明代疫病与防治

Pandemic and Its Control in the Ming Dynasty

从地方志“祥异”“灾祲”“灾祥”“灾异”等目记载来看,明代疫病频发。疫病大规模流行引起朝廷的重视,采取相应的措施进行防治;局部传染也必然引起官府重视,尽可能地实行自救。因为疫病频发,以医治为重点救助制度逐渐完善。由于对疫病的危害认识不足,往往忽略预防,更由于官办医疗机构大多废弃,医疗技术的落后,民间巫觋有很大的活动空间,再加上朝廷疫病祈禳制度,地方官府与民间大规模驱疫活动频繁,使疫病防治难见成效。朝廷与官府虽然重视民间力量的参与,对乐善好施者予以旌表,但也难免摊派,更由于缺少医药知识,民间力量难以发挥作用。明代疫病防治制度化过程漫长,其利弊得失值得研究与总结。

According to the records of local chronicles such as“Xiangyi(祥异,auspicious and evil events)”,“Zaijin(灾祲,disaster)”,“Zaixiang(灾祥,auspicious sign and disaster-abnormity)”,and“Zaiyi(灾异,calamities and abnormal phenomena)”,it can be seen that the pandemic in the Ming Dynasty occurredfrequently.The large-scale spread of pandemic attracted attention from the imperial court,which then took appropriate measures to prevent and control the pandemic accordingly.Moreover,local infections also inevitably aroused the government s attention to implement self-aid measures to the greatest extent.Owing to the frequent occurrence of pandemic,the rescue system focusing on medical treatment was gradually improved.However,due to the lack of understanding of the hazards of pandemic,the importance of prevention was often ignored.Moreover,because of the abandonment of most government-run medical institutions and the backwardness of medical technology,folk witchcraft hada large space of survival.In addition,the imperial government s prayer system for preventing epidemic and the frequent large-scale epidemic prevention activities of local governments and the people made the epidemic prevention and control difficult to achieve results.Although the court and government attached great importance to the participation of the civil forces and encouraged those who werewilling to do good,it wasinevitable that there wouldbe forced apportionment,and it wasdifficult for the civil forces to play a role because of the lack of medical knowledge.The institutionalization of disease control in the Ming Dynasty was a rather long and hard process,so its advantages and disadvantages areworth studying and summarizing.