Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2363: Dragon Seems to Be in Trouble

Facing Zhu Yijun's hesitation, Gao Youshi understood, so he did not insist, but just nodded lightly, and never said another word. The two of them quickly changed the topic tacitly and talked about other government issues.

It must be pointed out here that Zhu Yijun's hesitation and Gao Youshi's non-insistence were by no means a lack of mutual trust between the monarch and his subjects, but rather a manifestation of a high degree of tacit understanding between them on a certain issue. This issue was: the emperor's true physical condition had always been a matter that required a high degree of confidentiality.

Why must the emperor's physical condition be kept secret? The main reason is to maintain the stability of imperial power and the security of the country.

First of all, the emperor's physical condition is directly related to the stability of the country and the continuation of the regime. You know, usually when discussing the question of "Is the emperor healthy?", the premise is actually that "the emperor is in trouble." After all, if he is really healthy, then what's the point of discussing it?
If the emperor's health condition were known to the outside world, it would likely cause unnecessary panic and unrest. For example, if the emperor suddenly became ill or injured, once the news leaked, it could cause panic and anxiety among officials and the public, and could even be used by those with ulterior motives to threaten national security.

Secondly, the emperor's health status was kept secret to prevent someone from using this information for political conspiracy. For example, in many dynasties or special periods in China, the emperor's death was kept secret to prevent the enemy from taking the opportunity to attack or commit other illegal acts.

In addition, keeping the emperor's health status secret also helps maintain the mystery and authority of the emperor's power. The emperor is not only the core of power in the world, but also the symbol of the country. The disclosure of his health status may weaken his prestige and trust in the hearts of the people. For example, if an emperor is bedridden for a long time, his subjects often have to speculate.

To sum up, it makes sense for Zhu Yijun to let the gentlemen of Jinghua Medical College to see the patients. After all, the imperial physicians are the "family doctors" maintained by the emperor, and the possibility of them daring to leak secrets is very low.

The professors at Jinghua Medical College were not Gao Youshi's "family doctors" but more of a more professional "teacher" with a different status and relationship with their employer. In this case, it was hard to say whether they would keep the secret.

Zhu Yijun himself didn't know what his condition was, so he was naturally worried that something would be found out. So he hesitated and didn't dare to let an "outside doctor" see him. This was reasonable.

Gao Youshi didn't know what the physical condition of Zhu Yijun was, so he was naturally worried that he might find out something. Especially if some of the information was inconvenient for an outsider like him to know, it would be even more embarrassing and awkward. Moreover, he couldn't guarantee that the teachers in the medical school would not leak the secrets. Maybe they would not take the initiative to leak the secrets under his repeated orders, but they were not professional imperial doctors after all. If they let the secret slip in other occasions... who would take the blame? Who would clean up the mess?
Therefore, it is reasonable that Gao Youshi did not insist.

But at this night, Gao Youshi couldn't help wondering what the emperor's condition was. From his description, it seemed like some chronic disease was showing symptoms, but he lacked medical expertise, and he didn't know how to "cut", look, smell, or ask.

Just when Gao Fusi was worried that he was not a jack of all trades, he suddenly had an idea - Hey, my strengths are not here, why do I have to stick to medical skills? My strength is that I have hundreds of years more knowledge than people of this era, I should think of a way to do this!
As soon as his thinking changed, Gao Youshi quickly came up with some clues. Before traveling through time, as a history enthusiast, he had a question since he was a child: Why did most emperors in ancient times seem to die very early? So when he was free, he actually looked up some relevant theories, and now it seems to be just right for use.

In theory, being an emperor is undoubtedly very comfortable in the eyes of most people. They have power over the world and control the life and death of countless people. They have three thousand beauties in the harem and enjoy revelry every night, making countless people envious. They also have the Imperial Medical Bureau to be fully responsible for the emperor's health. It can be said that they have the most wealth and the best medical resources.

However, even Kangxi once lamented that "there are few emperors with white hair in ancient times." That is to say, not to mention the different physical conditions of the emperors, there were very few emperors who died in old age. Most emperors died young in their youth.

