Chapter 8 Chapter Eight: Where Can the Imperial Physician Escape?

Friends who have watched the fifteenth and sixteenth episodes of "The Legend of Zhen Huan in the Harem" must have noticed the following plot: Meizhuang was framed, and the false pregnancy was exposed in public by the court lady Fuling.Emperor Yongzheng was furious, ordered Meizhuang to be imprisoned, and reduced "noble man" to "promise".At the same time, Fu Ling was murdered, and there was no evidence of his death; the imperial physician Liu Huan was bribed, and he escaped the pursuit with a reward, and fled overnight, and escaped by chance. Here, there is a question: What is the relationship between imperial physicians and imperial physicians?Where can they escape after something happens?

Imperial doctor and imperial doctor are one of the job titles of doctors under the early state system. They specially served the emperor and his family members in the emperor's court, and directly obeyed the emperor, designated ministers (including the eunuch in charge around the emperor), empress, etc. Indirectly take orders from other concubines, princes, etc. Generally speaking, the emperor would be courteous and corporal, and when the minister was seriously ill, he would order the imperial doctor to take care of it.There are also those who donate imperial physicians to ministers of important meritorious works for short-term or permanent personal health care.For example, in the late Qing Dynasty, when Fu Zhenbang, the governor of the first rank of the military strategy, was in danger of rescuing the frontiers, winning every gram, and saving the country, the emperor was still shouldering the country's important responsibilities after he was seriously injured in the front of the battle. The Imperial Physician was given special responsibility for his injuries and health.Later, the emperor also granted an imperial cook to be responsible for treatment and health care together with the imperial doctor.

The difference between imperial doctors and folk doctors: In the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, there are very few records about medical affairs.Judging from these existing materials, doctors first appeared in the court.Before the Western Zhou Dynasty, doctors were all imperial physicians who served the emperor; after the Spring and Autumn Period of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, some folk doctors began to appear; With a preliminary clear division. The difference between Imperial Physicians and Imperial Physicians: Imperial Hospitals were called Imperial Hospitals in the Qing Dynasty, so Imperial Physicians were indeed honored as Imperial Physicians, but the vast majority of those honored as "Emperor Physicians" were not Imperial Physicians.Real imperial physicians are extremely rare.Just as those who are officials are often called "lords", those who are called "lords" are not necessarily officials.In order to clarify this question, let us first take a look at the "Drafts of Qing History?Records about the Taiyuan Hospital in "Records of Officials":

There are four grades of doctors in Taiyuan Hospital. The first grade is called "Royal Doctor", and there are only thirteen people.During the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods, it was the seventh rank, which was at the same level as the county magistrate.The second class is called "Officials", and there are only 26 people, 13 people each for the eighth and ninth grades.The third class is called doctors, with a total of 20 people, "give the crown of the ninth rank".The fourth class is called "doctors", there are thirty people, no rank, equivalent to assistant physicians in hospitals today.

Strictly speaking, there are only thirteen first-class doctors in the imperial hospital, and sixteen including the president and two vice presidents.Even in the broadest sense, sixteen plus twenty-six, plus twenty, plus thirty, there are only ninety-two doctors in Tai Hospital.The fifty-nine doctors in the three levels of "imperial doctor, official, and doctor" in Taiyuan Hospital can see a doctor independently, that is to say, they have the right to prescribe; the fourth level of "doctors" seems to be only assistants. The word "sheng" in "doctor" means "student", and "doctor" is a trainee doctor.

Responsibilities of imperial physicians in history: There are many names for imperial physicians in history, which are different in each dynasty and generation, and the division of responsibilities is also different. Hospitals, people who provide medical services for the royal palace and nobles have formed a huge organization, similar to our general hospital today.In this organization, imperial physicians also had a more detailed role, some for management, some for the emperor's pulse diagnosis, some for collecting and preparing medicine, some for tasting medicine, and some for recording prescriptions and organizing files.

There is also a group of imperial physicians, they are not imperial physicians in imperial hospitals, some of them are officials in the court, and some are practicing medicine among the people. Because their excellent medical skills are praised by the world, the royal family often asks them to treat themselves They are imperial doctors handpicked by the emperor. Usually, this group of "handpicked imperial doctors" cure difficult and miscellaneous diseases, and the methods of treatment are extraordinary. Every move of the imperial physicians is related to the safety of the emperor, so even if their status is low, once they can cure the diseases of the nobles in the palace and gain the trust of the royal family, then they can enjoy endless glory and wealth; The wrong diagnosis and treatment, or the emperor's mistake, all these glory and wealth will disappear overnight, and you will even have to pay the price of your life-in a word, you have nowhere to escape.