This paper traces the changing concepts of disease in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with the spread of the plague in China. This period was the final phase of a small ice age that followed the seventeenth century, and the plague spread through southern China and Manchuria. The theory of Phase Energetics (Yunqishuo) illustrated the change of things and bodies through climate change. The theories of Cold Damage (Shanghanlun) and Warm Diseases (Wenbingxue) developed disease theory along with the theory of Phase Energetics. While the theory of Cold Damage was represented in the north of ancient China, the theory of Warm Diseases was represented in southern Ming-Qing China. As the exploitation in southern China proceeded, the theory of Cold Damage could not explain the cause of the diseases in this part of China. The theory of Warm Diseases gave more emphasis to the distinctiveness of local soil and energy than to general climate change in southern China . Incontrast, the theory of Phase Energetics had lost its influence . The Compilation on Plague (Shuyi Huibian) provides an interesting example that can help to trace changes in the Chinese concept of disease. The supporters of the Warm Diseases theory underlined local characteristics such as mixed energy or soil energy rather than climate change. But as the Chinese concepts of disease evolved, they strived for universality beyond climate change and locality.