When it comes to outbreaks, many people know about plague, smallpox, the Black Death, and the new coronavirus epidemic that has plagued us for three years.
Three years of the epidemic, the situation is grim, but fortunately, after all, we live in a modern society with relatively developed medical and scientific and technological conditions. Although the epidemic has caused us a lot of distress and panic, we will eventually overcome the epidemic, but it will take time. But in ancient times, when scientific and medical conditions were not developed, how did people fight the epidemic?
According to records, as early as the Yin Shang period more than 3,000 years ago, there were records of plague on oracle bones, and from the Western Han period to the late Qing Dynasty, at least 300 large-scale plagues occurred in Chinese history. Every outbreak can shake the society at that time. But never in China's history has a plague like the Spanish flu, the European Black Death, and the global plague killed tens of millions of people. Because we have thousands of years of history of traditional Chinese medicine, we have fought against the plague again and again, and it is that plague that has promoted the progress and development of China's epidemic prevention and the history of traditional Chinese medicine.
In China's historical feudal dynasties, the administrative system of each dynasty and generation was not perfect, but several feudal dynasties that existed for a long time realized the importance of controlling the epidemic to maintain rule, so once the plague broke out, the government at that time did not dare to be sloppy. For example, there was a plague before the pre-Qin dynasty, which was generally treated with witchcraft, mixed with medicine; During the Wei and Jin dynasties, there were frequent wars, and every time there was a big war, there would be a great epidemic; During the Tang Dynasty, history books recorded that "ten years of Zhenguan, the great epidemic in Guannei and Hedong", and "many diseases in Jiangnan for many years"; During the Northern Song Dynasty, during the 167 years, epidemics occurred in at least 59 years; On the occasion of the golden yuan, the plague was rampant, and the impact was far-reaching, and some studies roughly estimated that nearly one-fifth of the country's population died at that time, as many as 25.7 million people; During the Ming Dynasty, epidemics were more frequent, about a thousand, and the death toll was huge; During the Qing Dynasty, smallpox was endemic, and the Shunzhi and Kangxi Emperors both issued death orders: "All people who have acne, move thirty or forty miles away to prevent infection." 21 years after Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty, there were three major plagues in the Jingshi direct subordinate plague, cholera in Heilongjiang in 1902, and plague in Northeast China in 1910.
So how did the rulers of various dynasties in ancient China fight the epidemic?
During the Qin Dynasty, two more serious plagues occurred, one in 369 BC, when plague and solar eclipses appeared at the same time; One was in 243 BC, when hunger, pest plague and plague occurred simultaneously. And in the book "The Great Qin Empire", there is a description of "boil disease", which is considered a plague. The Qin Law stipulates that the crime of killing a boil disease is a crime, and the execution method is "drowning by the water, and then fishing out the body and burying it." Although the "sin of boils" in the Qin Law seems a little cruel, it effectively stops the spread and spread of the plague and sacrifices a few people to save the many.
During the Two Han Dynasty, medical conditions were limited, patients could only rely on their own immunity to resist, and most people were helpless in the face of the epidemic, even doctors lacked relevant prevention and treatment methods. The most famous are Zhang Zhongjing, Hua Tuo and Dong Feng. Among them, Zhang Zhongjing, when the plague occurred, opened up diagnosis and treatment, did not shame to ask questions, visited famous doctors, collected remedies, treated patients, and also distributed preventive drugs to people in epidemic areas, studied and cured a large number of plagues, and wrote a medical masterpiece "Typhoid Miscellaneous Diseases" for future generations. Let future generations know more about infectious diseases such as typhoid fever.
During the Wei and Jin dynasties, isolation had become a system, and the "Six Diseases Hall" of Xiao Qi in the Southern Dynasty. And the "Book of Jin, The Biography of Wang Biao" talks about the last years of Yonghe, and the epidemic spread that "the courtier's family has an epidemic sometimes, and those who are infected with more than three people, although they are not sick, are not allowed to enter the palace for 100 days." This means that if three or more people in a household have the same infectious disease, it will take 100 days for officials to go to court, even if they are not sick.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the overall level of medicine improved, which not only benefited from the professional inheritance of medicine itself, but also supported the progress of all aspects of Sui and Tang society, and at the same time absorbed the medical heritage since the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. With the economic prosperity of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, harmonious ethnic relations, and cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, unique conditions were created for absorbing foreign medical techniques and sorting out and revising medical classics; At the same time, the improvement of printing technology and the general improvement of the quality of medical doctors made the medical content of the Tang Dynasty standardized and standardized. Finally, with the advancement of medical technology, the mainstream epidemic control work in the Tang Dynasty has formed a more systematic, standardized, effective and reasonable system. Among them, Sun Simiao's "Thousand Golden Fangs" has a great influence on future generations.
In response to the plague, the Song Dynasty made both "prevention" and "control" preparations. Based on "prevention", multi-pronged. Song Dynasty officials were aware of the impact of the environment on the plague very early, and the imperial court also set up a special Yu department, "to control the affairs of the mountains, the yuan, and the field." While local officials in the Song Dynasty relied on public medical care to help the people, the imperial court would also allocate funds to various localities every year as a special fund for the prevention and control of the plague, and set up government-run pharmacies.
During the Ming Dynasty, a relatively complete warehousing system was established throughout the country, and Huimin Pharmacy was set up in all provinces, prefectures, counties and some important military defense areas, and the system of disaster reporting, disaster investigation, exemption, relief and pension was further improved. First, Huimin Pharmacy is the mainstay, the government funds the medicine, according to the condition, the medical officer makes the medicine, and disperses the patient; Secondly, if there is a major plague, immediately stop work and disperse the population; Bury the deceased in time to control the further spread of the disease; Then, after the outbreak of the epidemic, attach importance to the spiritual comfort of the people in the epidemic area and comfort the people's psychology; Finally, after the large-scale epidemic, the government will stabilize prices according to the actual situation, distribute necessary assistance such as money and food, reduce taxes and miscellaneous labor, etc.
During the Qing Dynasty, most of the time was basically followed by the anti-epidemic methods of previous dynasties and optimized. After the end of the Qing Dynasty, the world's scientific and technological medicine has been further developed, and medical means have better choices. For example, in the late Qing Dynasty in 1910, a large-scale plague broke out in the three eastern provinces, and because the speed of transmission was too fast, the Qing government blocked Shanhaiguan, and all railways in and out of the northeast were suspended, which was also the world's first large-scale quarantine because of the epidemic. In addition, the first invention of epidemic prevention masks at that time, this cotton yarn mask is also different from Western traditional medical masks, divided into four colors, respectively issued to four districts divided into different areas, everyone should wear a mask of relevant color, not allowed to enter other areas, and then large-scale disinfection. Subsequently, train cars with 1,300 furnaces were prepared to become isolation wards, which was also the world's first large-scale plague isolation hospital.
In fact, in the long river of history, China's ancient history is also the history of fighting the epidemic. In the process of civilization development, there has never been a shortage of similar crises, and learning from history and lessons will eventually defeat the epidemic. #History##Anti-epidemic#