Smallpox is a disease that most people are not familiar with now. Probably only in film and television works. In fact, smallpox raged in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, causing a large number of deaths and even seriously affecting the administration in the early Qing Dynasty. According to the records of "Open Archives of Qing Dynasty" in, among the ten emperors who entered Korea, Shunzhi and Tongzhi died of smallpox directly. Although Kangxi and Xianfeng were lucky enough to recover from smallpox, their faces were pockmarked.
The rulers in the early Qing Dynasty suffered from smallpox. Nurhachi's second son, Prince Dai Li Hill, had three sons who died of smallpox. Nuhachi's twelfth son, Prince Aziz of England, was an vaccinator of smallpox. However, in March of 1649, after six years of Shunzhi, his wives and concubines all died of smallpox. Nurhachi's 15 son, Prince Dodo, was also infected with smallpox in Shunzhi in March 2006 and was killed at the age of 36.
Smallpox is almost fatal to the new Manchu. Manchu people are as afraid of smallpox as tigers. When it is popular, they will only passively avoid it. However, smallpox is impossible to prevent. Most people who avoid passively still can't live. The epidemic of smallpox led to the amazing mortality rate of the Eight Banners in the early Qing Dynasty. The emperor shunzhi has eight sons and six daughters. About four princes and five daughters died before the age of eight, accounting for more than half. Disease is the main cause of many infant deaths, and smallpox is the number one killer.
Emperor Kangxi had a deep affection for smallpox, and his childhood was always shrouded in the shadow of smallpox. According to the motto of Saint-Zuting, Kangxi said in his later years, "I didn't get smallpox when I was young, so the nanny looked at the Forbidden City and my parents didn't have sex for a day. This is something I have regretted for 60 years. " It can be seen that since smallpox "avoids smallpox", it can be said that a person has not been loved by his parents for a long time. Coincidentally, when he was two years old, he still didn't escape the attack of the pox demon, but fortunately he saved his life. After escaping the disaster of smallpox, Kangxi returned to the Forbidden City when he was a child, but the shadow of smallpox still hung over him from time to time.
Image of Kangxi Ma Zilian
After Kangxi ascended the throne, the smallpox situation in the north weakened, and some traditional smallpox vaccine methods in the south gradually spread to the north. Folk inoculation method originated in Qin Long in the Ming Dynasty. There are generally two methods, dry seedling method and water seedling method. Dry seeding method is to grind smallpox scabies into fine powder, then add camphor and borneol and blow them into the nose of smallpox vaccinators. The water vaccine method is to add the patient's scab to human milk or water, dip it with a cotton swab, and then insert it into the nose of the vaccinator. The basic idea of both methods is to let the vaccinator get smallpox first, and then take care of it carefully until the disease disappears, which is equivalent to getting smallpox.
In November of the seventeenth year of Kangxi, the five-year-old Crown Prince Yin Renge contracted smallpox. At that time, a local official candidate named Ge Wei was promoted to general Wuchang because of his achievements in serving the Crown Prince and treating smallpox. At this time, Emperor Kangxi realized that he could protect his children from smallpox, so he ordered Fu Jinjing, who was good at this technology, to vaccinate the prince who had not yet suffered from smallpox. Under the impetus of Kangxi, smallpox prevention and control in Qing dynasty began to embark on a scientific and systematic road. He set up a special smallpox diagnosis department in Thai hospital and recruited famous doctors all over the world. There is also a special "acne check Zhang Jing" in Beijing, which is responsible for preventing acne in the Eight Banners.
In the seventeenth year of Kangxi, the crown prince recovered from acne.
Emperor Kangxi said to ministers in his later years: At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, many people were afraid of smallpox. When I was vaccinated, all the children and your children were free from smallpox. In other words, all his grandchildren have been vaccinated against smallpox since 20 years ago. However, vaccination at that time could not guarantee a 100% success rate. If the vaccination is unsuccessful, there is still a risk of dying of smallpox.
Because Emperor Kangxi carried out vaccination, smallpox was contained to a certain extent in the North and Central Plains. Emperors after Kangxi still highly praised vaccination. A large number of doctors from Taiyuan Hospital were left in the medical records of Qing Palace to vaccinate the royal children. This shows the complexity and risk of vaccination technology at that time.