This certainly includes some unnatural deaths, but based on a careful analysis of the causes of death of emperors who died of normal deaths through historical records, it is not difficult to find that their bodies were in a sub-healthy state for a long time or they had some underlying diseases, coupled with an irregular lifestyle, which led to their short life.

In modern society, people and occupations are in a relationship of mutual choice. Generally speaking, the more developed a country is, the more humane its working methods and corporate systems will be. However, in ancient times, even a job like being an emperor, which seemed like a good job to others, was actually quite inhumane and even extremely depleting of their physical health.

Sitting on the throne is a dream for some people, but it is also a helpless fate for others. They are the emperors of the world, holding all power, but they are also their own slaves, and they cannot even control the simplest health.

According to some documents that Gao Youshi read at the time and still vaguely remembers now, the first health killer in the palace was most likely diabetes.

Diabetes is a metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar. In the short term, high blood sugar does not have much impact on health, but the cause of death in diabetic patients is often not diabetes itself, but its complications.

The basic pathology of diabetes is the lesions of various organs, including vascular lesions, kidney lesions, lower limb artery lesions, etc., which can cause a series of complications such as coronary heart disease, uremia, limb ulcers, etc. Therefore, if the incidence of diabetes is not well controlled, it is easy to cause lesions of various other organs in the future.

The traditional Chinese medical name for diabetes is "xiaoke disease", and its typical symptoms are generally referred to as "three mores and one less" by the general public in later generations, including drinking more, eating more, urinating more and losing weight.

According to historical records, Emperor Yang of Sui's medical history at the time was "dry mouth and tongue, needing to drink several liters of water, urinating several liters, and gradually becoming emaciated." This is a typical manifestation of "three mores and one less."

Patients with diabetes lose weight and suffer from long-term malnutrition, which also reduces their immunity, making the body very susceptible to infection. Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, was wounded by a sword while fighting while ill. The wound did not heal, festered, and became infected, and his condition became increasingly serious. However, there were no antibiotics at the time, so later doctors speculated that the cause of his death was most likely sepsis caused by a suppurative infection of the wound.

The two of them were the only ones with clearly documented cases, so it seems that even the emperor could not escape the health killer of diabetes. Chronic diseases come on slowly and are difficult to detect, threatening the emperors' health invisibly. The emperors often lived in the palace for a long time, and worked at their desks for a long time to handle state affairs. They were already seriously inactive, had low metabolism, and had difficulty in consuming food. The diet in the palace was mostly delicacies from land and sea, which led to obesity. Obesity and lack of activity are both factors that cause diabetes.

However, medical conditions in ancient times were backward and it was impossible to measure blood sugar. Even if symptoms of "diabetes" appeared, it was difficult to diagnose the disease, which led to delays in the treatment of the disease.

However, having said that, Zhu Yijun mentioned today that he has "reduced appetite", which does not seem to be consistent with the symptoms of diabetes. I wonder if he knows too little or if he really does not have this disease?
If not, then the second health killer in the palace might be high blood pressure.

Although chronic diseases are generally not fatal, they can keep the body in a sub-healthy state for a long time. People with "three highs" are also typical sub-healthy people. The so-called "three highs" refer to high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and high blood lipids.

The diet in the palace was too good and the amount of exercise was too little, so many emperors suffered from three-highs, including Qianlong's fifteenth son, Jiaqing.

In later generations, the diagnosis of early hypertension was to measure it with a sphygmomanometer, but in ancient times it was impossible to measure blood pressure accurately. People with hypertension have no feelings or obvious symptoms in the early and middle stages, while their bodies are seriously damaged without them realizing it. In the late stages, patients will develop symptoms such as heart failure and arrhythmia.

In Sima Zhe's "A Detailed Account of the Twelve Emperors of the Qing Dynasty", he described the physical condition of Emperor Jiaqing on the eve of his death: "At night, he felt very uncomfortable, with phlegm rising up, and it was even worse when lying flat. He had to sit and lie down all night, which was particularly difficult." The next day, "his face looked pale and swollen, the constant phlegm affected his breathing, his body was very weak, and he had great difficulty speaking, and his speech was intermittent."

These symptoms seemed to be just minor physical discomforts, and even Jiaqing himself thought they were just common illnesses. However, in the afternoon, his condition suddenly worsened and he had difficulty breathing.

