Since ancient times, the written records of the Chinese nation have been recorded about diseases and epidemics. By the Ming and Qing dynasties, Chinese's understanding of epidemic diseases had reached a considerable height. For example, Wu Yousheng, a man in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, summed up the nature of the plague from the practice of curing the plague, "The plague enters from the mouth and nose, lies in the membrane, and its evil is not between the surface and the inside, and its transmission has nine, or the surface or the inside, each is a disease." ...... In the meantime, there are eleven things that are contrary to typhoid fever, and there are variations, combinations, and so on. "In recent years, in the study of medical history and social history, the specific research on the treatment of diseases has been deepened, and in the discussion of medical history in the Qing Dynasty, there are many specific studies on a certain plague in a certain period, but on the whole, it seems insufficient to observe the response of the autocratic dynasty to the disease. In the Qing Dynasty, only the "Qing History Manuscript" records that in the 228 years from the first year of Shunzhi (1644) to the eleventh year of Tongzhi (1872), there were 300 major epidemics, which is not much. In the meantime, the Qing Dynasty rulers' cognition and response to epidemics should also be discussed and paid attention to by scholars. This article only makes a preliminary discussion on the cognition and response of the supreme ruling authorities of the Qing Dynasty to the epidemic.
The Understanding of the Qing Government and successive autocratic dynasties is that the occurrence and spread of diseases is closely related to whether the country's politics are clear or not, and the occurrence and spread of plagues are often a manifestation of heavenly warnings. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi's edict, it is said, "The Imperial Huan District is ruled by the Emperor of Shunzhi. In the past, there have been many edicts to blame the province,...... Today, the heavens have shown their warnings, the drought and the plague, the misfortunes of the people, the thieves, and the people's livelihood, and they have carried out provincial reforms. Obviously, in the eyes of the supreme ruler of the Qing court, the frequent occurrence of epidemics was caused by political confusion and warning from heaven. This understanding is not an isolated expression, and after entering the customs, the emperors have always expressed the link between epidemic and politics. The Kangxi Emperor said: "Yin and yang are not harmonious, and the cover is due to improper personnel." The mind must be sensible and must be handled appropriately. In April of the sixth year of Yongzheng, in response to the imbalance of water and drought in some parts of Shanxi, "epidemic gas, and many households", local officials "prayed to the province and set up altars to pray". The Yongzheng Emperor instructed in the official's recital, "It is the most important thing for all to pray, first be a provincial inspector to cure the name of the criminal, whether there is leniency or impossibility, to be dry and kind, to be diligent and compassionate to the people, and to return to think about it." If the disciples adorn the yiwen and ask for it with selfishness, it will not be beneficial. Respect, respect. "It shows the idea of linking disasters and epidemics with the names of officials. In September of the same year, the Yongzheng Emperor learned from the Book of Zhan that disasters might occur in Chenzhou and other places in Henan, and if it rained within three days, the disaster situation would be solved, so he sent a letter to Tian Wenjing to inquire about the specific situation, and said, "Chen Prefecture is a henan region, and Tian Wenjing is a qingzheng official, and there should be no disaster in its territory." ...... The principle of heaven and man should be the same. In approving the recital of Tian Wenjing, the governor of Hedong, the Yongzheng Emperor pointed out, "Good governance has always been able to eliminate disasters, but it is the principle of nature, and the heavenly path is not pleasant, and the belief is the most accurate." This kind of Zhu Criticism, written by the Qing Emperor himself, claimed to be unquestionable, and was a clear expression of linking the warning of the heavens with the plague. Later emperors also had such thoughts. Until the Tongzhi period, the epidemic of plague in Beijing was still called the warning of heaven, "and since last month, the epidemic in Beijing has prevailed, and it has not yet passed." Although he was in his old age, he was deeply afraid. Hereby obeys the will of the Emperor and Empress Dowager of the Two Palaces, and the heavens and men will give them each other the opportunity to make an edict. But when the upper and lower levels are united in one heart, it is beneficial to self-cultivation and self-examination. Even on the front line of the war with the Taiping Army, when a major epidemic occurred in the army, it was also considered to be a warning from heaven, "The government affairs of the imperial court are many missing, and the heavens are dry and peaceful, but they pray silently with their hearts to pray for the blessings of the heavens." We, the monarchs, should be painfully responsible, have solid strength, and strive to save the way, and ask for the people's lives, so that the heavenly heart will be transferred, and things will go smoothly. ”
The so-called warning from heaven and the theory of heaven and heaven and other such sayings that classify the epidemic as a warning of providence is of course a traditional thinking, but it should also be noted that under the dictatorship of the traditional social government, the epidemic has always been related to man-made disasters and are mutually promoting factors. This kind of cognition of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, although not fundamental and the principle of the occurrence of diseases and epidemics, was not unreasonable in the political environment at that time.
