How did the Song Dynasty save the people from epidemics?

The Urgent Epidemic Disease Epidemic Situation During the Song Dynasty, socio-economic development was quite rapid. However, there were also a variety of discordant murmurs, and epidemics were one of them. Although the economic development for the government and civil rescue, prevention of epidemics to create the material conditions, but at the same time we should also see, it is due to economic development driven by the gathering of the population and rapid mobility, for the epidemic from the breeding to the outbreak of the outbreak, from a place to spread to the spread of the hidden dangers. According to statistics, in the Song dynasty more than three hundred years, *** occurred in large-scale epidemics nearly forty times, which occurred in the capital of the epidemic more than twenty times, accounting for more than half. Take Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, is not only the political center of the country, but also the economic center, according to the "Dream sorghum record" records, the city "carriage hubs in bi bi, clothes and crowns gathered, the people's goods Fufan, especially compared to the past," not only is the city's population, with the prosperity of the business, the city is constantly expanding, and even the past outside of the city, fewer people are very quickly developed, is the "Hangzhou City, the city of the city, the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the city of the people. It is "Hangzhou city outside the city, the south west northeast of dozens of miles, people gather, people and goods Fufan, the marketplace, stores and prosperous, a few days through the line is not exhaustive". However, too concentrated population precisely for the epidemic created the conditions. According to the "Dream Stream Brush Tales" records, also in the Northern Song Dynasty in 1075 AD, "the southern epidemic, the two Zhejiang, rich and poor are sick, the dead ten have five or six", more than half of the mortality rate is amazing. 1131 A.D. Zhejiang pandemic, "the flow of corpses without counting", 1142 and 1146 Lin'an almost successive outbreaks of epidemics, 1151, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, due to the plague, "the number of victims can not be counted", to 1156, Lin'an again In 1156, Lin'an again suffered a "great epidemic". With the repair and construction of the country's roads, improved transportation conditions, prompting an increasing number of mobile population, which to a certain extent increased the possibility of disease transmission and epidemic, once encountered a disaster and war, it is more exacerbated the speed and breadth of the spread of epidemics. According to the "Song History" records, in 1164 AD, "the Huai Dian exiles two or three hundred thousand to avoid chaos in Jiangnan, the knot grass house all over the valley, exposed to freezing and discouragement, half of the epidemic deaths, and only those who are still also dead. This is the year, zhejiang's starving people epidemic especially many." Due to the large-scale population movement and food, clothing, housing and transportation are not guaranteed, resulting in the outbreak of epidemics, once the epidemic spreads, not only the migrant population suffered greatly, but also affected the local aborigines, resulting in a large number of population deaths. Epidemics are a threat to the lives of people's families. For the country, it is a matter of stability. Once an epidemic breaks out and becomes unstoppable, it can cause major disruptions to the normal social order and even lead to serious social problems. In the face of epidemics, although civil society and individuals have a strong need to control and eliminate, but the power is too meager compared to the strength and breadth of the epidemic. To fight epidemics, we must rely on the government to mobilize a large amount of human and material resources for prevention and control. The government's treatment measures Song Dynasty had a relatively sound medical organization, including the Hanlin Medical Academy, the Royal Pharmaceutical Academy, the Imperial Medical Bureau and the Huimin and agent bureau. Among them, there were two main organizations providing medical services for the people, one was the Hanlin Medical Officials' Academy and the other was the Huimin and Dosage Bureau. As for the Imperial Pharmaceutical Academy, its main function was to serve the Emperor and a few imperial relatives, and it had almost nothing to do with the common people. The work of the Imperial Medical Bureau, on the other hand, focused on promoting national medical education as well as physician examination, and although it could also provide medical services, they were more limited, and its administrative functions were much greater than its medical rescue functions. The Hanlin Medical Academy, subordinate to the Hanlin Academy, was an absolute career establishment with a large number of doctors and advanced medical equipment. Often assigned by the emperor to visit various places and save the people. According to the "renewed Ziji Tongjian long compilation" records, in 1082 AD, the organization was adjusted, changed to the Hanlin Medical Officials Bureau. Generally speaking, usually it also mainly provides medical services for the royal family, but in the case of epidemics among the people, especially in more serious cases, it became the main force to save the people. Particularly worth mentioning is the Hanlin Medical Academy's resident medical officer system, that is, the medical officer takes turns to go to the local medical service system. According to the "Song Hui Yao Series Draft" records, in 1113 AD "Hanlin Medical Academy to see the medical officer to the Gionghou more than 