Chapter 59 The Withering of Donglin Academy

In 1621 AD, Miao Xiyong moved to Jintan and began to sort out his works with his disciples Zhuang Lianzhi and Kang Wenchu. They added "Xianxingzhai Notes" and became "Xianxingzhai Medicine Guangji". This year, Miao Xiyong was over seventy years old. During this period, sometimes Miao Xiyong wrote a few paragraphs by himself, and sometimes he dictated and his disciples recorded them. Some medical history documents say that Miao Xiyong moved to Jintan because the eunuchs arrested Donglin party members. This is inaccurate, because at this time, Donglin party members had not launched a general attack on Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian didn't start killing the Donglin students either. In fact, those things happened four years later.

The medical cases I wrote earlier seem to give people a feeling that Miao Xiyong is always treating friends around him. They are all very familiar people, and friends are friends with friends. In fact, it is not. This is my deliberate choice. In fact, doctors do not distinguish between friends and friends when seeing a doctor. In Miao Xiyong's book, there are also a large number of medical records for treating ordinary patients. However, these friends of Miao Xiyong are really worth writing about, because they are all famous loyal people in Chinese history. Let me tell you one by one. Among his friends, there is a man named Yang Lian. This Yang Lian was a Jinshi in the 35th year of Wanli (1607), and the court arranged for him to be the magistrate of Changshu County.In this way, he came to Miao Xiyong's hometown. In order to truly understand the local people, he often wore the clothes of ordinary people, went deep into the fields and streets, and visited in disguise. This down-to-earth work style made him very popular among the people.

When Yang Lian first came to Changshu, he heard that Miao Xiyong was a bold and loyal person, not only with superb medical skills, but also had his own opinions on many things, so he came to visit Miao Xiyong, hoping to learn about the local governance. road. Miao Xiyong and Yang Lian's tempers are actually very similar, they are both loyal and courageous people, the two hit it off and became friends. As for the way Yang Lian asked about the governance of Changshu, Miao Xiyong was also unequivocal, and immediately put himself Relatives of my family contributed to it. This relative of Miao Xiyong was his nephew and son-in-law named Mao Qing. This Mao Qing was not an ordinary person, he was the richest of the big money at that time, a huge rich man.

Miao Xiyong immediately contributed the rich nephew and son-in-law, saying: Changshu must build water conservancy, and the money for the construction of water conservancy can be obtained from this rich man. At the same time, he also contributed the paddy field planting experience of this rich man (Mao Qing has countless paddy fields), and asked Yang Lian to recommend it to everyone. With such an uncle, it is estimated that this wealthy Mao Qing will be dumbfounded. By the way, the son of Mao Qing tycoon is named Mao Jin, he is worth mentioning. This Mao Jin was indoctrinated by Miao Xiyong since he was a child that he must be educated, so he was completely different from his rich father. Mao Jin was arranged by Miao Xiyong to pay homage to Miao Xiyong's friend Qian Qianyi (that is, The old man who married the famous prostitute Liu Rushi) as his teacher, Mao Jin stepped into the publishing industry when he was about 30 years old and became a bookseller, but his business as a bookseller was too big, he established himself His library, called Jigu Pavilion and Mugeng Building, has a collection of more than 84,000 volumes, many of which are Song edition books. He also hired engravers and printers to publish more than 600 books. There are books engraved by Mao Jin (called "Mao Block Edition"), and those precious books copied by Mao Jin are called "Mao Banknotes" by later generations, which are extremely precious. The rice paper ordered by Mao Jin in Jiangxi at that time It will be stamped with the word "Mao", so it is called "Mao Edge Paper". Now the rice paper of the same specification is still called this way. It is estimated that friends who practice calligraphy and painting will be familiar with it.