The ruling authorities of the Qing Dynasty also generally believed that the epidemic of epidemics was often caused by seasonal and environmental changes, so it was also a kind of "epidemic". The Yongzheng Emperor once explicitly stated that an epidemic was an infectious disease, a kind of "time qi" or "time epidemic". In the sixth year of Yongzheng, Jiangxi issued a plague, and the Yongzheng Emperor sent a letter asking, "I smelled that Jiangxi had been infected for several months last winter, why didn't I hear it?" And in the reply of the magistrate, Zhu criticized: "Nowadays, the province is popular, which is caused by the harmony of yin and yang, and the bandits are concerned." In the compromise of Inspector Blantai of Jiangxi, he also reported, "The winter of fuchajiang province last year was warmer and less cold, and the yang qi was not collected, so that at the turn of winter and spring, folk diseases were made." As for Brantai's compromise that after the people start spring farming, the disease disappears, claiming that the folk disease is caused by the people's "full food and sleep after the gap in the farm", and the Yongzheng Emperor believes that it is completely "children's whispering". Obviously, the Yongzheng Emperor believed that at the time of winter and spring, seasonal changes and epidemics were related to "time qi".
The cognition of the weather and the epidemic, the most common saying is summer. In May of the third year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor said: "The weather is hot and hot, and the dirty gas is steaming, and it turns into an epidemic." In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, famine broke out in Zhili and other places, and the victims gathered in The Capital Division, and the Kangxi Emperor ordered the establishment of additional relief factories, but also worried that "the heavens are gradually becoming hot, the old and the young are weak, and the steaming of the gathering is a disease, and the disaster is turned into a disaster, and it is very worrying." In the fifty-third year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor, who was taking refuge outside the Country, ordered the rectification of the Jingshi Prison, and the reason for this was also "the summer of Dangzi." Fear of disease. And that's all. I'm overwhelmed. "The accounts of the emperors of the Qing Dynasty that the summer heat caused the epidemic are sometimes seen in the records. Qianlong 58 July edict, "Since the beginning of autumn, the weather here has been hot and hotter than summer. After the rain on the eighth day of the first month, the cream was not renewed. If you want to gather people in Beijing, you will be hotter. Xiaomin, etc., may be steaming due to the heat, and there are occasional epidemics, and it is not certain. The Daoguang Emperor also mentioned the relationship between summer heat and the epidemic many times, "In August this year, the weather was still hot. Inside and outside the capital, there are also epidemics. ”
The Qing court recognized that some of the other causes of epidemics, such as crowd gatherings, wars, famines, etc., would cause or contribute to epidemics. At the end of the Kangxi Dynasty, there was a great famine in Shanshan, Shaanxi, and other places, so Zhu Shi and others went to the disaster areas, "the hungry people migrated, so that the local officials were resettled, and they could pay for the support of those who were recommended; the hungry people gathered in groups, prone to boils, and set up factories for treatment." "Apparently the gathering of people is a cause of the disease. In the seventeenth year of Qianlong, when there was a long drought and a locust plague occurred in Beijing and Zhili and other places, the Qianlong Emperor immediately ordered an inquiry into the disaster and paid attention to whether there was an epidemic. According to the report, "Its inhabitants did not have any places where they were infected by summer fever, and each of them belonged to the locusts, and the catch has been exhausted." Although there are salamanders that continue to grow, they also follow the flutter and do no harm. "Disasters such as diseases and drought locusts are often