According to valid historical records, there have been more than 700 large-scale infectious diseases in Chinese history. That is to say, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the present, large-scale infectious diseases occur on average every three or five years.
defeat the plague
The large-scale infectious diseases that broke out in ancient times include smallpox, plague , cholera , black death , plague , plague, rash, typhoid, rabies , etc. Among them, the smallpox disease spreads very quickly and will infect people in a village with lightning speed.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, according to the "Zuo Zhuan" written by Zuo Qiu Ming , in the autumn of 556 BC, a strange disease appeared in the Song Dynasty. The sick people were afraid, restless, irritable and insomnia, and were sensitive to stimulations such as sound, light, and wind, and had a sensation of laryngeal tightness. The sick person was thirsty but did not dare to drink water. Later, people gradually realized that this disease might be caused by dog bites, so they expelled the mad dogs in China. This is the first infectious disease rabies recorded in Chinese history. Today, more than 55,000 people die from rabies worldwide every year, and more than 95% occur in Asia and Africa. Among the victims suspected of rabies animal bites, 40% of children under the age of 15 account for 40%, and the vast majority of human rabies deaths are caused by dogs.
During the Three Kingdoms period, plagues occurred as many as 22 times. A generation of heroes Cao Cao wrote a poem: The armor produces lice, and the people die. The bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles. One hundred and one after another in life, and one thought can break the heart. The poem vividly depicts the tragic scene at that time, the great plague in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, which was collectively called "typhoid fever". Wang Jie, among the Seven Sons of Jian'an, wrote in the poem "Seven Sorrows", "I saw nothing when I went out, and my bones covered the plain... I climbed the shore of Baling in the south, and looked back at Chang'an . I realized that the people in the spring were sad, and I sighed and felt sad."
The most typical example is the famous Battle of Red Cliff . At that time, Jingzhou , and schistosomiasis in Chibi and other places was prevalent. The more than 200,000 troops commanded by Cao Cao were infected with nearly half of the soldiers during the battle, and their combat effectiveness dropped sharply. " Three Kingdoms " records: "The epidemic was plagued again, and many northern troops died, so Cao Gong led his return." If Cao Cao's army had not had the impact of the plague, the situation of the three kingdoms might have been rewritten. In a letter written to Sun Quan, Cao Cao blamed his failure on the plague.
Battle of Red Cliff
According to historical records, the plague epidemic began in 468 AD. According to time calculations, it probably occurred during the Northern and Northern Dynasties period. In 468 AD, about 150,000 people were affected in the heart of the Central Plains of China, involving multiple regions, including today's Hebei and Shandong. Later, the plague spread in East Asia and even the Pacific Rim . Countless people died of plague every year. In ancient times, helpless people could only pray to gods and worship Buddhas, relying on gods and immortals to appear. The rulers were powerless, and they could only follow the poor people burning incense and worship Buddhas, vigorously building temples and requesting Bodhisattvas to appear in order to calm the hearts of the people. This led to the extreme prevalence of Buddhism in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The plague not only rages in the East and other places, but also kills many people in Europe. Therefore, Europeans once called the plague the Black Death. The "Black Death" broke out in Europe in the 14th century, and died within one to three days of the onset, with about 17 million to 28 million lives. The death toll accounts for more than a quarter of the European population, and half of the deaths in Italy and Britain.
1643, that is, in the late Ming Dynasty, the plague was rampant again. This time, the plague caused a lot of casualties between Li Zicheng and the Qing army, directly causing panic in the capital. When Li Zicheng invaded Beijing City, he found that Forbidden City had almost become an empty city.
In 1910, the plague broke out again in the Northeast, and this time the plague directly killed more than 60,000 people, involving half of China.
Infectious diseases are actually not only a major factor that threatens the physical health of modern people and endangers social stability, but also a major factor that affects the evolution of ancient history. In ancient times, social unrest was even caused by large-scale infectious diseases, the country's foundation was unstable, and large-scale rebellion was triggered, which eventually led to dynasty changes.