This Mao Jin also broke a record. Among the books privately engraved in the past dynasties, he engraved the most. Needless to say, Qian Qianyi is more than 30 years younger than Miao Xiyong, but Miao Xiyong still regards him as a friend. They often drink together. Qian Qianyi once described the scene at that time. He said that once , Miao Xiyong gave a generous speech at the banquet, and said to Qian Qianyi: "It is said that the top doctor has healed the country, and it has been passed down for three generations. Ge Liang's doctor is Shu, and Wang Meng's doctor is Qin, so he was chosen. In the words of Song Dynasty In other words, the method of Xining is to formulate prescriptions to cause disease (meaning that using ready-made prescriptions without knowing how to adapt them will lead to adverse consequences); the government of Yuanyou uses ancient prescriptions to cure diseases (use ancient prescriptions, but the current illness can be cured). It has changed, but they don’t know how to adjust accordingly). Shao Shu’s villain, without diagnosing the symptoms, how to forcibly inject aconitum and wolf’s poison (poisonous drugs), you will see him die immediately.”

Then, he asked Qian Qianyi: "If you have the responsibility to heal the country, what will you do now?" It means that you have the responsibility to govern the country, what countermeasures do you have now? Qian Qianyi himself recorded: "Yu Chenyin can't be right." Qian Qianyi also said that when Miao Xiyong was drunk, "his ears became hot after drinking, and he shouted to the sky", which shows his depression. Later, after the death of the Donglin scholars, Qian Qianyi became the new leader of the Donglin people. Now, let's talk about Yang Lian again. During our county magistrate Yang Lian's tenure, it happened to be the heyday of Donglin Academy's lectures, so he often went to the academy to listen to lectures.

In addition to Miao Xiyong, there is another person who often meets at Donglin Academy, named Miao Changqi. You can guess this Miao Changqi just by looking at his name. He is a relative of Miao Xiyong. They belong to two genealogy of the Miao family. Brother, this is inaccurate, their seniority has not been clarified, and they do not call themselves brothers, but the two are indeed like-minded friends. This Miao Changqi also needs a special introduction. He is a Jinshi in the 41st year of Wanli. He really deserves to be a relative of Miao Xiyong. He has the same temperament as Miao Xiyong. He is a loyal person. surprisingly.

People like Yang Lian and Miao Changqi have a common characteristic, that is, worrying about the country and the people, hoping to govern the country with the ideals in their hearts, and hoping that everyone has noble moral thoughts, so they can't tolerate the poor and the treacherous. The villain hates it even more. Therefore, when they both became officials in the imperial court, the two of them still had close contacts and advanced and retreated together. So, what did they do in the court?Why does this affect the fate of physician Miao Xiyong? In fact, Yang Lian did many earth-shattering things in the imperial court before, such as forcing out Li Xuanshi in the "moving palace case", supporting Guangzong and Xizong's ascension to the throne, etc. I will not write about these, and leave them to those who write Ming history.

The same goes for Miao Changqi, who is upright and proud in the court, and it is enough for everyone to know this. If I write down their stories, there are not a few pages that cannot be finished. The important event I want to talk about is the struggle with the eunuchs.It turned out that they were very angry after seeing Wei Zhongxian and other eunuchs' deeds against the country, and began to fight against the eunuchs fearlessly. They denounced Wei Zhongxian's twenty-four crimes, but the fatuous emperor He ignored this, and as a result, after seeing the emperor's attitude, Wei Zhongxian began to kill Yang Lian, Miao Changqi and others who had been dismissed and returned home in the fifth year of Tianqi.

This was a large-scale massacre. Wei Zhongxian's running dogs also listed the list of implicated people: "Donglin Dianjianglu", implicated 108 people, saying that Gao Panlong was "Gongsun Sheng", Yang Lian was "Big Sword", Zuo Guangdou is "Leopard Head", Miao Changqi is "Zhi Duo Xing", Li Yingsheng is "Fighting Eagle", etc. In short, all the characters in Donglin are nicknamed "Water Margin Bandits", and our Miao Xiyong is also on the list. The name is "Miracle Doctor An Daoquan". In June of the fifth year of the Apocalypse (1625), Yang Lian was arrested and taken to Beijing. People burned incense and cried in the streets they passed, praying for his survival.

