close contact with the patient but have gradual onset so that symptoms would often only appear after the initial patient's death and lead to the consumption and eventual death of the family members.

Lu and Wilcox's (2014) commentary to Wang Zhizhong's Nourishing Life with Acupuncture and Moxibustion describe them as:

1. Flying corpse 飛屍 Feishi: Wandering pain under the skin and between the muscles with stabbing pain that occurs randomly.
2. Fixed corpse 屍註 Shizhu: Fullness and distention of the heart and abdomen with stabbing pain that occurs suddenly and accompanied by panting and Qi surging upwards into the chest.
3. Sinking corpse 沉屍 Chenshi: Colicky pain and distention of the heart and abdomen with panting, and pain and distention attacking the ribsides.
4. Wind corpse 風屍 Fengshi: Weakened extremities due to Wind.
5. Hidden corpse 伏屍 Fushi: A disease that hides deep inside the body presenting with no symptoms when stable but prickly pain of the heart and abdomen with panting and distention during episodes.

For treatment he mainly recommends moxa: either 14 cones 3 cun posterior to the nipples (probably Zhejin GB-23) on the left for men and on the right for women, 7 cones on each thumb at Shaoshang Lu-11, 10 cones 3 cun below the heart or 1 cun below the nipple (probably the same point, Rugen St-18).

Herbal treatments often included highly toxic ingredients such as Eight Toxins Red Pills, reported by Zhen Liyan, which contained arsenic, mercury, aconite, false hellebore, croton seed and centipede. However, he also recalls Ren Dong Teng being effective for Transmitted Corpse Consumption (傳屍癆 Chuan Shi Liao), another name for this type of condition.