People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 18 Let me teach you
As the Yellow Turbans moved further north, they hardly saw any human habitation. After entering Youzhou, the population density dropped significantly.

After a day or two, I only saw one or two scattered small villages. One of them was not even a village, but just a dozen houses clustered on the mountain.

Because of Xu Chen's teachings and precepts, as well as the strict military law, the Yellow Turbans were very honest and did not attack these small villages.

Of course, a big reason is that Xu Chen has been watching closely all the way. Anyone who dares to make a mistake will be discovered by him, so naturally no one dares to challenge the leader's authority.

After dark, the Yellow Turbans set up camp on the spot. Bonfires were lit one after another, illuminating the entire land. Everyone huddled around the campfires to get warmth, and sounds of laughter and playfulness could be heard from time to time.

Wang Dang selected several teams to take turns on guard duty, while most of the other soldiers rested.

Xu Chen was also sitting next to a small fire. The flickering firelight made his shadow shake and stretch, but this shadow was not just of one person. There was also another one, Zhang Zhongjing, who was sitting next to him.

Although the Yellow Turbans were now in exile, they had escaped from danger and were relatively stable. While resting at night, Zhang Zhongjing could not help but ask to discuss medical principles with Xu Chen.

The last time, the theory of the microscopic world, microorganisms, and pathogens surprised him. Later, when he went back and thought about it slowly, he still had many doubts. He couldn't wait to ask Xu Chen for advice.

“The theory of microcosm is novel and wonderful, but I am a mortal whose eyesight is not enough to see it, so I am willing to study it but cannot find the right method.

I was thinking, if the microscopic world really exists, then the effects of microorganisms on humans are more than just disease.

There is a world in a drop of water, and beneath that world is an even greater expanse. The number of microorganisms must be countless, but apart from diseases, how can we see any trace of microorganisms? "

No matter whether the person in front of him was a charlatan, a Taoist priest, or a traitor, Zhang Zhongjing felt that it did not matter. When discussing medical matters, he did not care about other people's identities.

In Zhang Zhongjing's own opinion, his identity as a doctor is greater than that of a scholar. From the perspective of a scholar, he looked down on Xu Chen, a charlatan and traitor, but from the perspective of a doctor, he felt that he might need to learn from Xu Chen.

He is still unable to verify the microscopic world, but it doesn’t matter because all previous medical theories cannot be verified.

Doctors know the characteristics of the disease and what prescriptions to use. Based on their experience, they can cure the disease, but they don’t know exactly how, so they start to figure it out.

After thinking more about it, I began to use some concepts to systematically summarize all the symptoms and medicinal prescriptions, and this formed a set of theoretical explanations.

Whether this theory is correct or not is not very important. What is important is whether it can cure the disease. If it can, then this explanation is correct.

Therefore, the medicine of this era, or the entire academic field, does not emphasize proof, but focuses more on practicality.

This is not simply ignorance, but rather that there are no real conditions that can satisfy their proof, but they need an explanation to understand the world. At this time, they will use their own theories to try to explain the world.

To some extent, theism is also such a product. People in the world don’t know how the world came into being, so they think that it was all created by God, which can be explained simply and crudely.

The concept of the microscopic world gave Zhang Zhongjing another possible explanation for pathology, which naturally aroused great interest in him as a doctor.

No matter whether we can really see the microscopic world or not, as long as this theory can explain many medical phenomena, it has great value in medical theory and is worth serious consideration.

Now he is pondering a question: if there really is a microscopic world, then is the only impact of this world on the macroscopic world disease?
If that were all, then this microscopic world would seem a bit far-fetched.

The concepts of yin and yang, the five elements, and qi are not only used to explain pathological human bodies, but also to explain everything in the world. If a theory has such a narrow scope of application, it is too unconvincing.

The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Xu Chen slowly opened his eyes. His eyes were clear and bright, with an inexplicable ethereal aura, and he really had some of the temperament of a Taoist immortal.

Of course, he was pretending to be so. Although Zhang Zhongjing didn't believe in his tricks, he still had to pretend.

“I know from divine revelation that the phenomena in the microscopic world are more than just diseases.

In fact, although the microscopic world cannot be seen directly, it completely affects the operation of the world. "

Xu Chen smiled faintly, like a wise man who had seen through the world and was imparting knowledge, except that he was a little young and looked a little awkward.

"Microorganisms are involved in the decay of corpses, the mildew of food, the storage of compost, the fermentation of wine, and our digestion and absorption.

The microscopic world is part of the overall world, but because we cannot see it, it is difficult to feel it. However, in life, traces of microscopic life are everywhere. "

As soon as Xu Chen finished speaking, Zhang Zhongjing was stunned. After hearing this, some life phenomena that he usually ignored suddenly came to his mind.

Yes, the decay of corpses and even branches and leaves is something that everyone is accustomed to, but no one seems to have ever seriously thought about how the decay occurs.

Everyone knows that food will become moldy if left for a long time, so what exactly is mold?

Farmers use compost to store silage to maintain soil fertility and extend the shelf life of feed. But where does this so-called "fertilizer" come from, and how is the shelf life extended?

These phenomena are well known to the world, and people even use some of them to help production and life, but they have never known why they are so, and no one has ever thought about the possible principles behind them.

“I have received revelation from heaven that phenomena such as decay, mildew, and fermentation are actually the process of decomposition by microorganisms. If we explain it figuratively, it can be considered as the process of microorganisms eating.

In this process, complex substances are decomposed into simple substances, which then rot and mold, and the waste returns to the cycle of heaven and earth..."

As Xu Chen explained bit by bit, Zhang Zhongjing subconsciously nodded repeatedly, and his expression of amazement and enlightenment became more and more apparent.

The more he listened, the more he felt that Xu Chen's explanation made sense!
Although the changes in state of phenomena such as rotting, fermentation, and mildew are visible to the naked eye, the conditions for the changes are unknown.

There is clearly no external influence, and changes such as rotting and mildew occur naturally just through the passage of time. This in itself is very strange, but no one has studied it in detail.

Now hearing Xu Chen’s explanation, it seems to be true.

It turns out that these changes are not without the involvement of other things, but they are only in the microscopic world, which is invisible to human eyes.

Hey, that actually makes sense!

At this time, Zhang Zhongjing looked at Xu Chen with a strange look in his eyes. Even if this kid was really playing tricks, but to be able to come up with this stuff, he was definitely a genius in medicine at least!
(End of this chapter)