About Su Dongpo's medical record, the historical records are detailed. Doctors in Qing Dynasty often say that it was "warm for personal use by mistake because of heat and humidity", which is probably true. However, according to the examination, I think Mr. Dongpo's fame and conceit in medicine is the reason why he insisted on self-diagnosis and self-righteousness after taking the wrong medicine and dying, and ruined his life in vain.
First of all, Su Dongpo was not suffering from an incurable disease. It was the year of Jing (A.D. 1 10 1), and the weather was extremely hot. Su Shi returned from Hainan's relegation and took a boat trip to Taihu Lake with Mi Fei, a great painter who warmly welcomed him. Because of his excitement, he enjoys cool air and drinks ice water. He suddenly had diarrhea in the middle of the night, and the next day he was weak and exhausted. In this case, it is necessary to strictly fast and be fat, and it is appropriate to eat drugs that clear away heat and relieve summer heat. However, Su Shi has always liked to take warm and tonic drugs, and even chose astragalus and other drugs to cook porridge. What's more, Mifei gave a banquet three days later. After Su Shi went to dinner, his condition suddenly worsened, his chest and diaphragm swelled, and then he was feverish all over and bleeding between his teeth. At this time, he still didn't ask for a doctor, but he ate ginseng, poria cocos and Huang Isothermal tonic himself, and died more than 20 days later. Later, the doctor thought that he was obviously suffering from dysentery because of hot and cold drinks and eating and drinking. According to Lin Yutang's western medicine, it may be amebic dysentery. Of course, this disease was quite serious in ancient times. When Liu Bei died, he said, "I was sick, but I had diarrhea!" . But that was during the Three Kingdoms period. By the Song Dynasty, China's medicine had made great progress, so it should be said that there was medicine to cure this disease. So why didn't Su Dongpo get effective treatment?
At first, of course, it was because Su Dongpo thought he was proficient in medical skills and was used to treating himself. This is unnecessary for the common headache and brain fever, but he didn't ask a clever professional doctor to treat him when he was dying, which was first attributed to Su Dongpo's conceit of his medical reputation.
As we know, many ancient scholars like to play Chinese medicine, not only because the theory of differentiation of Yin and Yang and Five Elements of Chinese medicine is very helpful to their knowledge, but also because the collection and processing of Chinese medicine is quite interesting. For example, Bai Juyi, Liu Zongyuan and later Lu You and Cao Xueqin all like to play this game, especially Su Dongpo. Su Dongpo devoted his life to medical salvation and made friends with doctors. He not only studied medicine, but also extensively sought medical treatment. In addition to the academic monograph Su Fang, there are many short articles about medicine. He is good at various prescriptions and often gives prescriptions to people. Especially in the first month of the fifth year of Yuan Dynasty, a serious plague broke out in Hangzhou, and local doctors were at a loss. Su Dongpo personally prescribed a prescription called "giving birth to three sons", and the people drank medicine to prevent epidemics. "There are countless people alive." Therefore, people cheered "Su saved the people from danger" and became famous all over the world for a while. Su Shi suddenly became a cross-border expert and scholar master with both literature and medicine. Even after he came back from Hainan and fell ill, fans who came to ask him for a prescription were still coming in an endless stream (of course, some of them asked for words). With such a big reputation, Su Dongpo is of course stubborn and embarrassed to invite others. He refused to invite other doctors himself, and of course others dared not invite him, and other doctors dared not treat him.
On the other hand, Su Dongpo is too blind and confident in his medical skills. When he took the powder himself, it not only didn't relieve his illness, but aggravated it. He still stubbornly studies the theory of traditional Chinese medicine and thinks that his prescription is absolutely correct. He refused other doctors and prescriptions and even refused to take the specific medicine provided by his friend Qian Shixiong. He actually said, "If it doesn't heal, it's heaven!" Not me. "So he lay down to die, and only a few monks protected him and sent him to the west. Su Dongpo did this, of course, reflecting his calm attitude towards life. Life and death let nature take its course and everything can't be forced, but the premise is blind self-confidence, which became a tragedy.
We say that Chinese medicine has systematic concepts and dialectical thinking in theory, and the prescription decoction is really effective, but the diagnosis depends entirely on listening, listening and asking, which is indirect and difficult to grasp. It takes long-term clinical experience to truly differentiate diseases and prescribe the right medicine. Su Dongpo himself said that "studying books is waste paper, and studying medicine is useless", which means that you can study medicine only if you see many patients. Mr. Dongpo's life can be described as smart and confused, and at the moment of confusion, his life is at a critical juncture. He didn't think about it at that time. Although he studied medical theory and knew many prescriptions, he had a good reputation. However, after all, he is an official in poetry, not an expert in medicine. How can he really be considered as the most knowledgeable doctor in the world? Even if you are versatile, you can be unique in literature, poetry and prose, calligraphy, etc., and you may not be able to cross the border. What's more, no matter how clever a doctor is, he can't cure all diseases. How can he not make mistakes if he makes a mistake or uses the wrong medicine?
On his deathbed, Su Dongpo was superstitious about his ignorance of anti-enlightenment, which was really wrong. How can he be so sure that the medicine he prescribed is the most symptomatic, correct and wise medicine in the world? If Su Dongpo was not so conceited and famous at that time, if he was not so blind and confident, if he could face the reality more clearly after he was dying, realize that he was really wrong and adopt good medicine, he would probably not have died in vain.
But life and death can't be repeated, and the lesson Su Dongpo left to future generations at the cost of life is worth taking as a warning.