parallel and secondary to each other, which is also recognized by the authorities. War and disease go hand in hand, war often also contributes to disasters, Qianlong thirty-nine years, the Qing court pacified Shandong and other places of civil unrest, Qianlong Emperor heard the residents return to the old city, that is, ordered as soon as possible to dispose of the war corpses, "according to Shu Hede played, the old city streets and alleys of thieves filled the road. Yesterday, Yang Jingsu played that more than 4,000 households of the residents of the old city had returned, and they still had to gather here. If the corpse accumulates for a long time, the filthy gas is steamed, and after the spring melts, it is afraid that it will be easy to become infected with diseases, and it must be done quickly. "It is widely recognized that war will cause or contribute to the epidemic of infectious diseases. Natural disasters are often parallel to man-made disasters, but also a common phenomenon, Daoguang chu, Shandong plague, spread gradually, a moment of rumors, "Texas and other places there are bandits taking advantage of the proposal, the first or second day of July there are ghosts knocking on the door, the response will die." As a result, the residents confused each other and rushed to the end of the night. In the Dongchang area, there are also rumors that evil bandits steal hair and cut young children and young girls. And the way to the dish to pick up the burden, take the time to throw away the medicine bag. There was also Huang Er, a bare stick who lived in Dongguan, Jining Prefecture, and was nicknamed Huang Banxian (黄半仙), who was nicknamed Huang Banxian (黄半仙), and around the tenth day of the first month of July, he deliberately took advantage of the disaster to extort wealth, fabricated the names of even hairy monks and demons, and colluded with evil bandits to show off people. Entering the courtyard at night, he calls himself a demon and commits wanton adultery. "Natural disasters are rife, and there will be human disasters, which has also become the basic understanding of the rulers of the Qing Dynasty."
In terms of the response to the epidemic, the early Qing Dynasty paid the most attention to the treatment of "acne rash". The nobles of the Qing Dynasty and the population of the Eight Banners, which was the basis of their rule, came from Outside Guanwai and were particularly sensitive to the smallpox commonly known as "pox" and could not but attach great importance to it. In the early Qing Dynasty, the emperors had many ways to avoid pox. Shunzhi's eighth-year edict said, "In recent days, there have been many poxes, and there have been shelters in the pure land, and all the Manchu and Han Mongol officials and people who have been wrongfully accused, go inside to the various local officials to complain." The Kangxi Emperor also avoided pox when he was a child, "Emperor Shizuzhang, because he did not have pox when he was young, ordered his nanny to guard outside the Forbidden City. Parents have not had a day of rejoicing under their knees, and this is what I have been sorry for sixty years. Pox disease became a major event in the Qing Dynasty, not only the emperor, the imperial family, the flag population paid special attention, even the leaders of the Mongol tribes of the outer domain, the Tibetan princes and lamas, and even the leaders of the northeast Solon and other tribes, if they wanted to enter Beijing, they had to consider whether they had ever had pox. After the Kangxi Dynasty, the introduction of vaccines was effective, and the Qing court's fear of pox seemed to have been alleviated, but in the final Qing Dynasty, the pox incident was still inevitably more scruples. For example, during the Qianlong period, there were still princes who died of smallpox.
In the Qing Dynasty, although there was no systemic hard regulation for the response to the epidemic with a wide spread and a greater impact, there were also conventions and conventions, and there were certain laws to follow. Roughly speaking, there are the following numbers:
First, in principle, the occurrence of epidemics in various places must be reported to the central government in a timely manner.