On June 28, the interrogation of Yang Lian began. The eunuchs used Jin Yiwei's many notorious tortures on Yang Lian, tortured him until he was bruised and dying.During the interrogation, Yang Lian could no longer stand up and was interrogated lying on the ground with torture tools, but he still did not give in, his eyes were wide open, and he cursed the eunuch Wei Zhongxian.On the night of Gengshen in July, Wei Zhongxian, who became angry from embarrassment, ordered Yang Lian to be executed. Before his execution, Yang Lian bit his finger and wrote a letter in blood.Now the full text is entered as follows: "Lian's dead stick is down now! Infatuated to repay the master, foolish to straighten the enemy; fight for seven feet for a long time, and no longer worry about it. I don't flee for Zhang Jian, and I don't want medicine for Yang Zhen. If I want to return my life to the court, I don't want to die. The wife is crying all over the place." "When you ask questions, you waste money for personal gain, kill people and flatter you. There is a competition every five days. There is a strict limit. The family is far away, the road is dead, and the body is not iron and stone. There is life. Thunder and rain, could it be God, benevolence and righteousness All my life, I died in the Imperial Prison, it is hard to say that I will not die. How can I regret it?! Why blame people?!" "I am the only deputy constitutional minister who was once ordered by Gu. Confucius said: 'Take care of my father, and I will not take it away at the big festival!' With this thought, you can finally see the first emperor in the sky, and treat the second ancestors, ten ancestors, and emperors and queens. , The world will last forever! Laugh, laugh, and still laugh! How can I cut the spring breeze with a knife?" After Yang Lian finished writing, he looked up to the sky and laughed, and generously rushed to the execution ground. When he died, he was "sacked with soil and nails pierced through his ears", which was extremely tragic. Yang Lian used his death to defend the belief in his heart. In March of the sixth year of Tianqi (1626), Miao Changqi was arrested in Jiangyin and taken to Beijing. When he passed by Wuxi, he said goodbye to Gao Panlong and Miao Xiyong. The game of victory. The villain loses, our generation wins. Our generation loses, and our generation wins in history!" His heroic spirit will last forever in history. In Jinyiwei Prison, Miao Changqi faced the eunuch's interrogation, impassioned, full of vigor, and scolded the traitor Wei Zhongxian. During the torture, the eunuch party once lured him, saying that as long as he admitted to accepting bribes, he could be exempted from the death penalty. Miao Changqi opened his eyes wide and angry, and said impassionedly and angrily: "There are three ways for a person to live a long life: the first is to serve the country loyally and make the country healthy; the second is to keep the family clean; Otherwise, what is the benefit of living more? How can you little people understand!" Also; those who live long will not lose their reputation) As a result, the eunuchs began to torture cruelly, "preparing the five poisons", and tortured Miao Changqi to death. In the end, Miao Changqi was finally beaten to death. When he died, all ten of his fingers were knocked off, which was terrible. There is no one who does not want to live a long life, but in some people's mind, "loyalty" is so important, if they will be tarnished in any way, then they will not hesitate to defend it with death!Such people, we call them "loyal people". At this time, Jin Yiwei Tiqi was arresting Donglin people everywhere, and his next target was Gao Panlong. So, the plot I described earlier appeared. After Gao Panlong heard the report, his expression was calm. He knew that he must not Falling into the hands of these eunuchs and being insulted by them, he changed his clothes, wrote down the suicide note seriously, and said goodbye to his family. Finally, he drowned himself in a nearby pond. In his posthumous list, he once wrote: "Although ministers are robbed, they are still ministers. If ministers are humiliated, they will humiliate the country." So, what about Mu Xiyong at this time? Although he is also on the wanted list of the eunuch party, since he is not a courtier, the eunuch party has not taken any action against him. In this way, he has become the only person in Donglin who can move freely. A lot of rescue information and dangerous information need to be notified in time to the Donglin people everywhere. At this point, no one can use it anymore. Even the servants can't believe this information. What should I do?Do you want Miao Xiyong to go out in person? However, he is already nearly eighty years old, can he do it? Of course it can!Miao Xiyong has been a hero all his life, even though he is old at this time, when will his arrogance diminish a little! Bring the horse!The fierce horse was neighing, and the old man Miao Xiyong got on the horse, his majestic appearance remained the same as before! For a long time, Miao Xiyong rode his horse back and forth