In Song Dynasty, the epidemic situation was urgent and the social and economic development was quite rapid. But there are also many discordant noises, and epidemic disease is one of them. Although economic development has created material conditions for the government and people to treat and prevent the epidemic, it should also be noted that it is the population gathering and rapid flow driven by economic development that has laid a hidden danger for the epidemic from breeding to outbreak and spreading from one place to other places. According to statistics, during the three hundred years of Song Dynasty, there were nearly forty large-scale epidemics in * *, of which more than twenty occurred in Beijing, accounting for more than half. Take Lin 'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, as an example. It is not only the political center of the country, but also the economic center. According to the dream, this city is "a stagnant hub, a collection of clothes, and a wealth of people and things, which is particularly different from what it used to be". Not only the city has a large population, but also with the prosperity of commerce, the city continues to expand, and even the land that used to be sparsely populated outside the city has developed rapidly. This is ". However, the over-concentrated population has just created conditions for the epidemic. According to Meng Xi Bi Tan's records, in the Northern Song Dynasty, in A.D. 1075, "there was a great epidemic in the south, and the rich and the poor in Zhejiang had no disease, and the death rate was 56 out of 10", which was amazing. In A.D. 1 13 1 year, Zhejiang was a major epidemic, and Lin 'an broke out almost continuously in 1 1438+0565438+ year. With the reconstruction and construction of the national highway, the traffic conditions have been improved and the floating population has increased, which has increased the possibility of disease spread and epidemic to some extent. Once famine and war broke out, the speed and breadth of disease spread were aggravated. According to "History of Song Dynasty", in 1 164, "200,000 to 300,000 refugees from Huaidian fled to the south of the Yangtze River, planted grass valleys all over the country, caught cold, and half of them died of epidemic disease, only the returnees died. It is also the year of the year, and the hungry people in Zhejiang are particularly affected. " Because of the large-scale population movement, food, clothing, housing and transportation are not guaranteed, and the epidemic broke out. Once the epidemic spread, not only the floating population suffered, but also the local aborigines suffered, resulting in a large number of deaths. Epidemics threaten the lives of people's family members. For the country, it is related to the overall stability. Once an epidemic breaks out and presents an irresistible state, it will cause great damage to the normal social order and even cause serious social problems. In the face of epidemic diseases, although people and individuals have a strong demand for control and elimination, compared with the intensity and breadth of epidemic diseases, their strength is too meager. The fight against epidemic diseases mainly depends on the government's ability to mobilize a lot of manpower and material resources for prevention and treatment. Government relief measures There were relatively sound medical institutions in Song Dynasty, including Hanlin Medical College, Tai Medical College, Tai Medical Bureau and Huimin and Pharmacy Bureau. Among them, there are two main institutions that provide medical services for the people. One is Hanlin Medical College, and the other is Huimin Heji Bureau. As for the imperial hospital, its main function is to serve the emperor and a few royalty, and it has little to do with the people. The focus of Taiwan Medical Bureau is to promote ethnic medical education and physician assessment. Although it can also provide medical services, it is limited, and its administrative function is far greater than medical rescue. Hanlin Medical College, affiliated to Hanlin Academy, has an absolute career establishment, a large number of doctors and advanced medical equipment. Often appointed by the emperor to explore and save people everywhere. According to the long edition of "Continuing the History as a Mirror", in A.D. 1082, the organizational structure was adjusted and changed to Hanlin Medical Officer Bureau. Generally speaking, it usually provides medical services for the royal family, but when there is an epidemic among the people, especially when the condition is serious, it has become the main force to treat the people. What is particularly worth mentioning is the resident medical officer system of Hanlin Medical Officer College, that is, the system in which medical officers take turns to participate in medical services in local areas. According to the compilation of the history of the Song Dynasty,113 years, "Hanlin Medical College has seen more than 700 medical officers from now to Mohou, and there are no departments, and the number of berths stops at more than 