Zhang Jianguang
In recent years, the popularity of Qing palace dramas, the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, especially the three generations of Kang Yonggan's grandchildren, have been known to women and children. The Shunzhi and Tongzhi Second Emperors, which are more than two hundred years apart, are also widely known for their respective legends. The average life expectancy of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty exceeded fifty-three years, and the short-lived Shunzhi and Tongzhi Emperors were among the most dragging legs: the Shunzhi Emperor was only twenty-four years old when he died, and the Tongzhi Emperor was only nineteen years old when he died. Regarding the cause of the death of the Second Emperor, there are many rumors, several mysteries, coupled with the interpretation of film and television dramas, which add to the mysterious color. However, the truth of the "non-rule" of the Shunzhi and Tongzhi Emperors is still divided into different opinions. Today's sharing is a family statement from historian Professor Zhang Jianguang, which may help readers and friends to get a glimpse of the end.
Death of the Shunzhi Emperor
Before the Qing army entered the customs, Nurhaci, in order to alleviate the contradictions between the Manchu and Han nationalities, once implemented the policy of "dividing the ethnic groups and living separately" in Liaodong so that the Manchus and Han would not disturb each other. After entering the customs, the Shunzhi Emperor inherited this policy, and imposed the forcible isolation and relocation of the Manchus and Han dynasties in a certain place in Beijing. In August of the fifth year of the Shunzhi Emperor (1648), the government ordered that "except for the Eight Banners and the Han people who surrendered to the Han Dynasty, all Han officials and merchants were not ordered to move to the southern city to live." Whether their original houses were demolished and built separately, or sold for money, each of them took their own convenience." The time limit is set until the end of the following year. In addition to the implementation of this measure, in order to achieve the purpose of "Manchuria and Han each other, not disturbing each other, and actually eternal convenience", what is more important is the isolation policy adopted by the Manchurian nobles for fear of smallpox infection.
However, after the Qing army entered the customs, because it was migrating southward, the environment changed greatly, the climate was more humid, so most of them were unsatisfied with the water and soil, and after contact with the Han people, the chance of intercourse infection of epidemic diseases increased, and the number of people with smallpox increased day by day. In the second year of Shunzhi (1645), there were many people in the capital who had acne, and in order to prevent contagion, the Shunzhi Emperor issued an edict: All people who had acne in the people should immediately expel them to a place forty miles outside the city. Of course, the expulsion was mainly Han Chinese smallpox patients, and Shunzhi thought that this would cut off the source of infection. At that time, Inspector Yushi Zhao, who was inspecting nancheng in the Han residential area, said: The expulsion of the pox victims is already pathetic and pitiful, and there are many mistakes in the implementation of the relevant departments, some people have just had a fever, and people with scabies and other sores on their bodies have all been expelled, and even babies have smallpox, which has been snatched up and thrown away, which has caused a panic among the Han people for a time. This shows that the Manchus were overly nervous about smallpox, so they were very suspicious of the Han Chinese, and there were indeed many places where the specific disposal was not appropriate.
Portrait of the Shunzhi Emperor
Zhao Xingxing talked about the tragic scene after the Expulsion of the Han People, saying: Poor and small people, moved out of the city, there is no place to live, there is nothing to eat, so they abandoned the weak children and young women on the side of the road. He suggested that the imperial court should revise this policy: please, in the future, all people who have acne must have seen the acne before leaving the city. Where men and women abandon their children, they shall be handed over to the relevant administrative departments and severely condemned and punished. Forty miles outside the city, a village was selected in each of the east, west, south, and north, so that the people who had acne gathered to live, and they should not be allowed to sleep and wander. He believes that at the beginning of the establishment of the system, the good or bad of a thing is related to the interests of the world, and he hopes that the emperor can answer my recital as soon as possible. His opinion was later agreed by the imperial court, and ordered the Ministry of Works to select villages and undertake specifically.
This smallpox infection is also described in other history books of the Qing Dynasty. Talking about qian's "Northern Journey Record, Ji Wenxia" Yun: Manchurians originally did not have acne rashes. Since entering Chang'an, they have often had rashes and are very dangerous, so they say that they were infected by han Chinese. Therefore, as long as the people heard who had acne rashes, they were immediately expelled from the capital for twenty miles. However, the outskirts of the capital are all Manchurian villages, so where can the poor people go? It is common to see people tearfully abandoning their children on the side of the road. Some people are reluctant to live in their own houses, do not want to live outside alone, and as a result, they kill their children. The Qing government's policy of expelling Han Chinese for forty miles actually did not work, and by the end of the year, smallpox infection had intensified, and the number of infected people had increased rapidly, and the Qing government could only expel Han Chinese more severely. The later policy of relocating Han Chinese to Nancheng was only a further adjustment of the policy of isolating smallpox patients.
