The history of the Chinese nation for 5,000 years has lasted for five thousand years, and it must have experienced countless ups and downs. The biggest impact on the entire Chinese nation is the plague. Plagues have occurred throughout the Chinese dynasties. So how many major epidemics have occurred in China's history? How did they begin? And how does it end?
The Great Plague of the Late Han Dynasty
According to historical records, the largest plague in Chinese history broke out at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and people at that time called this plague "typhoid fever".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was constant war, and this epidemic was also caused by war. Since the Han people will fight with the nomads in the north every year, the nomads in the north are not willing to show weakness and use the necessary killing skills.
This must-kill skill is the shaman. The Huns let the wizards practice in order to win the war. In fact, wizards have any spells! However, it is also used in the "soil" method.
The wizard buried the sick cattle and sheep next to the water source. This was used to pollute the drinking water of the Han army. Livestock such as sick and dead cattle and sheep are very susceptible to viruses.
When the Han army drank the contaminated water, it would get sick. The soldiers came back from the war and infected their families with the virus. So it spreads. The epidemic is getting worse and worse.
This "typhoid fever" is actually epidemic hemorrhagic fever. At the onset of the disease, people often have a high fever and cough. He eventually died of not being able to breathe.
This kind of "typhoid fever", the onset of disease is particularly fast, sometimes there is no time to treat, people will die. It has been recorded that the mortality rate of this disease can reach more than 50%.
Plague and famine are often twins. When plagues break out, there are often large-scale famines. Coupled with the continuous war and chaos at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the government had no time to take care of innocent people.
This has caused the number of infections to soar, and the number of deaths is not uncommon. The outbreak in the north is the most severe.
Because there is no food, many people in the north choose to move south. Throughout the migration process, the outbreak also occurred uninterruptedly. By the end, there were also large-scale people in the south who were infected with the plague.
It is often said that "heroes are born out of chaos". That's true. At a time when the epidemic was so serious, it also created a medical wizard, he was Zhang Zhongjing.
Zhang Zhongjing was born in a wealthy family at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, his father was an official of the imperial court, and his family was quite well-off.
He grew up reading poetry and books, especially admiring Bian Que. Determined to become a doctor of the hanging pot.
He had been studying medicine since he was a child, but people at that time did not attach importance to medical skills, and everyone was eager to become an official.
Of course, Zhang Zhongjing's parents were no exception, and they also wanted their son to become an official of the imperial court.
Zhang Zhongjing also lived up to the expectations of the public, and through the "filial piety and honesty" system, he was recommended by the county to the imperial court. He was enfeoffed as Changsha Taishou (太守).
Zhang Zhongjing had no intention of doing political affairs, and coupled with the chaos of the korean situation and rampant corruption at that time, he was even more reluctant to become an official.
At that time, Zhang Zhongjing could not bear to see the people continue to be injured and sick, and died in pain. It was decided to set up a consultation room in the lobby of the mansion to treat people. This is the origin of the allusion of "sitting in the hall and practicing medicine".
Zhang Zhongjing also began to study the plague that was prevalent at that time, and he analyzed the condition of a large number of patients, and finally found a cure for "typhoid fever".
His treatment was also recorded in his book, which is "On Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases".
Plague of the late Ming Dynasty
The plague of the late Ming Dynasty appeared during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, and the outbreak of this plague was mainly concentrated in northern China. It first appeared in the city of Shanxi.
The plague also appeared because of the war. At that time, there were small battles between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongol border.
These battles left the Han Chinese living on the border homeless. So they fled to the Mongolian steppes. Extensive reclamation of pastures began to be made into usable arable land.
Rats that originally lived on the grassland, the living environment was damaged, and gradually entered people's homes to steal food. The chances of contact between rats and zombies are greatly increased.
Coupled with the abnormal climate at the end of the Ming Dynasty, droughts occurred frequently. People are hungry, let alone rats. Rats began to pour into residents' homes in search of food.
This also transmitted the plague bacillus they carried to the inhabitants, especially the refugees. Against this backdrop, a large-scale plague broke out in the north at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Especially at that time, Beijing became a magic cave of death. At this time, an unknown Minor Fujian official came to Beijing to take up his post. Inadvertently, a cure for plague was discovered.
It is the blood stinging method, which uses needles to prick at specific acupuncture points on the patient's body, so that a small amount of blood flows out of the patient's body. This method is very effective in treating plague.
Coupled with Beijing at that time, it ushered in a rare long winter, and people and rats died in large numbers. This drastically reduces the population density, which prevents further spread of the virus.
Epidemic disease at the end of the Qing Dynasty
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, when the qing dynasty was weakening, there were many major plagues, and most of these plagues were formed due to climatic reasons.
The earliest outbreaks in the late Qing Dynasty occurred during the Guangxu period. In the twenty-first year of Guangxu, due to the spring famine near the Beijing Division, there was wasteland everywhere.
In the summer, there are torrential rains, hail and other bad weather. As a result, there were many hungry people near Jingshi, and the plague also spread quietly among these hungry people.
In the years since, there have been frequent droughts and floods, and there have been plagues of varying degrees in the northern part of China. The number of deaths is countless.
The worst in the late Qing Dynasty was the plague in the northeast, which came suddenly and the casualties were enormous. Within a few months, five or six thousand people had died.
In order to prevent the epidemic from spreading into Guannei, the Qing Government also made a large number of deployments. First, officers and soldiers were sent to the northeast to burn down all the people who died of illness and the houses in which they lived.
But even so, the number of deaths in this plague reached as many as sixty thousand.
In order to further curb the plague, the Qing government set up inspection stations at various passes and carried out quarantine. Under these means, the plague in the northeast did not spread further to the south.
Since ancient times, people have been fighting against the epidemic, and the emergence of the epidemic has pushed the big wheel of history forward. We have also made history in this constant struggle against the epidemic.