The ten questions shí wèn · 十问

The classical interview is organised into ten lines, remembered as a mnemonic. In outline they cover: cold and heat, sweating, the head and body, stool and urine, diet and appetite, the chest and abdomen, hearing, thirst, past illness, and the cause and course of the present complaint.

Its value is that it works as a checklist. A practitioner who runs through it will not forget sleep, appetite or bowel habit, which are exactly the everyday details patients rarely volunteer and which often carry the most information.