to various places, delivering various news in order to rescue the Donglin party members. According to documents, he even acted in the dark, "knocking" on the door of a certain house several times. Let us take a look at Miao Xiyong at this time, let us draw a portrait of him, and let us imprint his last image in the world in our hearts! This is such a moving picture: a strong horse with a flying mane and galloping hooves. On the horse, Mu Xiyong, who is nearly eighty years old, is full of white hair, but still has "electric eyes and beards", like "feather feathers". A human swordsman", the long-distance running did not leave a trace of fatigue on his face, in his heart, there was passionate blood flowing, and his face still showed an unyielding scowl! No one thinks that it is safe for an eighty-year-old to ride a strong horse, but at this moment, Miao Xiyong already feels that his life is no longer important, and I even think that he is deliberately giving up his life so that he can be sympathetic to those Friends go together! I can even imagine that when Mu Xiyong heard that one after another of his friends had been killed by eunuchs, the 80-year-old man ran wildly on the horse with tears of grief and anger! In the second year of Miao Changqi's generosity, the seventh year of Tianqi (1627), Miao Xiyong died at the age of eighty-one. No one knows how he died or what the circumstances were. Qian Qianyi once said that he died of illness, but he did not describe the exact situation at that time. Let us take the scene of an eighty-year-old man riding a galloping horse as his last image. In my heart, I would rather he died on a horse. He was at last with his honest friends. If so, what a pity to die! ! ! Miao Xiyong, courtesy name Zhongchun, was weak when he was young, and his father died early. He studied medicine by virtue of his perseverance. He not only cultivated his heroic body, but also saved thousands of sick patients. He was the pioneer of the theory of febrile disease, advocating the theory that warm evils enter from the mouth and nose. His discussion on spleen yin and stomach yin supplemented the shortcomings of Li Dongyuan's theory of spleen and stomach. These are his important contributions to the theory of traditional Chinese medicine.He is upright and upright, and hates evil like a hatred.His life is full of passion. His happiness is manifested in his pride of "rushing his arms and being happy" after curing the patients, and in his determination to "go thousands of miles" when he hears that there are patients.He used his whole life to tell us what is the way of medicine and what is the highest state that a doctor should have. The stories of him and his Donglin friends, like his medical practice stories, will be handed down forever, and will be admired and moved by future generations. Today, we talk about the spleen and stomach again, but we will focus on the maintenance of the spleen, which is the maintenance of the intestinal tract in modern medicine. (Because in the theory of traditional Chinese medicine, the absorption function of the intestine is governed by the spleen meridian) Now there are many friends who have a very bad intestinal tract. If they eat something wrong, they will have diarrhea. Maybe the other people who eat together have nothing to do, and there is no special problem with the food, but he has to go to the toilet immediately after eating. up.There are also friends who can't do it after drinking a little wine, and they will have a bad stomach immediately, which is very serious.There are also people who cannot experience the cool wind. They get up early in the morning and are blown by the cool wind. They have to go to the toilet immediately. There are others that are even more infuriating, even if there is no reason, they still have diarrhea. Such patients almost faint by themselves, and the reason cannot be found, but they have to diarrhea several times a day. How annoying do you think? If the above situations appear, it means that there is a problem with your intestinal tract. First of all, you should do a checkup, especially for those who often have dry stool and diarrhea alternately, and the shape of the stool changes. In addition, The pus and blood in the stool are dark brown, like a jam. You should check carefully to rule out the possibility of intestinal tumors. The rest should be suffering from chronic colitis and other diseases. So, how does Chinese medicine understand these diseases, and what should be paid attention to when Chinese medicine preserves health? First, we have to start with our environment.Now the life of our common people is better, and we can eat whatever we want. If you want to eat, you can eat braised pork all the time. This was the treatment of the emperor in ancient times (the emperor in troubled times did not have this treatment), so it should be like this In other words, from the perspective of the entire history of human development, the current living environment may be the best, and the material life of human beings has never been so rich. In the state, I was hungry a