Chapter 53 Chapter 53: Sun Simiao’s Workplace Prescription for the Common People

From ancient times to the present, we Chinese have all recognized the saying of "four happy events in life", that is: sweet rains after a long drought, old acquaintances in a foreign land, wedding night in the bridal chamber, and the time of being named on the gold list.The title of the gold list is indeed a stimulant that speeds up the heartbeat and raises the blood pressure for scholars or scholars who have worn the iron inkstone in the cold window for ten years.Zhu Qingyu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a good line before the results of the scientific examination were announced, "After putting on makeup, ask your husband in a low voice, the thickness of your eyebrows is as deep as you can get." "The spring breeze is proud of the horseshoe disease, and you can see all the flowers in Chang'an in one day".

However, Sun Simiao, who was also from the Tang Dynasty, was not at all interested in the imperial examinations. He was even afraid of avoiding them. Invitation card. So, what did Sun Simiao think?What kind of pursuit does he have? Sun Simiao is a real scholar, not an arty person.He was gifted and intelligent since he was a child, and he was unique. He was able to "recite more than a thousand words a day" when he was in school at the age of seven. Known as "Holy Child".The social ethos at that time was that "the people in the government and the public are ashamed of the name of medical skills, and they often teach their children to recite short essays and formulate small strategies in order to find the way of life. The skills of healing are lacking and cannot be discussed." Sun Simiao lived in such an environment of public opinion , but resolutely gave up the road of seeking an official position where thousands of troops competed to cross the single-plank bridge, and chose the medical career of hanging pots to help the world and save the people from suffering, which is inseparable from his own childhood experience.

Sun Simiao once suffered from wind disease when he was a child. In order to cure the disease, his parents took him everywhere to seek medical treatment. Although his disease was finally cured, their family's property was exhausted and there were only four walls.Because he always thinks of his own painful experience, and often hears and sees the plight of ordinary people who are "expensive and difficult to see a doctor", Sun Simiao has long determined to be a great doctor for the common people, relieve the physical and mental pain of the general public, and realize his own life value.Following the example of famous doctors of past dynasties, he studied medical classics assiduously.Regarding the methods of diagnosing and treating diseases, the common sense of collecting herbs, the procedures of making medicines, and the techniques of health care, he always travels far and wide to make decisions.Therefore, at the age of twenty, Sun Simiao had laid a solid medical foundation.

Sun Simiao not only attaches great importance to book knowledge and is good at learning from others, but also pays great attention to practice.He traveled all over the mountains and rivers of his hometown Guanzhong, and then went south to the current Sichuan to inspect the local conditions and customs during the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, collected medicinal materials, refined elixir, and treated the common people along the way.His trip to the south has enriched his medical knowledge, broadened his horizons, and accumulated practical experience.He obtained Gao Ziliang's cypress leaf method from Taoist priests in Mount Emei, cured the beriberi disease of King Xiangdong in Jiangzhou (now Jiangjin, Chongqing), and cured diabetes for Li Wenbo, the governor of Zizhou (now Santai, Sichuan) (similar to the present day) diabetes).During this period, he personally treated more than 600 leprosy patients.On the way home, he treated edema for Li Yuanchang, the king of Han in Liangzhou (now Hanzhong, Shaanxi), and healed wind disease with horse wine for Lord Hanfu of Longzhou. The arrows on his body came out by themselves after taking the medicine.

As the saying goes: People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong.With the successful treatment of one individual, Sun Simiao's fame grew, and gradually spread to the ears of the emperor's old man.The emperors with the glorious tradition of being greedy for life and fearing death, and dreaming of immortality winked at Sun Simiao one by one, hoping that he would serve the "top leader of the country" day and night, and be ready to ward off disasters for the great leader. sick. It is said that as early as the Kaihuang period of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty invited Sun Simiao to serve as a doctor of Guozijian, but Sun Simiao refused because of illness.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, when the dynasty changed, in order to avoid war and imperial conquest, Sun Simiao lived in seclusion in Taibai Mountain, and then in Zhongnan Mountain.During the reign of Tang Wude, he met Master Daoxuan who was familiar with the Buddhist "Medical Fang Ming". Tang Gaozu Li Yuan also wanted to recruit Sun Simiao for his own use. According to the fifth volume of "Huayan Jing Biography": "In the first year of Yining, Gaozu rebelled and merged the state. Miao was in the territory. Gaozu knew his grandeur, treated him with courtesy, and ordered him As the leader of the army, he was appointed to the fourth grade, and he refused to accept his resignation. Afterwards, he traveled to various places and never lived there." Sun Simiao once said to his relatives and friends that when a wise monarch appeared in the society in the future, he could come out and do something to help the world and save people. thing.

Tang Taizong Li Shimin who created the "Reign of Zhenguan" is certainly a generation of Mingjun, but he is also a super "fan" of the elixir of life.Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty also issued an imperial decree to summon Sun Simiao to Chang'an, the capital city. Seeing Sun Simiao who was over fifty years old but still ruddy and youthful, Emperor Taizong couldn't help sighing: "I know that those who have the way are sincere and respectable. Cheng (both are immortals in ancient legends) is not a lie!" Then he was about to confer an official title, but Sun Simiao still politely declined.Tang Taizong wanted to force Sun Simiao to stay but was afraid of damaging his glorious image in the hearts of the common people, so he had to let nature take its course and allow him to return to his hometown.After Sun Simiao left, Tang Taizong continued to search for and take the elixir that is said to make people live longer. While taking the medicine, he felt ruthless: Could it be impossible to eat hairy pigs without Zhang Butcher?Without you Sun Simiao, I can still live forever!As a result, things backfired. Before he was 50 years old, he "died" because of mercury poisoning caused by taking elixir.