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty urgently needed to hunt in the north, tour the south, Chengde Xingwei and go out to worship the ancestors, during which time, understanding the situation in various places was also one of the important purposes. Many times, emperors who lived in the court often encouraged their subordinates to report on local conditions, and it was in this context that the system of secret playing was developed. However, local officials who traveled on business or went to other places to take up posts were, according to the custom, to report to the emperor in a timely manner the weather, agricultural harvests, prices, and official voices of local officials along the way. Incumbent local officials, of course, must also report the situation in their localities to the central authorities. In this type of report, the report of the epidemic situation in various places is one of the important contents. In many cases, this kind of reporting system became the basic duty of officials, that is, the Kangxi Emperor said, "The governor is a local official, and where the flood and drought hurt and the disease, it should be performed according to the facts, and there are many clear instructions." Sometimes, when officials do not report the epidemic, the imperial court will also issue orders to inquire, such as in September of the 48th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the edict ordered the investigation of Jiangnan and Zhejiang, "This year, the epidemic in the two provinces is prevalent, and the people have been injured and killed. Although the governor of the province did not hear about it, he visited the situation of the plague and the disease, and he was deeply sympathetic. "In the first year of Qianlong, he issued a decree to inquire about the plague in Shaanxi," and he heard that Shaanxi Province was not the year of great harvest, and the annual epidemic was prevalent. Look at this edict in conjunction with Cha Lang'a and Liu Yuyi. ”
In general, it is a common practice to report epidemics. The official documents of the Qing Dynasty are very numerous. In the sixth year of Yongzheng, Zhu Gang was appointed as the inspector of Fujian, and Shangqu would report one by one on the way to his post, "The minister has seen the growth of grass seedlings along the way, and the harvest can be predicted." However, the epidemic gas of the people has not yet completely disappeared, and it is all infected by Hunan and Jiangxi. "Yongzheng Zhu batch compromise, such reports of local harvests, disasters and epidemic situations abound. Even in the Toast area, which has just been rehabilitated and returned to the stream, it is necessary to pay attention to reporting the situation of the epidemic, such as the Hunan Inspector Wang Guodong Song Report, "Sangzhi and Yongshun places, the former occasional epidemic, since August, the epidemic has gradually disappeared, and the people have now calmed down." The Inspector of Gansu reported that In May of the sixth year of Yongzheng, Xining and other places "because of the slightly sluggish period of rain, the epidemic of plague and the people were infected." The subject admired the emperor's devotion to the heavens and the people, and accompanied the envoys to lead the same civil and military officer Ben, praying for rain, while cooperating with Taiyi to avoid plague and give generously. The minister also cooperated with the anti-epidemic Dan tea and distributed it in Ning. All the soldiers in each battalion who are infected will be cured within three or five days. The Yongzheng Emperor said in the middle of the compromise: "In this year' age, the qi is spread everywhere, which is rarely heard of, but fortunately the heavenly heart is kind, and the infection is light and heals very quickly, so it will not hurt the people." "Many times, not only the epidemic situation of the people must be reported, but also the epidemic situation of cattle and livestock, which is closely related to production, is also the content of the report. For example, in March of the third year of Qianlong, "Sichuan Inspector Shuo Se Song, Sichuan cattle epidemic, please borrow barn grain at your discretion, for the need to buy cattle." Got it, got it. The disaster of cattle disease, every time there is a sichuan province, it is good to think about how to eliminate the mi. ”
It should be mentioned that in the Qing Dynasty, the reporting of the epidemic was only a custom rather than or not exactly a system, so officials who concealed or ignored the epidemic and did not report the epidemic were punished. In September of the 48th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, "Liu Guangmei, the governor of Anhui, who was injured in the local area and did not report it, should be dismissed from his post according to the routine of drowning." To get the will, Liu Guangmei lowered the fifth level of call. And many officials who concealed the outbreak were not punished.
Second, during the epidemic period or season, the Qing court often inspected the prison.
This response was linked to the understanding of the causes of the plague at that time. In the seventh year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Huang Jingjie, the imperial historian of Yunnan Province, said that the rain was not good and that the prison should be cleaned up: "The prison section, shangguan Tianxin." Since this spring and summer, during the rainy period, the prison will be cleaned up, and the first priority is also. Please ask the criminal court inside and outside, and if you should be sentenced, the trial will be concluded early. Except for the heavy prisoners who are still in prison, all other misdemeanors and implicated offenders are released on bail. If there is no injustice in prison, then harmony can lead to good fortune. And citing the rule of Shunzhi as a basis, "Also check, when Emperor Shizuzhang was emperor, there was a case of hot trial, and the original prisoners in the summer prison were prone to death, so they were reduced and accelerated." It is especially advisable to hold this time to answer the Heavenly Heart. The song was immediately approved, and the Kangxi Emperor simultaneously ordered that this be promoted to all provinces of the country and that the prisons be immediately cleaned up. This practice was followed by the Qing Dynasty dynasties, until the Tongzhi period, the Qing army and the Taiping army had been fighting fiercely for more than ten years, natural disasters and man-made disasters were parallel, and the serious plague led to a sharp decline in the population of the areas affected by the war, and ordered the Shun tianfu, the infantry commander Yamen and the Punishment Department to immediately reduce and close each case, the reason was still a warning from heaven, "Because the epidemic was not removed when the Beijing Division was not removed, the edict ordered to interrogate and punish all the yamen in Beijing, quickly clear the prison, and quickly close the case. Now the star changes frequently, the heavens are hanging on, and the law of mitigating disasters is especially severe. It is advisable to give extra grace to the heavenly precepts. ”
This kind of rectification of prisons with the reason of turning heaven into reasons also became the norm in the Qing Dynasty. Many times it is cleaned up on the grounds of "epidemic". For example, in the twenty-third year of Jiaqing, there were incidents of three prisoners dying in Henan Provincial Prisons one after another, and after investigation, there were no incidents of ill-treatment of prisoners, so it was ordered that "the department should urgently order the prison officer to lead the people to eliminate the evil, or scatter the medicine bait, and quickly clean up." Human life is the most important, be careful not to neglect to engage in it. In the same year, in Jianshui and other places in Yunnan Province, fifty-one prison prisoners died, and ordered that "the governor should take care of the county officials of the prefecture, and the governor led his husband to eliminate the evil and scatter the medicinal bait." Tighten up the cleanup, and human life is the most important. Don't be careless. As far as the prison officer was concerned, he found out that there was no abuse and was exempt from his counseling. ”
Third, pay attention to the epidemic situation in the army, and sometimes the central government will directly take measures to prevent and control it, and reward the soldiers who have died due to the epidemic.