700 members, and no duties, all the way to the berth amounted to more than a hundred members. Make the school test method, with the test in the high and low dispatched, the road state army has the size of the difference between near and far?". Later, this system was gradually extended to the local counties. For example, in 1165 AD, two Zhejiang epidemic, the court ordered "line in the Hanlin Hospital difference medical officer eight members, all over the Lin'an Prefecture inside and outside the city, the daily patrol door body asked to see the diagnosis, with the evidence of medication, its medicine to make the Ministry of the Household Department in the and the agent bureau should be vice", "outside the state army also according to the law, the state commissioned by the medical officer in the park, the counties and towns to select the difference between good doctors of people The state military also follow this law, the state commission in the park medical officer, the county and town selection of good medical people, multi-rescue treatment". In the face of the epidemic, the rapid introduction of such initiatives has greatly reduced the harm of the epidemic, received good results this. In addition, the arrangement of medical officials stationed in various places is conducive to providing the most advanced medical means, spreading high level of medical technology, improving local medical conditions and raising the level of local medical care. In order to eliminate epidemics as soon as possible and reduce the harm caused by epidemics to the people, the Song court also provided free medicine to people infected with epidemics. According to the History of the Song Dynasty, in 1054 A.D., when the capital city was stricken by a pandemic, Emperor Renzong immediately ordered the imperial physician to prepare a prescription for the disease and took out two rhinoceros horns from his own personal possessions, one of which was an extremely valuable rhinoceros, the Tongtian Rhino. Servant Li Shunju thought that this kind of treasure is rare, in case the people use up after it is difficult to find, hope to be able to stay for the emperor's exclusive use. Instead, Emperor Renzong said, "Would I not value a foreign object more than the people?" Emphasize that the people are the most valuable, compared to these so-called treasure and what is it, immediately "broken", mixed into the medicine to relieve the people. Renzong also ordered the Imperial Doctor to select skilled medical personnel rushed to the sick area, according to the patient's condition of the corresponding drugs, in order to prevent "the poor people for the quacks by the wrong". Some people so commented on Renzong, said "Renzong although everything will not, but will do the official (emperor)", really do not know "everything will not" this judgment from where, but an anxious people's urgency, concern for the interests of the people, the people in the heart of the emperor, it should be a really good emperor. The good emperor. According to the "Song Hui Yao Series Draft" records, the reign of Song Ningzong, Lin'an, "the army and the people have a lot of people with diseases," the emperor also issued an edict "so that the Bureau and the agent to take the allocation of the combined tonics distributed under the three Yamas, and Lin'an Province, each on the door of their own doctors to patrol the table dispersal". Here to see the emperor's attention to the epidemic, the second to see the importance of the people. In addition to the emperor, local officials in the face of the epidemic will also decisively issue medicines. For example, in 1231 A.D., Pingjiang Province suffered a "spring epidemic", the governor Wu Yuan sent medical officers to all parts of the medical rounds, while distributing free medicines for nearly half a year. Ye Heng, the governor of Changzhou, faced with the severe situation of "epidemic", "rode alone and ordered the medicine to follow him, and asked him about the suffering of the people, and many of them survived". Ye Mengde, a famous lyricist of the Song Dynasty, when he was an official in Xuchang, bought medicines out of his own pocket and distributed them to the people because of the epidemic. When Su Shi was a governor in Hangzhou, he provided the people with food relief items such as rice in addition to medicines. Some local gentry and rich people also took an active attitude when the epidemic was raging, donating money and goods to assist the government in fighting the epidemic and restoring social order, and some even donated money to build houses for the quarantined patients to live in. For example, the "Song History" recorded that the rich and powerful "to contribute to the seat of the house, a night into two thousand five hundred, and stove utensils are equipped", not only built a good temporary shelter, but also provide a more complete daily necessities of life. Some people "for the porridge to eat the hungry", to provide food to the people, and even "day and night to give food", and some even "dumped the family's reserves? The living can not be counted". In people's impression, the Song Dynasty regime seems to be weak, the emperor is mostly mediocre and incompetent, even though the culture is developed but difficult to cover up those humiliating treaties with the beautiful Song lyrics. However, if we look back carefully, only on the fight against the epidemic this destructive force, the scope of the "foreign enemy", the Song dynasty did manage to stabilize the position, mobilized the country, effective response to provide effective medical treatment services for the people, alleviate the damage caused by the epidemic, and maintain social stability. In this sense, the Song Dynasty is really not as weak as we imagine in our minds.