lot, watching the deer passing by with tears in my eyes, holding a stone in my hand, hating myself for being too short to catch up. Later, I established my own civilization and built a house. The big money can eat good food, and the common people eat chicken during the Chinese New Year, that is a good life.For tens of thousands of years until recently, life has been like this, but in the last hundred or so years, the situation has changed a lot, and suddenly you can eat good food. This is a common phenomenon in the world. I think I read the diary of American cowboys back then. In the early years, I was too hungry to survive, and I almost wore sacks. My friends in Singapore also told me that when I was a child, I had to carry buckets a few blocks away to fetch water, which was very difficult.Everyone has become rich in recent years, sooner or later, but the difference is not too much. However, our physiological system (especially the intestinal system) has long adapted to this state of starvation during the entire evolution process (this is more in line with the law of life in the wild), and now we are suddenly rich, eating so much food every day. Too much meat, can you bear it? Of course I can’t stand it, you think, if our body absorbs everything we eat, how fat you are, of course there are people like this, there are more people in Europe and the United States, these people eat everything they eat It turned out that he was so fat that he had to pick it up with a crane before he could go out. then what should we do?Our body has figured out a way: excretion. My point of view is that those chronic diarrhea are actually a protective response of our body. For so many excess nutrients that suddenly appear, our intestinal system cannot absorb them all, so A reaction is formed to excrete it, which is why there are so many chronic diarrhea now, just like stomach pain and vomiting after eating too much, it is a body reaction. However, if you always eat so much nutrient-rich food, then the intestinal tract will always react in this way. After a long time, it will cause its dysfunction, and more serious problems will appear, such as even if you I didn't eat that much, and the condition changed slightly, but it still had diarrhea. Of course, there are other reasons for diarrhea. For example, some people are in a bad mood. In Chinese medicine, it is considered that the liver qi is not comfortable, and if the liver qi is rebellious, it will restrain the spleen soil. In Chinese medicine, the absorption function of the intestinal tract belongs to the spleen. So there will be problems in the intestines, resulting in diarrhea. There are also exogenous diseases, sometimes diarrhea caused by bacteria and viruses, if not treated properly, it will also cause long-term intestinal disorders, leading to diarrhea. The combination of these factors leads to some long-term diarrhea. Now there are a lot of such people, and they are also very distressed. No matter how they are treated, they are not good. How to deal with it? In fact, you can see from my previous analysis that overnutrition is a major problem, so as long as we first control the overnutrition, for example, instead of eating chicken, duck and fish every day, eat some light food, especially If it is coarse grains such as corn and sweet potatoes, then we have removed the basis of intestinal diseases and can embark on the road of recovery. Our great doctor Miao Xiyong is an expert in regulating the spleen meridian (we return to the terminology of traditional Chinese medicine again). His academic thoughts on the spleen and stomach have a great influence on later generations. developed on the basis of the theory.Miao Xiyong believes that in the past, everyone only paid attention to the spleen yang. For example, Mr. Li Dongyuan is a model who created the Buzhong Yiqi Decoction to invigorate the qi of the spleen and yang. However, the spleen, as an organ, also has yin. Don't ignore it, everyone.So he founded the theory of spleen yin. We are all familiar with the medicines he used to nourish spleen yin, such as lotus seed meat, white lentils, dendrobium, papaya, yam, etc. This has made a great contribution to Chinese medicine. Since then, everyone has begun to pay attention to spleen yin, and the use of medicine has become much richer. You should ask, what does his spleen yin have to do with our stomach troubles?It turns out that there are many reasons for our stomach troubles, but in the end, it will definitely hurt the spleen yin and spleen yang. Therefore, when we are recuperating, we must also pay attention to starting from two aspects. Those who are partial to spleen yin deficiency should replenish spleen yin. , tending towards yang deficiency, nourishing spleen yang. According to Miao Xiyong's theory, we have a way to nourish the spleen and stomach. For example, we can buy the same amount of medicines such as lotus seed meat, white lentils, yam, barley, and gorgon, and then grind them into powder. Take one teaspoon at a time, boil it with water, and make a paste. If you take it for a long time, it will have a very