The literature Gao Gongshi read at the time said that this was a very typical case of acute pulmonary edema caused by hypertension. Hypertension first shows symptoms when one is tired, also known as exertional dyspnea, and later even slight labor will cause shortness of breath. Especially in the middle of the night, because the patient's diaphragm rises in the supine position, the lungs are compressed, which affects breathing. At this time, the heart is also unable to pump the returning blood out of the body, the lungs will become congested, aggravating dyspnea, and then the patient will wake up and cough up pink foamy sputum.

If such symptoms appeared in later generations, of course, one should go to the hospital immediately and use diuretics to remove the accumulated water in the body. However, the medical level in ancient times was obviously unable to cope with such emergencies. So the situation that could be completely saved in later generations could only be alas in the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, there is another health killer for the emperor, called death from overwork.

As mentioned earlier, chronic diseases slowly consume a person's health, but do acute diseases kill people instantly? Yes, but not always. The acute onset of any disease has signs, or the body has already been overloaded and the patient has not noticed it yet.

For example, the reason why doctors in later generations analyzed Huang Taiji's death was the same. According to historical records, he had not complained of any discomfort before, nor did he show any signs of serious illness. He "went to Chongzheng Hall to handle government affairs" during the day, and suddenly "passed away while sitting upright" at night. Although the pathological anatomy technology was not mature at the time, from the perspective of modern medicine, Huang Taiji's death was a typical case of sudden death.

There are many reasons for sudden death. Generally speaking, most of the deceased suffer from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Huang Taiji had two characteristics before his death: obesity and bad temper. Obese people have a higher chance of suffering from cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, and bad temper is an inducing factor for cerebral vascular rupture.

According to modern medical theory, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases should be treated with rest, but Huang Taiji worked hard all his life. He read memorials until late at night every day and was in a state of mental tension for a long time.

It is reasonable that the Later Jin regime at that time had not yet been completely stabilized and had to send troops to fight everywhere, which led to overwork and illness, and eventually seriously affected his physical health.

[Note: The above excludes the theory that Dorgon poisoned the person, or other similar conspiracy theories, which cannot be proven true or false.]
When people encounter stress, a series of physiological reactions will occur in the brain nerves, prompting the secretion of adrenaline to accelerate. This is a stress response. If the body is in a state of nervous tension for a long time, it will eventually become exhausted and cause arteriosclerosis.

Doctors in later generations believed that Huang Taiji's sudden death was due to long-term stress and improper diet, which caused cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. The conditions at the time did not allow him to adjust his lifestyle to relax, or to take good care of his body. He himself may not have much medical knowledge, and probably did not realize that he was at risk of sudden death. Eventually, his body was overdrawn, and he died suddenly.

Gao Youshi pondered over and over again, and always felt that Zhu Yijun's current situation had some similarities with these health killers, but none of them was completely consistent...

He is a little fat, but not ridiculously so; his diet is obviously unhealthy, but after years of persuasion, although it is not much improved, it does not seem to have deteriorated further; his living habits are naturally not good, but as an outsider, I only know that he likes to drink, and I am not sure whether he lives a moderate life in the harem, so it is not convenient to persuade him; the lack of exercise is also obvious, and after I brought it up today, the emperor immediately said "there is no solution", because he has had severe gout since a long time ago, and it is inconvenient for him to exercise...

Damn, there won't be any complications, right? This thing is really beyond my knowledge... Gao Youshi thought with a headache.

No, no, even if I can't let the medical school professors see the emperor after returning to Beijing, I have to at least describe to them some of the situations that the emperor is willing to tell me, and then let them analyze them carefully. Otherwise, if something unexpected happens, it will be very bad.

Full of worries, Gao Youshi fell into a drowsy sleep without knowing when.
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感谢书友“初次登录”、“今年？多久？”、“Feudal”、“云覆月雨”、“书友160612072759851”、“书友20220504123852796”、“doni”、“元舟”、“没良心的黑狼”、“书友20210225205553589”、“书友20180905172657825”、“楔形文字”、“TC87”、“嘻哈星”的月票支持，谢谢！