In the early days of Shunzhi, Dorgon was in charge of the government of the DPRK, so the segregation policy was actually planned by Dorgon. At that time, the situation was very critical, so he asked the Shunzhi Emperor to go to Saiwai to avoid pox. Dorgon set up a special official to treat smallpox, this official called "Cha Po Zhang Jing", in charge of the acne rash of the Flag People and the people of the inner city of Beijing and the removal of them out of the city, it took a long time for this matter to settle down. That is to say, if the Manchus had smallpox, they would also be moved out of the city.
As early as the time of entry, smallpox was used by Dolgun as a weapon to eliminate different forces. Hauge was the eldest son of Emperor Taiji, rich in wisdom and resourcefulness, and had the merit of starting a business at the time of the founding of the Qing Dynasty. When Emperor Taiji died, Dorgon proposed to make Fu Lin, the ninth son of the Emperor, emperor, and Hauge hated him to the bone. In the first year of Shunzhi, Dorgon sent Hauge on a campaign, and Hauge complained, "I have not had a pox, and this expedition, let me go with me, is it not deliberately trying to kill me?" He meant that you Dorgon clearly wanted me to get Hauge to contract smallpox. Dorgon, on the other hand, was very justified in punishing Hauge, believing that he had ignored the interests of the country in order not to be infected by smallpox, and soon poisoned Hauge.
In the tenth year of Shunzhi (1653), another round of smallpox epidemic peak appeared. In October of that year, during the battle of Li Dingguo, the remnants of the Southern Ming Dynasty and the Great Western Rebel Army, the general Dingyuan and prince Of Jingjin were killed in battle, and the body was transported to the Beijing Division, and Shunzhi wanted to personally mourn it, but the imperial court ministers thought that smallpox was popular in the southwest region, and they urged it to stop.
In the spring of the twelfth year of Shunzhi (1655), the imperial court continued to adopt the policy of expelling smallpox patients from the Capital Division to isolate the source of the epidemic. But by the end of the year, smallpox spread into the palace, and the Shunzhi Emperor was still very young and had not had any pox, so he was frightened and hid in Nanhaizi, 20 miles south of the capital. It is cold and needs to be warmed, and the salary division sends charcoal to Nanhaizi every day. In December, within a 50-square-meter radius of the office buildings of the Salary Division, all those who lived in the house whose faces shone, men, women and children, were to be expelled. In this smallpox epidemic, Manchurian ministers were not allowed to work on the duty day of the imperial court as long as there were children in the family who had pox. After the Han people were expelled to the south of the city, they were still plagued by diseases and their lives were turbulent.
On the second day of the first lunar month in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), the capital was immersed in the festive atmosphere of the Spring Festival, and on this day the Shunzhi Emperor went to the Temple of Mercy to watch the ceremony of his close eunuch Wu Liangfu's cutting and sending out. After returning to the palace in the afternoon, the Shunzhi Emperor felt very irritable, accompanied by a high fever, so he lay in bed, and was actually infected with the smallpox virus. The palace ladies and eunuchs were ordered to remove the door gods, couplets, lanterns, and ribbons that had just been hung. On the fourth day of the first lunar month, "the people should not fry beans, do not burn lamps, and do not splash water", and the outside officials and people knew that the Shunzhi Emperor had smallpox.
On the sixth day of the first month, the Shunzhi Emperor felt that he would not live long, and he urgently ordered the eunuch to send a message to the university scholar Ma Leji and the scholar Wang Xi to quickly go to the Yangxin Hall to record his will. Wang Xi waited for tears to obey his orders, and in front of the bed, he left the first paragraph of the edict, seeing that Shunzhi was tired and exhausted, he asked the emperor to rest for a while, and after they were ready, he asked the emperor to visit it. After that, the two hurried to the West Chamber of the Ganqing Palace to draft the will overnight, and then rushed to the Yangxin Hall to present the emperor's eyes. The Shunzhi Emperor reluctantly struggled to revise the edict three times, and did not finalize it until the next day. On the seventh day of the first month, shun's treatment was even heavier. In the evening, the emperor released the criminals in the prison of the Ministry of Punishment. In the middle of the night, the 24-year-old Shunzhi Emperor collapsed in the Yangxin Hall. Smallpox took the life of an emperor who was in the heyday of the Spring and Autumn Period.
Because the Shunzhi Emperor was very young and had a very rapid onset of illness after receiving smallpox, he died of illness for only five days, so there were all kinds of rumors and suspicions in the folk, and even deliberately rendered him a good Buddha in his time, saying that he had become a "monk" at Mount Wutai. Some historians still believe that this is still a suspicious case in the early Qing Dynasty, and television and movies have deliberately made this historical fact very mysterious, so that people usually think that the Shunzhi Emperor later became a senior monk in Wutai Mountain.
