Hello everyone, I am Xiao Qi, a Sichuan girl who likes demons and ghosts, a cute girl who is addicted to nonsense, and the author of this article is Zhibei You.
Hiding from the plague god at home, staying at home for a long time is inevitably boring, and then the fire rises, lest you start to talk nonsense and even ghost words, so this article is pure nonsense, according to some ancient and modern documents, people flesh the plague god, see what the plague god's old bottom is.
Diseases that can be widely transmitted in a short period of time and cause death, now called acute epidemic infectious diseases, the ancients called "plague", check the ancient books can know that the ancients called "plague" contains a wide range: plague, typhoid fever, cholera, dysentery, scarlet fever, smallpox, diphtheria and can be widely transmitted cold and flu and so on, the situation is different.
The ancients also have some strange names of "plague", such as "big head plague", "pimple plague", "melon plague", "clam plague", "bayberry plague", "grape plague", etc., and so on, most of them do not know what is equivalent to what is said in modern medicine, for example, some people on the Internet say that "big head plague" is mumps, in fact, the northern rural saying that mumps is "clam plague", not called "big head plague"; "big head plague" rural areas are also called "big head wind", and the face of the sick person is swollen like a pig's head. But I don't know what the disease is called in modern medicine.
Plague has bacterial infection (such as plague), there are virus infection (such as SARS in 2003 and this "new crown pneumonia"), bacteria, viruses are not one, the symptoms caused are not the same, but the ancients did not have such detailed medical knowledge, as long as it is a large-scale infection and killing of people's diseases, all are regarded as plagues.
Plagues tend to have a very strong seasonality, a sudden outbreak of epidemics in a certain season or period, countless deaths, and often disappear quickly in a certain season or period.
Because the death caused by the plague is too much, too concentrated, naturally people's fear of it is beyond other diseases, doctors have also left countless prescriptions for the treatment of the plague, but even in today's developed medicine, people still have few ways to deal with infectious diseases, especially for infectious diseases caused by viruses, there is no specific treatment drug, the only way is to stimulate human immunity to fight the virus, still can not avoid the death of patients.
Then it is conceivable that in ancient times, people rely on traditional Chinese medicine to receive much effect, I am afraid it is not optimistic, the great man once lamented in the poem that schistosomiasis is "green water and green mountains are self-defeating, Hua Tuo helpless little insect He", in fact, it is also "Hua Tuo helpless plague He".
Since the efficacy of the drug is not good, naturally, people began to believe in ghosts and gods, believing that the plague was descended by some kind of god, that is, the plague god (also known as the plague god, the plague ghost), to get rid of the plague, you can only sacrifice these gods, pray for prayers (that is, chanting mantras), hoping to send away the plague god, or through what ritual to drive the plague away.
Not many people in the pre-Qin and Han dynasties said "plague", and instead of using the word "plague", they used "wen", for example, in the "Su Qing" it said "Wen Zhen" and "Disease Wen", and in "On heng and treatment period", it was said: "When people die of temperature and illness, there is a fierce color seen in the face first."
Its illness, encountering evil qi also. His illness does not heal, and as for his death, his life is also long. "Wen" is "plague", it may be that most people with such infectious diseases have fever and fever, so it is called "Wen", and later thought it was a disease, so it was written "plague" next to it, until the Ming Dynasty when Wu Yousheng wrote "On the Plague", he also wrote "Wen Epidemic".
In the Han Dynasty (including) the most said in the past was "epidemic", and later generations said "plague", and in the "Collection of Rhymes", it was said: "plague, epidemic also", the two are the same thing.
During the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, the epidemic was considered to be "furuncle", and Yan Shigu's ancient note in the Book of Han and Criminal Law Chronicle reads: "Epidemic, furunculosis also." The Jade Chapter explains: "Epidemic, furunculosis also." In ancient books, "plague and furuncle" are often mentioned at the same time, in short, plague, plague, and furuncle were considered by the ancients to be the same disease, and the names were different in different periods.
According to Duan Yu's commentary, the ancients called all internal and external diseases that can be contagious "boils", and later in order to distinguish between them, they called the infectious diseases on the skin "leprosy", that is, leprosy; the internal infectious diseases were called "boils", which is also written "㾐", that is, the plague, then the god in charge of the plague was "boils", and the ancient books generally used "Li", commonly known as "Da Li", and the "Book of Poetry, Daya ZhanJie" said:
"Zhan Haotian, then I will not benefit." The hole is not filled with peace, and this is a big deal. The state is fixed, and the people are paralyzed. ”
It means that the heavens have sent down a great force, and the people are tormented by disease. The "Zuo Chuan Chenggong Ten Years" also records that "the Dream of the Marquis of Jin was great and was sent to the ground", and the Chu Ci Tianwen said" "Where is Bo Qiang?" Wang Yi's explanation was: "Bo Qiang, Da Li, the plague ghost also hurts people", he believes that Bo Qiang is Da Li, the god who manages the plague.
Therefore, in the pre-Qin period, the Tianzi, the princes, and the doctors were all called sacrifices, the tianzi sacrifices were called "Tai Li" (in fact, "Da Li"), the princes sacrificed were called "Gong Li", the doctors were called "Clan Li", including the heavens also had "Li", the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" recorded that the Western Queen Mother "Si Tian Zhi Li and the Five Cruelties", "Commentary on the Interpretation of the Text" quoted "Gan's Star Classic":
"Taibai is a prince, and his wife is a daughter." Female concubines live in Nandou, eat strongly, sacrifice the world, and know the stars. ”
This "female concubine" is very suspicious of the evolution from the myth of the Queen Mother of the West, "Xi" and "Xian" ancient characters are common ("Xi Shi" is also called "Xian Shi"), "First", "Former" sound meaning is close, "媊" is the "West" sound transliteration.
This kind of "Li" in the pre-Qin period seems to be not only the god in charge of diseases, it is likely to be related to the sacrifice of ancestors, the ancients believed that "Li" is one of the gods and ghosts that the ancestors changed into, which can lead to various disasters, so it must be sacrificed; if a disaster is made, a ceremony must be held to expel, that is, "傩", which is a kind of witchcraft ritual of eliminating epidemics and driving away ominousness, it is said to be created during the Yellow Emperor period, and the "Yellow Emperor's Inner Biography" says that "the Yellow Emperor shi dai", which is relatively ancient.
I am Xiao Qi, a Sichuan girl who is obsessed with studying the Classics of Mountains and Seas and demons and ghosts, and I like to pay attention to me.
References: "Shan Hai Jing", "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Characters", citing the "Ganshi Xingjing", "Chu Ci Tianwen", "Hanshu Penal Chronicle", etc.