100. The method of establishing calibration test is based on test scores. Is there any difference in the size and distance of Luzhou army? . "Later, this system was gradually extended to all local counties. For example, in A.D. 1 165, an epidemic disease was prevalent in Zhejiang Province, and the court ordered that "eight medical officers should be sent in imperial academy to seek medical treatment at home every day, and the certificates should be taken care of by the Ministry of Health and the pharmacy", and "foreign military forces also followed this law, and the county committees sent medical officers, and the counties and towns selected those with excellent medical skills. In the face of the epidemic, the rapid introduction of such measures has greatly reduced the harm of the epidemic and received good results. Arranging foreign medical officers to be stationed in various places is conducive to providing the most advanced medical means, spreading high-level medical technology, improving local medical conditions and raising local medical level. In order to eliminate the epidemic as soon as possible and reduce the harm caused by the epidemic to the people, the Song Dynasty also provided free medicines to the people infected with the epidemic. According to the Records of the History of Song Dynasty, Emperor Injong immediately ordered the imperial doctor to prepare a prescription and took out two rhinoceros horns from his belongings, one of which was a very precious Tong Tianxi. Li Shunju, the chamberlain, thinks this kind of treasure is rare, and it is difficult for ordinary people to find it after using it, hoping to keep it for the emperor's exclusive use. Renzong said, "Do I value the outside world over the people? "Emphasizing that the people are the most precious, these so-called treasures are nothing, and they are immediately' broken' and mixed with medicine to help the people. Renzong also ordered the selection of skilled medical staff to rush to the ward to distribute corresponding drugs according to the patient's condition, so as to avoid "the poor being mistaken by quacks." Some people commented on Renzong, saying that "Renzong will be an official (emperor) even if he can't do whatever he wants". I really don't know where the judgment of "everything is impossible" comes from, but an emperor who is anxious about the people's urgent needs, cares about the people's interests and puts the people in his heart should be a really good emperor. According to the Draft of Song Yaoji, when Song Ningzong was in office, there were many patients with diseases in Lin 'an, and the emperor once wrote that "the Harmony Bureau was ordered to allocate soup and medicine, and the three officials were divided into three posts, and doctors from Lin 'an House visited everywhere". Here, we can see that the emperor paid attention to the epidemic, and secondly, we can see that he paid more attention to the people. In addition to the emperor, local officials will decisively distribute medicines in the face of the epidemic. For example, in A.D. 123 1 year, Pingjiang Prefecture suffered from a "spring epidemic", and Wu Yuan, the magistrate, sent medical officers to various places to distribute medicines free of charge for nearly half a year. Ye Heng, a well-known person in Changzhou, faced with the grim situation of "epidemic masterpiece", "riding medical skills alone, asking about suffering, many people are killed". When Ye Mengde, a famous poet in the Song Dynasty, became an official in Xuchang, he bought medicine from his own pocket because of the epidemic, and then distributed it to the people. When Su Shi was appointed as the prefect of Hangzhou, he provided food relief such as rice to the people in addition to medicines. In some places, gentry and wealthy groups also took a positive attitude when the epidemic raged, donating money and materials to help the government fight the epidemic and restore social order, and some even donated money to build houses for isolated patients to live in. For example, it is recorded in the History of Song Dynasty that the rich "contributed 2,500 seats in one night, and the stoves were fully prepared", which not only built temporary shelters, but also provided relatively complete daily necessities. Some people "eat porridge for the hungry" and provide food for the people, even "eat it all day", while others even "spend all their money"? What you live is incalculable. " In people's impression, the Song regime seems to be weak, and most emperors are mediocre and incompetent. Even if the culture is developed, it is difficult to cover up those humiliating treaties with beautiful Song Ci. However, if we look back carefully, as far as the "foreign enemies" with strong destructive power and wide influence are concerned, the Song court did stabilize its position, mobilized the whole country and responded efficiently, providing effective medical treatment services for the people, alleviating the damage caused by the epidemic and maintaining social stability. In this sense, the Song Dynasty was really not as weak as we thought.