The army is the pillar of national rule, and the war environment is cruel, and under the medical conditions of the old times, the two sides of the war vigorously fight, and it is also very easy to cause diseases. In the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Viceroy of Huguang reported that after his army entered Sichuan, there were "many diseases and epidemics", and the Kangxi Emperor immediately ordered, "Xu Zhidu bid down the officers and soldiers to attack Sichuan, and the service was long." Now that Ha Zhan has returned to Sichuan, he will send the officers and men under Yu Zhidu to Huguang as soon as possible. "Sometimes, the imperial court will also directly send medical personnel to the military to control the epidemic. In August of the twentieth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, he issued an edict, "Hearing that there were many diseases among the officers and soldiers in Yunnan, and that there were no good doctors in the other place, he ordered Hu Yanglong and Wang Yuanzuochiyi, the medical officers of the Tai Hospital, to go to the hospital for treatment." Sometimes military generals would even ask the emperor directly for medicine to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army. In the fifth year of Qianlong, the soldiers entered the ethnic minorities in the urban area of Hunan Province, led the generals to ask the Qianlong Emperor for medicine, and demanded that the pills be awarded in accordance with the precedent of the qianlong soldiers entering Guizhou in the first year, "In the first year of Qianlong, the battle of Guzhou in Guizhou, the emperor rewarded the officers and soldiers with the peace pill, and the qi was very effective when he ruled the mountain. This is the right summer month, I am afraid that there will be epidemics. Pray for rewards, just in case. The imperial court also sometimes allowed front-line generals to directly withdraw infected officers and soldiers to preserve the strength of the army. For example, in the thirteenth year of Daoguang, Yang Fang led his army into the Liangshan Yi area, and the officers and men were infected with more diseases, so they directly withdrew some of the officers and men. Yang Fang now withdraws more than 250 sick soldiers. ”
The diseases and epidemics in the military have a great impact on combat effectiveness, the most serious such as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, the warring sides due to the epidemic of plague attrition of severe attrition, "It is hereby said that the autumn qi has been deep in recent days, and the epidemic has not stopped, and the deaths of various armies have been repeated. Fierce generals such as Huang Qing and Wu Huahan have died successively. Bao Chao, Zhang Yunlan, Yang Yuebin, etc. all held illnesses. There are even few cooks in the military. "For the epidemic situation in the military, the general instructions lead the general to step up medical treatment," the general and other soldiers for the country to suppress thieves, rush to drive away the situation. Near the valley of the division, pillow go to sleep. Suffering from smoke and miasma, so that the epidemic gas is transmitted, there are many things. In addition to the music, Yue Sheng was compassionate. Zuo Zongtang announced that the imperial court was virtuous and willing, and that he would follow the rules in many ways, properly prepare for healing, give him the need to pay the needs, quickly eliminate the depression, benefit from the abundance, and act with a vice-rem. "For officers and men in the army who have died due to the epidemic, rewards and recompense shall be given in accordance with the conditions for their deaths. In the first year of Qianlong, when a large army was conquering the Miao district of Guizhou, the general Zhang Guangsi, who had been transferred from Sichuan and died of illness, asked zhang Guangsi, a general who had been transferred from Sichuan, to give a reward according to half of the death example, "These native soldiers were transferred to Qian, bravely preached their strength, and many people died of the epidemic, which is deeply pitiful." Take a picture of Zhang Guangsi's request for a reward. In the first year of Jiaqing, he ordered that the soldiers who were transferred to fight in western Hunan were "all known for their deaths due to miasma, and they were rewarded according to the practice of death." ”
Fourth, the most important point is that after the outbreak of the epidemic in the locality, the Qing court generally instructed local officials to administer medicine and carry out relief.
