Hot and cold coughs can be distinguished by the characteristics of the cough, the nature of the sputum and the accompanying systemic symptoms. 1. Cough characteristics: cold cough cough sound heavy, its sound is not Yang, often accompanied by gas tight. Hot cough cough sound, breath thick, frequent episodes, mostly paroxysmal violent cough. 2. The nature of sputum: cold cough sputum thin, white, easy to cough up. Hot cough sputum thick, yellow color, often because of sticky not easy to cough up. 3. Systemic symptoms: Cold cough is mostly wind-cold, often accompanied by cold (cold) fever, nasal discharge, itchy throat, pale red tongue, white moss, floating tight pulse. Hot cough for the feeling of wind-heat evil, often accompanied by fever and sweating, sore throat, nasal discharge turbid mucus, tongue red, moss yellow, pulse number. Although there is a clear distinction between cold cough and hot cough, but with the development of the disease may appear from cold cough to hot cough, or from hot cough to cold cough, or cold and hot mixed (the same patient at the same time cold and heat), need to be a professional Chinese medicine doctor combined with the symptoms of the examination, the four diagnostic references to identify the evidence of treatment.