For example, we can look at the medical case in which Emperor Gan Long vaccinated nine princess. Nine princess was born in July of the 23rd year of Ganlong. The year of vaccination is a few years less, only February 22. Before that, the princess will be examined to see if she has been vaccinated. According to Chen Keji, editor-in-chief of Qing Medical Records, on this day, "nine princess's pulse was steady, and his spirit and daily life were very good. Today, she was vaccinated against smallpox in Shi Si. I hereby report to you. " After inoculation, the emperor should report and check in time. Seven days later, on the first day of March, the pox doctors Liu Fangyuan and Zhang Defu and two doctors from Xiaofang Pulse Clinic came to consult. They found that "nine princess's pulse was steady and tight, and his panic and fever seemed to show signs of happiness". They opened "Touxi Soup", which is a soup that promotes the appearance of acne. In the next four days, the acne doctor will check the changes of symptoms almost every day and increase or decrease the dose of Touxi Decoction.
Until March 5th, smallpox doctors reported to Emperor Gan Long that nine princesses were successfully infected with smallpox on the first 1 1 day after vaccination. Thanks to the blessing of the pox god, he sacrificed it. Since then, nine princess was diagnosed as "unclear stomach qi" and was prescribed Baohe Pill. On March 1 1 day, on the eighth day after the smallpox outbreak, the smallpox doctor reported to Emperor Gan Long that the smallpox outbreak on nine princess had been completed and scabbing had begun. The symptoms seem to develop as expected. 12 was smoked by licorice soup because it had vaccinia in its nose.
However, this is still not over. From 13, new symptoms appeared. Nine princess's "right neck edema" was treated with Qinghua Decoction and Babaodan for external application. The swelling did not disappear until 17, but 18 showed "pre-auricular edema" again. Xiao Zhong Jiedu Powder was added to the prescription. On the third day of April, after constant treatment and dressing change, nine princess recovered. This thrilling "vaccination" was successfully completed. It took about 40 days from February 22nd to April 3rd.
Even the royal princess who enjoys the best medical service inevitably faces the risk of complications in the process of "vaccination". The success rate of folk "vaccination" can be imagined. In order to reduce the risk as much as possible, according to the records in the "Golden Mirror Medical Case" compiled by the physician of Gan Long Times Hospital, the children who are planted must check their physical condition in advance. It can't be planted in more than 30 cases, including pale face, deficiency of qi and blood after lactation, weakness of spleen and stomach, irregular pulse and so on. The choice of vaccinia vaccine is also quite subtle. Vaccinia vaccine with relatively low toxicity must be selected. In addition to drinking lobster sauce soup to promote the emergence of vaccinia, you should not catch a cold or be too hot, and cold and spicy food should not be eaten. The most important thing is that doctors should observe whether there are other complications in real time and deal with them immediately.
At that time, foreign missionaries in China were very surprised by China's acne removal technology, and they were also interested in studying it, leaving many records. At the same time, a large-scale smallpox epidemic will still break out in Europe. In the whole18th century, tens of millions of people in Europe died of smallpox. Records show that during the Kangxi period, Russia sent people to China to study vaccination. Later, this method was introduced to Europe through Turkey.
In many records, Jesuit scholar Yin described this in detail. In the fourth year of Yongzheng, he said in a letter to Father Duhurd that he had received three vaccination prescriptions from doctors in the palace, so he repeated the vaccination techniques recorded in the three prescriptions in detail according to his own understanding. The vaccination process he recorded was much more detailed than the medical record, and the process was generally good.
Because of these risks, children of the royal family continue to suffer from smallpox infection. Although vaccination was introduced to Beijing in the early years of Daoguang, the children of the royal family still used the method of human pox, so that Daoguang and several children treated together later died of smallpox after infection.
Besides vaccinia, Emperor Kangxi also adopted some very traditional methods. The most famous are the choice of summer resort and the establishment of Mongolian tribal leader group system.
During the Shunzhi period, the epidemic of smallpox frightened the young emperor very much. At that time, most Mongolian leaders did not suffer from smallpox. In order to avoid the danger of infection, Shunzhi ignored the import system of Mongolian grassland and did not meet foreign nobles who came to Beijing for many years. Later, it was stipulated that Mongolian princes who did not suffer from smallpox were not allowed to go to Beijing to see the emperor.
There was still this rule in the early years of Kangxi, but Kangxi was also worried about whether some princes who claimed to have smallpox were telling the truth. Kangxi came to the north in the sixteenth year and crossed the Jehol. He found a suitable place for his summer vacation and built a palace to avoid smallpox. Later, according to Emperor Kangxi's regulations, the upper class aristocrats, such as Mongolians, Tibetans, Hui people and Wei people who did not suffer from smallpox, could meet the emperor in the emperor's paddock in September and hold an accession ceremony in autumn. It is sunny in autumn in Jehol, which can avoid the high incidence of acne. It is more suitable to know the nobles of various ethnic minorities.
Panorama of summer resort
In the Qing dynasty, the rulers had been fighting smallpox, but they were not 100% sure. It was not until the middle and late 20th century that smallpox was effectively contained and eliminated.