Death of the Tongzhi Emperor
Tongzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, son of Empress Dowager Cixi, died in January 1875. There are several kinds of records on the causes of death, the most important of which are the theory of venereal disease and the theory of smallpox. The theory of Tongzhi's venereal diseases has been widely circulated, and the "Great View of the Wild History of the Qing Dynasty" is described in great detail. The book says that the Tongzhi Emperor greatly respected the dignified and chaste Empress Aluth, but Empress Dowager Cixi was obscene and excessive, and the Tongzhi Emperor and the empress could not get along with each other. Cixi also forced the Tongzhi Emperor to love the concubines who did not want to love, so he lost the joy of love. So he went out and indulged in sexual pleasure. But he was afraid of being bumped into by his subordinates, and did not dare to go to the famous brothel in the outer city, but only dared to take one or two small eunuchs to the inner city to have fun with the women who were prostituting privately. Over time, I became infected with syphilis.
At first, Emperor Tongzhi did not care, but then the disease reached the face, and then to the back, summoned the doctor to diagnose and treat, the doctor looked at it, was shocked, knew that this was caused by fornication, but did not dare to say it, but went to ask Cixi to ask what the disease was. Cixi ordered, "I'm afraid it belongs to smallpox." The doctor takes the medicine to cure acne, and naturally such a medicine does not have any effect. After Emperor Tongzhi fell ill, his heart was very impatient, and he scolded the imperial doctor loudly: "I don't have smallpox, why should I treat it as smallpox?" The doctor said, "This is the empress's will!" The Tongzhi Emperor did not speak at this time, but gritted his teeth and hated in his heart.
Images of Emperor Doji
A few days before his death, Emperor Tongzhi's hair fell out, and his genitals festered, emitting an extremely unpleasant odor, and it was said that there were holes in the ulceration, and he could see the waist and kidneys. The author of the book lamented: "It is a pity that since ancient China, the emperors of ancient China have died of wine, but none of them have died of adulterous creators, and only Francis I of France has also died of adultery, which can be described as a unique coincidence!"
Although this claim is talked about by many people, it is an anecdotal legend after all, and there is no official archive or historical evidence, so its authenticity is doubtful. On the contrary, the official texts of the time and subsequent canonical histories say that the Tongzhi Emperor died of smallpox. Moreover, people found in the Qing Dynasty archives the "Long Live Grandpa Smallpox Xijin Medicine Bottom Book" that recorded the tongzhi emperor's pulse case, which recorded in more detail that since the tongzhi emperor fell ill on the afternoon of October 30 of the thirteenth year of the tongzhi dynasty, summoned the imperial doctor Li Deli and others to enter the palace to ask for the pulse, until the first five days of December died of illness, the pulse case of the thirty-seven days before and after, which can fully prove that the Tongzhi emperor died of smallpox. This case was copied and compiled by the eunuch of the honorific room according to the daily pulse records and prescriptions prescribed by the imperial doctor at that time. It is the first-hand and valuable information that we can analyze and study today what disease Emperor Tongzhi died of.
The Tongzhi Emperor fell ill on the afternoon of October 30, 1874. On this day, the Taiyuan Hospital judged Li Deli and the imperial doctor Zhuang Shouzhi to diagnose the situation as follows: "The wind and plague are closed, the yin qi is insufficient, and the disease cannot be penetrated externally, resulting in fever and dizziness, a chest full of annoyance, a sore body and soft legs, a rash on the skin, and sometimes the air is blocked." The judgment of the imperial doctor is very clear, thinking that it is caused by the infection of the epidemic, so let Tongzhi take Yiyin Qing to relieve the drink, and the time to avoid the wind. The next morning, the medicine worked, the rash was revealed, and it could be seen that there was a plague mixed in. On this day, Emperor Tongzhi's symptoms were "dry throat, vomiting in the chest, dizziness and heat, and qi trembling", and the imperial doctor used Qing Xie Li throat soup to condition it.
After two days of careful treatment by the imperial doctors, the acne particles soon began to appear. However, due to the strong distemper virus, the acne particles on the head and neck are very dense, and what worries the doctors most is that the color of the acne particles becomes purple. When there is a pox, if the pox particles are sparse, the grout is flat or collapsed, and purple, this is a sign of reverse pox, it is likely to be life-threatening, and the smallpox of Tongzhi is actually like this, so the imperial doctor wrote: "The disease is in danger."
On the eighth day of the first month of November, Tongzhi "felt a slight chill", and his already weak physique made smallpox develop in a counter-dangerous direction, "soaking the pulp and wrinkled skin, as if there was a tendency to stop the pulp", which created favorable conditions for the pox poison to attack various organs and nervous systems of the human body.