good maintenance effect on our spleen meridian. Of course, Miao Xiyong has a better way. We mentioned in the story that Miao Xiyong was very weak when he was young, but later he became strong and lived a long life. What is his secret?Wang Kentang, a famous doctor at the time and friend of Miao Xiyong, revealed Miao Xiyong's secret in the book. Wang Kentang said that when chatting with Miao Xiyong, he always saw Miao Xiyong take something out of his sleeve Put the small pill in your mouth to chew, Wang Kentang felt very strange, and asked: What are you eating, brother?Tell us too?Miao Xiyong told him that this is a secret recipe to enhance the function of the spleen and stomach. Later, Wang Kentang tried it himself and thought it was very good, so he recommended it to his father. Later, Wang Kentang said that his father could Longevity is entirely due to eating this secret recipe. So what's the secret recipe?It turned out that this prescription was called Zisheng Pill, and its original name was Baotai Zisheng Pill, because Miao Xiyong believed that the reason why some pregnant women miscarried in the third month of pregnancy was because of the lack of spleen and stomach qi and absorbed Insufficient nutrition, unable to support the fetus, so miscarriage will occur. If the Qi of the spleen and stomach is replenished, this problem will not exist. For this situation, use this Baotai Zisheng Pill to treat it. This prescription was obtained by Miao Xiyong from the folks. Miao Xiyong traveled all over his life and learned a lot of proven prescriptions from the folks. Later, Miao Xiyong felt that not only pregnant women, but also people with weak spleen and stomach can take this prescription, especially those with stagnant spleen and stomach (everyone, the range of patients he identified is very similar to our current overnourished people) , this Zisheng pill has a very good function of removing stagnation and protecting the spleen and stomach. In this way, Miao Xiyong expanded the scope of application of this prescription. Today, many of us have a lot of stagnation, which leads to abnormal excretion, so Miao Xiyong's Zisheng Wan has a new use. What is the composition of this formula?It is: 3 liang of ginseng (we can use Codonopsis pilosula), 3 liang of Atractylodes macrocephala, 1 liang of Poria cocos, 2 liang of tangerine peel, 2 liang of hawthorn meat, 5 qian of roasted licorice, 1 liang of fried yam, 3 qian of fried coptis, and fried coix seed One and a half, fried white lentils one and a half, white coriander three and five cents, Huoxiang five, fried lotus seed meat one and a half, Alisma three and a half, bellflower five and Gorgon one or two, fried malt one and . It is this prescription, which is ground into powder and made into pills, and it costs two dollars each time you take it. This prescription is now available as a patented medicine, and Tongrentang produces it called "Buyi Shisheng Pill".In this prescription, there are those that nourish the spleen yang, that is ginseng, Atractylodes macrocephala, and those that nourish the spleen and yin. Among them, yam, white lentils, and lotus seed meat can play this role; those that relieve dampness include Poria cocos, coix seed, and Alisma. ; Among them, the tangerine peel promotes the lung qi, which makes it nourish but not obstruct; malt, white coriander seed, and Huoxiang are all appetizing qi, so that the medicine can enter the spleen meridian and stomach meridian, and it is the qi component; Coptis chinensis can clear away the floating fire in the spleen and stomach; Gorgon seed is a medicine that is blindly astringent, which can prevent the medicines such as barley from oozing too much; Platycodon grandiflorum can promote the qi of clear yang, and interacts with the medicines that ooze in the prescription. Cooperate, raise clearness and lower turbidity.In this prescription, yin and yang, nourishing and reducing, and ascending and descending are all integrated. It is really a well-considered prescription, which is very beneficial to our spleen and stomach system. Miao Xiyong himself said that this medicine will quickly eliminate the stagnation of the spleen and stomach for people with stagnation in the spleen and stomach. I have observed through clinical observation that for people with stagnation, this medicine will increase the metabolism of the person, and the stagnation will be quickly eliminated. It is excreted out. For people with weak spleen and stomach, this medicine has an appetizing effect, that is to say, this medicine can regulate in both directions, so that the function of the spleen and stomach tends to be normal. Since the accumulated stagnation in our intestines is quickly excreted, the material basis for chronic diarrhea is also removed, so this Zisheng pill is very good for the maintenance of the spleen and stomach. When a person has enough qi in the spleen meridian, the vitality of the whole person will be improved, which is very important for our health. Alright, this is the end of Miao Xiyong's story, everyone, take a break, I'm going to get a Zisheng Pill to chew.