What unsanitary customs did China people change because of the plague in the late Qing Dynasty?

The Qing Dynasty was a dynasty with frequent epidemics.

In the long-term struggle against various diseases and epidemics, people in Qing dynasty had a further understanding of the occurrence, spread and epidemic of plague. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, people gained a new understanding and made great changes to the vulgar life customs that were harmful to human health through the lessons of epidemic disasters.

There are many reasons for epidemic disasters, but public health is a very important link in controlling plagues and infectious diseases. In the Qing dynasty, especially in the late Qing dynasty, people's bad habits of not paying attention to hygiene were mainly unsanitary diet and the deterioration of residents' living environment.

Food hygiene is mainly drinking water hygiene. The problem of water pollution in Qing Dynasty was more serious in the late Qing Dynasty. In particular, water pollution in cities is becoming more and more serious, and water pollution in many small and medium-sized towns is also emerging.

First of all, the river flowing through the city is quite turbid. City residents use river water as drinking water, but there is no public water in the city. Untreated river water is public water for residents.

Secondly, the rivers in the city are full of dirty water and have an unpleasant smell. In his monograph on cholera, the master of epidemic febrile diseases in the late Qing Dynasty said that Shanghai at that time was: "The population was crowded, the atmosphere was hotter, the rooms were dense, the polluted air was more abundant, the Guo River was attached, the pollution was hidden, and the water was turbid." "In the bustling area of the city, the houses on both sides are gradually eroding, and the river body is too narrow to insert knives. At the same time, there are gray boats and dung boats everywhere. Residents are washing and decontaminating from morning till night, so that the river is dirty and drinking it will inevitably breed diseases. "

In terms of living environment, there are mainly three aspects: street cleaning and sewage discharge, feces management and corpse disposal. Due to the poor drainage facilities in cities and small and medium-sized towns, sewage ditches, sewage pools and sewage cross-flow sometimes occur. Poor management of feces is also an important factor leading to poor living environment of residents. "Every fertilizer plant is suitable for non-local residents." At that time, some people who died of the epidemic could not be buried because of their poor families, which made the corpse gas an important factor causing the plague.

In view of this situation, some medical scientists in the late Qing Dynasty have realized that the occurrence of epidemic diseases has a certain relationship with environmental pollution, and put forward some matters needing attention in view of water sanitation and living environment.

For example, Wang Shixiong, a famous Chinese medicine febrile disease scientist during Daoxian period, put forward:

One, "or dredging the river, no pollution; Or dig Jing Quan, don't drink turbid. "

Second, "no matter how big or small the house is, it should be open, ventilated and cleaned."

Third, "When eating a well in summer, it is advisable to add whole pieces of alum and realgar to detoxify the water and poison the snake." The roots of Acorus gramineus should be soaked in a water tank to reduce the fragrance. "

Another example is that Qiu Chen, a thinker and physician in the late Qing Dynasty, put forward some epidemic prevention methods for food and environmental disinfection in his practice of treating plague: "ditches and ditches should be cleaned, clothes should be starched, spring water should be pumped early, drained with sand, vegetables should be stewed for a long time, and it is better to be chilled." Large houses need more windows and small houses need emergency ventilation holes. More importantly, fine carbon chips are coated on the toilet bucket every day to eliminate dirt. "

In order to prevent the breeding and spread of epidemic diseases, some population centers began to pay attention to the sanitary conditions in cities.

The first is to clean up the river and dredge the urban river, which alleviated the serious urban river pollution caused by the large population increase in the middle and late Qing Dynasty. Just like Nanjing cleaned up the Qinhuai River and other inland rivers during the reign of Zhi and Guangxu, Zeng Guofan, Zuo, Liu Kunyi and other successive governors of the two rivers all called Yong ying officers and soldiers to participate, and the inland rivers in Nanjing were dredged many times.

Secondly, the living environment of cities around the country has also been managed to a certain extent. For example, in Shanghai, in the second year of Tongzhi (1863), the public concession industrial and commercial office set up a dirt removal unit and other institutions to be responsible for road environmental sanitation and garbage disposal. In the first year of Guangxu (1875), the Shanghai County Department informed the merchants in the territory and concession that it was forbidden to sell kelp dyed with melanterite, and it was illegal for hell to pay. In the eighth year of Guangxu (1882), the waterworks in Gongx Concession was built to supply water.

For another example, in August of the second year of Guangxu in Hangzhou (1876), Zhejiang Jiabao Bureau ordered Qiantang and Renhe counties to "name and accuse those who dump garbage at will, or bind them to the county for punishment". In February of the 14th year of Guangxu, the two counties indicated that they would "clean up within a time limit" the garbage accumulated in "the streets and lanes of Hang Cheng and the ferry at the gate". In the first month of the 23rd year of Guangxu, it was under the control of the Road Sweeping Bureau and was cleaned by the lady. In May of the 29th year of Guangxu, it was changed to police station management. It is stipulated that the garbage must be cleaned up before eight o'clock in the morning, and dung bears are not allowed to walk in the street, and wooden boxes are set up to clean up the garbage.

In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), cholera and other epidemics were prevalent in the whole country.

According to a series of reports in Ta Kung Pao, we can see that the modern western scientific concept of health and hygiene began to spread in the late Qing Dynasty, and it had a great influence on China's traditional concept of health and hygiene.

During the plague in Qing dynasty, all parts of the country, mainly in the south, used the method of "exorcising plague ghosts" to prevent and control the plague. The media sharply criticized the traditional evil custom of "expelling epidemic ghosts" and publicized the scientific concept of health and hygiene in order to achieve the purpose of "enlightening the people".

At that time, the local government strengthened the inspection of food hygiene. "Fish and shrimp have a bad smell and are easy to be called epidemics. That is to say, fresh things such as fish and shrimp are not allowed to be sold in the Forbidden City, and fishermen are also ordered to suspend business." Tap water has also been set up in various provinces and cities, which not only plays an important role in epidemic prevention, but also can change the drinking habits of urban residents and help people form modern health concepts.

For example, "Xiamen has no springs, and drought is hard to get." A few days ago, Yan Shaoshan specially invited Japanese technicians to Xiamen to measure the distance of the tunnel in order to install water pipes. It is said that more than 200,000 yuan has been raised, and some people have bought a water pipe machine cloud in Shanghai. "

Another example is the largest waterworks in Tianjin, Ji 'an Water Supply Company, which was built during the plague. Because the plague brought people great pain and painful lessons of disaster, people gradually formed the concept of paying attention to hygiene in diet.

For example, Dutch water (that is, soda water) was originally made of raw water, and later it was made of boiled water, and it was allowed to be sold after various quick tests. There is a red note on the water bottle, which has the foreign words signed by the British military attache, stating that the water is clean and is actually made of boiled water. This phenomenon shows that the concept of health is becoming more and more popular.

During the epidemic disaster in the late Qing Dynasty, with the establishment of a large number of modern public health facilities directly related to the daily life of most urban residents, such as waterworks and official toilets, it had a great impact on the health habits and concepts of ordinary people.

At the same time, a group of doctors and health bureau officials who have mastered the knowledge of modern western medicine and hygiene have become the trusted authorities of ordinary people. With this sense of trust, people's doubts about their own inherent unsanitary customs paved the way for the spread of the scientific concept of health and hygiene in the late Qing Dynasty.