2000年来中国瘴病分布变迁的初步研究

A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON VARIATIONS OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF ZHANG-DISEASE FOR THE PAST 2000 YEARS IN CHINA

中国古籍里所说的瘴病主要是指恶性疟疾一类的传染病,它主要发生在热湿的气候环境和夏秋季节。2000年来,由于人为的作用和气候的变迁,其主要分布范围具有逐渐南移的趋势:战国西汉时期以秦岭淮河为北界;隋唐五代时期以大巴山长江为北界;明清时期则以南岭为北界。历史时期瘴病的流行,是导致瘴病分布区域社会经济发展相对缓慢的重要因素之一。

Zhang梔isease , which is an epidemic in the southern part of China in the historical pe-riods ,is a kind of pernicious malarias . This paper discusses preliminarily the links between this disease and geographical environment .the variations of its distribution and its influence on the so-ciety and economy in the region affected by Zhang ?disease. The followings conclusions have been obtained; ( 1) Zhang ?disease is an epidemic which occurs under hot and wet climatic conditions in summer and autumn. (2)In the past 2000 years,the disease was moved slowly to the South. The Northern bound-ary of the region affected by Zhang梔isease was Qinlin Mountain and Huaihe River in the War-ring States Period and in the Western Han Dynasty (770BC ~ AD23) , Daiba Mountain and Changjing River in the sui and Tang Dynasties (AD581 ~ 960) , and Nanlin Mountain in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (AD1368~ 1911). At the present time. Zhang ?disease is an epidemic only in the Yunnan Province. One of the main causes the movement of Zhang ?desease is the population migration from North to south . Another reason is the change of climate to colder and drier. (3)Zhang ?disease influences the society in the region affected in three aspects population growth, production mode and economic development. These influences resulted in the fact that the northern parts of ancient China were exploited prior to the southern parts.