Disasters and epidemics usually run parallel, and there must be major epidemics in major disasters, so the Qing court's attention and treatment of diseases and epidemics often went hand in hand with disaster relief.
In the Jingshi and Gyeonggi areas, the imperial court assigned the jingshi officials and related institutions to rescue and treat, and sometimes the Qing court directly assigned institutions such as the Tai Hospital to cooperate in the treatment of the epidemic. In the nineteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, Gyeonggi famine, the disaster victims gathered in the Jingshi area, the court discussed that "there are sick people in the hungry people, so why should the five cities give medicinal bait, heal and save." ...... If there are sick people among the hungry people, they should be ordered to be treated and managed by doctors from tai hospitals and five cities. In the case of the continuous disaster, "order the five cities porridge factory to be opened for another three months, and send thirty medical officers to divide and treat the diseases of the hungry people." "In the Gyeonggi area, it has also become a tradition to deal with related matters with the Kyoshi as the center and the infantry commanding the Yamen and Suncheon-fu and other institutions. For example, in the first year of Daoguang, "the epidemic in and around the capital was transmitted, and the poor people could not prepare their own medicines, and many people died of sudden diseases in the warehouse." "The infantry commanded the five cities of Yamen and Suncheon Province, carefully selected good recipes, repaired and medicated bait, dispersed sub-bureaus, and widely treated them." Those who died during the epidemic were buried in coffins by the government, "buried in the coffins, stored by the king and government, and set up a bureau, scattered to the coffins, and not exposed." After the epidemic gas is completely eliminated, it will be reimbursed separately. Sometimes this treatment money will be taken out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Daoguang first year, "in the case of the epidemic epidemic, the Guangdong Reserve Division will send 2,500 taels of silver and distribute it to the five cities for the preparation of the coffin of medicinal materials." "This is equivalent to spending the epidemic control funds from the inner court, or from the emperor's pocket." At the foot of the Capital Division, at the foot of Tianzi, led by the infantry commanders Yamen and Shuntianfu, coupled with the better medical conditions in the capital itself, and sometimes even the support of the Tai Hospital, its ability to deal with the disease is indeed far better than that of the localities.
At the local level, local officials are directly responsible for rescue and relief. At the beginning of the eighteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, "Inspector Dong Guoxing of Henan said that Chen Liu and other twenty-one prefectures and counties, the plague was parallel, please ask Fazhou County to store rice millet for relief." If he had obtained the purpose, he would first send him to Ruyang and other places to help the officials, and together with the governor, he would quickly try to provide relief. "Treating the disease is the basic duty of local officials, once the epidemic occurs in the locality, the imperial court will inquire about the rescue measures and effects of the local officials, and in the forty-ninth year of Qianlong, when the epidemic occurred in the Jingning and Longde areas, the imperial court immediately issued a decree to ask the local governors, "Since the plague has become prevalent, then there will be good people in the Jingning and Longde areas who will be infected with diseases, and whether the governor has tried to administer medicine to cure them, and how to measure the places that are followed, I am deeply concerned." At the same time, considering that this place was close to Shaanxi, he ordered the local officials in Shaanxi to inquire, "And Jingning, east of Lund, adjacent to Shaanxi, whether there is any plague in the province, and wrote an edict to Bi Yuan to find out the facts." "It has become normal for local officials to donate funds for insufficient treatment, and it has become normal for the government to use official funds or the funds approved by the imperial court to be used by the government. In the autumn of the first year of Daoguang, the "plague was prevalent" in the Xi'an area, and local officials such as Zhu Xun donated funds to treat them, which coincided with the imperial examination. Its folk contagionists want to recover a lot. Zhu Xun and others are now donating medicine bait to scatter, and if there is no enough, they will move the funds at their discretion in the province's public account, hand it over to the province and county, etc., to prepare the coffin medicine, properly disperse it, and show mercy to the life of the whole people. "The use of public funds is also a common practice, such as The seventh year of Daoguang," Zhejiang epidemic, the preparation of pills, about 5,000 silver in two years, more than 50,000 copies of the emergency party, about 4,000 silver. ”
