Shaoyang diseases are usually due to unrelieved Taiyang exterior syndromes that have been transmitted into the interior. There may be cases which have Taiyang diseases at the onset, so pathological changes are neither on the Taiyang exterior nor in the Yangming interior, but stay in between. They are known as semi-exterior/interior syndromes.

Main clinical manifestations:
Bitter taste in the mouth, dryness of the throat, vertigo, alternate chills and fever, fullness of the chest and epigastric regions, poor appetite, irritability, vomiting, white slippery tongue coating, wiry pulse.

Pathogenic factors invade the Shaoyang and contend with anti-pathogenic qi in the region between the surface and the interior, so there are alternating chills and fever. The foot Shaoyang channel is distributed along the lateral side of the chest and hypochondriac region. Fullness of the chest and epigastric regions results from the obstruction of qi circulation after pathogenic factors invade the Shaoyang channel. Qi stagnation of the gall bladder may also affect the stomach, so poor appetite, irritability and vomiting occur. Fire of the gall bladder flares up to cause a bitter taste, dry throat, and vertigo. Wiry pulse and white slippery tongue coating are due to pathogenic heat hindering the Shaoyang.