In 180 BC, Lü Hou, a powerful figure in the Western Han Dynasty, suddenly fell ill and died. As for the cause of her death, the historical records only call it "the collapse of the sick dog", and no further explanation is given. During the Two Han Dynasties, people generally believed that Lü Hou's violent death was related to the revenge of Liu Ruyi, the King of Zhao, who was killed by her.
Recently, Professor Yan Aimin of Nankai University put forward a new insight into the death of Lü Hou, because the real culprit of Professor Yan's death was actually rabies.
Lü Hou died of a dog injury, and what kind of dog was the dog that bit her? Lü Hou was bitten at the time of "March", and the turn of spring and summer in March was precisely the high incidence season of rabid dogs, and Lü Hou went out to pray during the season when dogs were prone to madness, which itself implied the possibility of encountering rabid dog attacks.
There are also many records about the characteristics of rabies in ancient medical books. The "Encyclopedia of Doctors" says that after dogs go crazy, they often run around aimlessly, "dragging with red tails and walking in a hurry"; the "Secret Book of All Good Recipes" also says that mad dogs "drag their tails and hang their tongues, do not bark, and move to bite people", making it difficult for people to guard against.
The dogs encountered by Lü Hou on the way back to the festival wandered uncertainly, and after attacking Lü Hou, they quickly disappeared. Such a dog that comes and goes without a trace, travels in secrecy, does not bark, and is extremely aggressive is very consistent with the rabies mentioned in medical books. In this way, the dog that Lü Hou encountered in march when dogs are prone to madness is most likely a rabid dog.
After being bitten by a rabies, people do not immediately develop the disease, and there is usually a incubation period for the disease. Once the incubation period is over, rabies can flare up rapidly, killing people within a few days.
Therefore, a long incubation period and a rapid period of morbidity and death are often considered important features to distinguish rabies. The "Records of History" has a relatively clear record of the time of Lü Hou's illness and the time of his death.
According to the "Benji of Empress Lü", after being injured in mid-March, Lü Hou's health was initially unharmed, and she was still handling government affairs after that. However, in the middle of July, Lü Suddenly began to fall ill, and soon died violently at the end of July.
From this, we can clearly see that there is an incubation period from March to July and a period of onset of about a few days. The four-month incubation period and the onset period of several days of death are very consistent with the characteristics of rabies.
In addition to the extreme similarity of the characteristics of the disease to rabies, some of The strange manifestations of Lü Hou during the onset of the disease are also worth noting. According to Wang Chong's "On Balance", Lü Hou developed symptoms of "demon-like dog-like" at the time of the onset of the illness, that is, it was as if he was possessed by a wild dog.
Lü Hou's terrible symptom had made the people around her extremely frightened. Many people believe that this is the reason why the ghost of Liu Ruyi, the king of Zhao, is not scattered, and the people of Wubu have made an explanation of "King Ruyi of Zhao".
Since the Han and Wei dynasties, Liu Ruyi's saying that he "pretended to be a dog" to hurt people was very popular, which for a while aggravated the mysterious color of Lü Hou's evil and violent death. However, if we link the manifestation of Lü Hou's wild dog possession with rabies, we will find that this strange symptom is not so mysterious and inexplicable.
Chao Yuanfang's "Theory of the Origin of Diseases" says: "Dogs (i.e., rabid dogs) have sores, and recurrence is crazy, like a dog." If combined with this record in the ancient medical book, the so-called "demon-like dog shape" before Lü Hou's death in the "On Balance" is precisely to describe Lü Hou's "like a dog" during a severe attack.
Modern medicine also found in clinical observation that when rabies patients are dying, their consciousness will suddenly change from a state of madness to lucidity, and this special clinical manifestation is a phenomenon unique to rabies.
And this phenomenon is also reflected in Lü Hou. The "Records of History" records that when Lü Hou was dying, he summoned Zhu Lü to the bed. In order to be able to cope with the political changes caused by his death, Lü Hou made careful arrangements and warned Zhu Lü to beware of Liu Bang's former subjects.
Judging from the dialogue between Lü Hou and Zhu Lü, Lü Hou had a clear understanding of the situation after his death, and his arrangement of Zhu Lü was also well considered and properly pre-arranged.
Obviously, Before his death, Lü Hou was clear-headed, which was very different from the confusion of ordinary people's consciousness when they were critically ill. In short, the mental changes recorded in the historical records from frenzy to sobriety at the time of Lü Hou's illness can also be corroborated with the clinical pathogenesis characteristics of rabies.
The unexpected death of Lü Hou caused by rabies profoundly changed the political trend of the Han Dynasty in the future, which was really unexpected.