At the same time as the fight against the epidemic, it is usually the exemption of taxes. Since the Kangxi Dynasty, there have been measures such as various measures such as rotating cockles and puqi money and grain and exemption due to disasters, and if we do not consider the miscellaneous items such as extra-endowments and bad rules in the entire Qing Dynasty, at least on the surface, the government's burden reduction measures are still very impressive. The epidemic of diseases often ran parallel to floods and droughts, and the elimination of epidemics also became an important part of the Qing Dynasty's response to the epidemic. In the seventh year of Kangxi, "with the five prefectures of Ningzhou and Anhua in Gansu and Qingyangwei, Kangxi divided into six years, and the people suffered from disease, and Ding Yin was eliminated, and the amount of land was exempted for one year." "Qianlong Six-Year Edict, Fujian Minxian Houguan and other places," Qianlong three years, five years, the place is worth the bad harvest of the epidemic gas, the people's strength lost to the difficulty, is the debt has not yet been churned, the heart is longing. The Silver Valley is exempted from the entire bank. Lu Luyan had no worries about chasing after him, and was able to spend his time on spring ploughing. ”
Local gentry and gentry who participated in the treatment of the epidemic were also often commended by the imperial court. In the eleventh year of Yongzheng, floods occurred in the coastal areas of Jiangnan and sometimes epidemics, "Gentlemen and others donated prescription medicines to fund rice grains." It seems that this heart of saving disasters and helping the poor is worthy of the friendship of the ancients. The customs are simple and generous, and they are very commendable. The Overseer proclaimed his will and praised. Those who donate more will be discussed as usual; those who are less will be given plaques, registered files, exempted from travel, and a book will be created in the newspaper department. Local officials who treated the epidemic in a down-to-earth manner also often won good official voices, and Zhang Suiyuan, a bannerman of the Han Army, once served as the prefect of Sien in Guangxi, "donating money to help the localities, applying medicines to treat diseases, and living a lot." Shi went to Xining Province, Shaanxi Province, according to the deputy envoy, worshiped the Guangxi Famous Eunuch Temple. "In history, such officials are not high and have a reputation for clean officials, most of which are related to the treatment of diseases and epidemics. And there are many people who are famous for their medical skills, Chen Nianzu, a Fujian Changle man, and a person at the end of Qianlong, who has many medical books, "Jiaqingzhong, the official directly subordinates to Wei County, Zhi County, and there are xiansheng." In the value of floods, pandemics, pro-prescription medicines, the living are not counted. Later, he returned to Tiantian as a professor of medicine, and his disciples were many, and he wrote more than ten kinds of books, and lived in parallel. "It is the so-called qingshi who has left a name, which also complements the Qing court's policy of relying on local governments to control the epidemic."
After Tongzhi and Guangxu, Western-style quarantine and disease prevention methods began to spread, but their contradictions with traditional Chinese medicine were innate. In Guangxu, Shanghai's Western-style quarantine was called "a person ruled by law in the west, cruel and abnormal, to the point of death." "The real epidemic control work that Western medicine really participated in and even led was mainly the plague incident in the three northeastern provinces in 1910. However, when the epidemic was prevented and controlled and the transmission was finally blocked, the Qing Dynasty had reached its own end, and the dawn of the Republic of China had risen on the eastern horizon.
Generally speaking, the Qing government's awareness of epidemic diseases was largely limited to the scope of ancient heavenly induction. There is also a certain understanding of the causes of diseases caused by seasonal and environmental changes. In the long period of rule, some countermeasures and practices have also been formed. Such response measures are sometimes effective and timely, and many times, they are superficial and superficial, and many times local officials report to the imperial court after the epidemic has passed, or even report the epidemic situation when they are discovered and questioned by the central government afterwards, and most of these officials have not been punished and dealt with accordingly. The ruling class in the era of authoritarianism so-called concern for the people, but this is how. As for the introduction and promotion of Western-style prevention and control methods after modern times, it has also gradually developed in contradictions and conflicts with traditional treatment methods.