From November 19, Tongzhi's condition deteriorated sharply. The ten or so days that followed were his most painful and unbearable days. After the pox poison sneaked into various organs, it had a full attack, and after the pox, there were multiple carbuncles and ulcerated, and the ulcer in the waist was almost like a hole, and the pus and blood kept flowing out. The acne carbuncles all over the body are like a drill pain, the cheeks are swollen and hard, the mouth is stenchy, the chest is full of flanks, and the stool is smelly. At this time, the imperial doctor already knew that the emperor was difficult to live, and could only lie down and wait. Judging from the records of the pulse case, the great ulcer of the concentrated outbreak was very violent and rapid, to the point of astonishment. On the twenty-second day, the ulceration of the waist continued, and the acne carbuncles in other parts also appeared to rupture and pus. The next day, there were two more rupture holes flowing juice to the left and right of the buttocks. On the twenty-seventh day, "the mouth of the waist and kidney sores was slightly large, the pulp juice was unabated, and the qi was as dirty as yesterday", and the imperial doctors tried to treat it with "external ironing". On the twenty-eighth day, the efforts of the imperial doctors were ineffective, "the waist was like a bowl, its mouth was on the side, and the juice of the ointment was like an arrow." At this time, Tongzhi had reached the point of delirium and insensitivity, and the nervous system had been greatly damaged.
On the third day of the first month of December, there was a fatal chancre of the horse's teeth, and Tongzhi "had a red and swollen cheek, and the pus was still acceptable everywhere". On the fourth day of the first month, "the upper side is swollen wood, the cheeks are purple and black, and the hard place is applied, and the skin of the wound cannot be used as pus, and the blood is bleeding." Although the imperial doctors are still trying their best to adjust, there is no effect. On the fifth day of the first month of December, Tongzhi completed the last day of his life, "the emperor's pulse was weak, the poisonous fire condensed, and the spirit qi was consumed day by day", and by the time of the unitary, "the six veins had been extinguished", "the yuan qi had been lost", and the doctor poured it into his mouth with the raw veins made of Korean ginseng and other fried veins, and he could not swallow it. Tongzhi died and his fate returned to Huangquan.
In addition to the pulse case, the more detailed information about the smallpox of Tongzhi is the "Diary of Weng Tonggong". On the ninth day of the first month of November, Weng Tonggong and the imperial military ministers clearly saw that the emperor's head and face were full of pox particles, and Tongzhi also raised his arm to let the chancellor see that the pox particles were very full. Weng Tonggong's diary, which is a personal account of the day's activities, should be credible. In addition, the Thirty-seven Days pulse case of The Tongzhi Emperor from illness to death was checked day by day with the "Diary of Weng Tonggong", and the diagnosis of the disease and prescription medication recorded by the two were basically the same. Moreover, he also wrote down what he heard from some ministers and eunuchs at that time, which was very specific and vivid, talking about the occurrence and development of smallpox in Tongzhi, and did not talk about syphilis at all.
Smallpox is a common infectious disease of the Manchus, so they do not hide this fact, and syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease after intercourse between the sexes, and the reputation is not good, so some people subjectively guess that the royal family is obscuring the truth of tongzhi's disease. In addition, syphilis and smallpox disease are more similar in some places, syphilis patients generally appear hard chancre in the external genital area first, about two months later the whole body skin rash, and like smallpox, there are pus ulcers, so the wild history writer hearsay, think that the Tongzhi Emperor is overly lustful, and it is very natural to get syphilis.
Excerpt from Zhang Jianguang's "A Brief History of China's Fight Against the Epidemic"
A Brief History of China's Fight Against the Epidemic
Zhang Jianguang
Sanlian Bookstore (Hong Kong) Limited
Synopsis
For more than 3,500 years since there have been written records, hundreds of epidemics have been circulated, the types of epidemics are various, and the history of human development can be said to be a history of fighting epidemics. With the continuous progress of science and technology, we have bid farewell to the unfounded fear of epidemic diseases, and also bid farewell to the era of obscurantism in which the hope of epidemic prevention was pinned on witchcraft, but the wisdom and lessons of epidemic prevention in China's history are still worth looking back and summarizing when we are still under the epidemic today.
In the book, the author stretches the timeline of the "epidemic" to 3,500 years ago since the written record, from the topic of epidemic and witchcraft introduced, and then from the war and plague, the plague of the emperor and the general, the plague of the emperor and the general, the plague in Chinese history, leprosy and cholera, and other issues, and also set aside a special chapter to tell the story of "the emperor and smallpox" and "Hong Kong's response to the plague", the historical materials are rich and solid, the exposition is exquisite and rigorous, and it is a brief history of the fight against the epidemic that is both informative and interesting.