Tang Gaozong has always been a sick child (this is one of the reasons why Empress Wu Zetian was able to take power), and of course he also hoped to have an old fairy-like doctor by his side, so he summoned Sun Simiao in the fourth year of Xianqing (659) to give advice to the doctor Sun Simiao refused to accept the position.At this time, the Tang government was compiling "Xinxiu Materia Medica" (later "Tang Materia Medica"), so Sun Simiao was asked to stay in Chang'an to participate in the compilation. This was a job Sun Simiao never tired of doing, so he stayed.In April, a "Tang Materia Medica" with rich illustrations and texts was completed, with a total of 55 volumes and 844 kinds of medicines. This is the world's first national pharmacopoeia.Later, Sun Simiao asked to return to his hometown on the grounds of being old and sick, and he has been living in Qingyu Mountain in his hometown, Yao County.

Sun Simiao was able to insist on himself in front of the emperors, neither humble nor overbearing, which is really commendable.What's more valuable is that he treats patients, especially poor people, with warmth like spring breeze and enthusiasm like summer. One day Sun Simiao was concentrating on writing a book, when suddenly someone came to say that a young man in Nanshan was in constant pain and his breathing was weak, and he had delayed until now because of his poor family.He immediately put away the pen, packed the golden needle with the medicine bag, and hurried to the patient's home.Sun Simiao wanted to use acupuncture to relieve pain, but he pricked all the pain-relief points recorded in ancient books, but it still didn't help. He continued to search for the most painful point very patiently. Suddenly, the patient cried out: "Ah... yes... it's here!" Sun Simiao immediately The gold needle was stuck in, and the pain soon stopped.Since then, there has been another acupoint for pain points on the human body——Ashi acupoint.

As a doctor, Sun Simiao not only has superb medical skills, but also has noble medical ethics.He believes that doctors should put healing and saving lives first, and always consider patients.He treats all people who come to him for treatment, regardless of high or low, as equals. Once, a patient suffering from urinary aura came to Sun Simiao for medical treatment. Sun Simiao was very sad to see the patient moaning while covering his drum-like belly with his hands.He thought: If the urine does not come out, it is probably because the opening for urination is not working well.The urinary bladder (bladder) cannot hold so much urine, and it may be too late to take medicine.If one manages to insert a tube through the urethra, urine may be able to come out.Sun Simiao decided to give it a try.However, the urethra is very narrow. Where can I find such a thin and soft tube that can be inserted into the urethra?When he was in a dilemma, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a neighbor's child playing with an onion pipe, and immediately had an idea in his mind.He found a thin onion tube, cut off the pointed end, and carefully inserted it into the patient's urethra. Like the child, he bulged his cheeks and blew hard. Soon, urine slowly flowed out of the onion tube. , the patient's illness will be cured.

This seemingly simple blow is actually not simple. If a doctor's heart is not filled with concern for patients, he will not be able to do this anyway. In the long-term medical practice, Sun Simiao felt that the medical prescriptions and herbal medicines were voluminous, and suddenly it was difficult to seek medical examination in case of emergency. Compiled "Preparation for Emergencies Qianjin Yaofang" (referred to as "Qianjin Yaofang" or "Qianjin Fang"), with a total of 39 volumes, 323 categories, and a total of 5,300 prescriptions and treatises, including diagnosis and treatment, acupuncture, guidance, massage, etc. , quite comprehensive.The method of treating beriberi recorded in the book is more than a thousand years earlier than that of Europeans.He put obstetrics and pediatrics at the top of the volume and paid attention to them. He also found a compound prescription, a method that can cure multiple diseases with one prescription and one disease with multiple prescriptions. Sun Simiao believed: "Human life is the most important thing, and there are precious daughters, and one side helps them, and virtue exceeds this." Therefore, he named his medical works with the word "thousands of gold". The book "Thousand Gold Prescriptions" systematically summarizes the achievements of Chinese medicine from ancient times to the early Tang Dynasty, and has been respected by doctors and scholars since its publication. In the first year of Yongchun (682), Sun Simiao, who was over a hundred years old, passed away.Before he died, he asked his family to burial lightly, not to hide the ghost vessel, and not to slaughter cattle and sheep for sacrificial activities.However, Sun Simiao's "merit lies in the life of the people, so the people will worship him." To commemorate him, people respect him as the "King of Medicine" and call Mount Wutai, where he lived in seclusion in his later years, "Mount of the Medicine King". "Worshiping the King of Medicine every year with flutes and drums" has become a custom of the people in Sun Simiao's hometown for thousands of years. According to the ideal of life designed by Confucianism, a scholar should pursue Qi Zhiping, that is, "cultivate one's self, regulate one's family, govern the country and the world", so as to "put an end to the affairs of the king and win the fame of life and death".As a scholar, Sun Simiao took a different life path, but he is also famous in history and will last forever.The author believes that he can stand the scouring and tempering of time better than those princes and generals. After many years, people's evaluation of "Qin Huang Han Wu, Tang Zong Song Zu" may be overturned, but Sun Simiao will still be full of energy. Standing on the altar of Chinese history.