Abstract: The term "shang qi" first appeared in The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, and Essentials from the Golden Cabinet made a systematic discussion on the syndromes and treatment of "shang qi", but later generations of physicians did not have a deep and unified understanding of the meaning of "shang qi". By combining the relevant provisions of The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic and Essentials from the Golden Cabinet, referring to medical texts and combining with clinical reality, the author believes that the "shang gi" in Essentials from the Golden Cabinet has dual meanings of disease name and syndrome. As a disease, it is a symptom of "qi rush" that occurs in the lungs, often causing cough or accompanying cough and wheezing. The pathogenesis of "shang qi" can be divided into cold, heat, deficiency and excess. Essentials from the Golden Cabinet focuses on the differentiation and treatment of the four syndromes of "shang gi": cold fluid stagnation of the lungs, fluid heat stagnation of the lungs, deficiency heat invasion of the lungs, and phlegm turbidity obstruction of the lungs, attaching importance to both the pathogenesis and the correspondence between medication and syndrome. Therefore, the understanding of the treatment of classic prescriptions should be based on syndrome differentiation and mutual reference between formulas and syndromes, in order to integrate the principles, methods, and medicines of classic prescriptions.