Chapter 55 Section 6 Febrile Disease Theory and Vaccination

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, apart from Li Shizhen and his medical achievements, the most prominent ones are the febrile disease theory and vaccination. The febrile disease theory is an ancient Chinese medical theory for the treatment of contagious febrile diseases.Wu Youke, a medical scientist in the late Ming Dynasty, laid the foundation for the formation of this theory. Wu Youke (1592-1672 A.D.), named Youxing, was born in Dongting, Gusu (now Wu County, Jiangsu).In his medical practice, he saw with his own eyes that some doctors at that time copied the methods of "Treatise on Febrile Diseases" to treat epidemic febrile epidemic diseases, causing many patients to die of wrong treatment, and felt very sad.For this reason, he put forward the innovative idea of ​​"sticking to the ancient methods and not conforming to the current disease", and conducted a comprehensive study on febrile epidemic diseases, and put forward new viewpoints in terms of etiology, transmission routes and methods, epidemic characteristics, and treatment principles.He believes that "the disease of febrile epidemic disease is neither wind nor cold, neither heat nor dampness, but is caused by a different kind of strange energy between heaven and earth."He called this kind of abnormal qi "hostile qi", and then developed it into "miscellaneous qi". "Hostile Qi" refers to sudden onset, serious illness, similar symptoms, and highly contagious pathogenic factors;He opposed the idea of ​​"Treatise on Febrile Diseases" that has been highly respected by doctors throughout the history, and put forward the opinion that "febrile diseases" should be paid attention to.Its treatment of febrile diseases emphasizes exorcising evil, and attaches great importance to the method of attacking and attacking.His representative work is "On Epidemic Epidemics".

Under the influence of Wu Youke, a group of doctors in the Qing Dynasty devoted themselves to the study of febrile diseases and formed an independent theory of febrile diseases.It is parallel to the theory of Shanghan, and is known as the two great theories of Chinese medicine for treating exogenous diseases. Vaccination is a major contribution of Chinese medicine to world immunology.Pox is smallpox, a terrible malignant infectious disease, and there has never been an effective prevention method.In the Ming Dynasty, China invented the smallpox vaccination method, which finally opened up an effective way to prevent smallpox.

It is still unclear when vaccination was invented, but it appeared in the Longqing period of Ming Dynasty (AD 1567-1572) at the latest.Yu Maokun of the Qing Dynasty said in "Pox Branch Golden Mirror Fu Collection": "I heard that the vaccination method started in Taiping County, Ningguo Prefecture during the Longqing period of the Ming Dynasty... and spread to the whole country from then on." Two cases of vaccination in Beijing have been clearly recorded. Regarding vaccination, the "Yi Tong" published in 1695 recorded methods such as pox pulp, dry seedlings, and pox clothing, and pointed out that the process of its promotion was, "It started from the right side of the river, reached Yanqi, and traveled all over the north and south. ".Later, after continuous practice, it was changed to use the acne scab that has been vaccinated many times as the vaccine, which reduces the toxicity of the vaccine and is therefore safer.

The smallpox vaccination invented in China soon spread abroad. In 1688, Russia sent people to China to study pox medicine.Soon, vaccination was introduced to Turkey from Russia. In 1717, the wife of the British ambassador to Turkey learned the technique of vaccination, and then spread it to Britain, Europe and India.It was not until 1796 that Jenner of England invented vaccinia vaccination that it gradually replaced variola vaccination.