Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 50 Imperial Physician (2)
When the four imperial doctors were prescribing the medicine, the queen mother was not idle, she had already ordered people to do the rest of the work well.First of all, the messenger summoned an old eunuch who was proficient in pharmacology and an eunuch who managed books.Then, he ordered the two female officers to fetch several medical books, such as "Compendium of Materia Medica" and the like.The queen mother made it clear that she didn't trust those imperial doctors, so she prepared so many backup measures.This can also prevent those imperial doctors from thinking of being lazy. Once the queen mother catches any dereliction of duty, they will be severely punished.

The tasks of the four imperial doctors could not come to an end until the prescriptions were prescribed.After the prescriptions were written, they gave these different prescriptions to Li Lianying and me, and then we forwarded them to the Queen Mother.Meeting the queen mother is not an easy task, they can effectively avoid their own troubles by doing so, and then they just need to wait quietly for the result of Lafayette.After these prescriptions were given to the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager checked the books and asked the old eunuch from time to time.At that time, I was standing next to the Queen Mother, and I saw her shaking her head and smiling at times, and the degree of careful review was no less than that of examining memorials.

When the queen mother read the prescription, she would express her views and opinions from time to time: "How many times have I told this medicine, it's too bad, and I'm not allowed to use it again, why is it put in it again?" What did the imperial doctor do? He prescribes so many medicines all at once, doesn’t he want me to eat them?” Or: “Let’s take a look, what’s the use of this medicine? Is it suitable for this place?” Every time When encountering these problems, the old eunuch who is proficient in pharmacology would tremblingly open a medical book, find the medicine and say, "Queen Mother, this medicine should be used. Its main function is to cool the blood." After the old eunuch replied and read the introduction in the book, the queen mother nodded and said: "Well, it can be used, and write it down. Come back and see what this medicine is for." Afterwards, the queen mother pointed out After taking another medicine, the old eunuch raised his head, looked at it carefully, and said, "Queen Mother, the main function of this medicine is to wake up people's heads." After hearing what he said, the Queen Mother still looked at it. After reading the medical book carefully, he nodded, turned his head and waved his hand, asking people to write down the medicine.According to the rules of Chinese medicine, there are about twelve herbs on each prescription. If the condition is special, one or two can be added or subtracted as appropriate.In the prescriptions written by the four imperial doctors, there are about five or six kinds of medicinal materials that are the same, and the rest are different. If all the types of medicinal materials written by them are added up, there are about 20 kinds.While looking at the prescriptions, the queen mother wrote the fifth prescription according to her own interest.All the similar medicines are included, and the queen mother chooses different medicines. Every time she chooses one, the queen mother will ask the old eunuch and read the medical books. If she feels like it, she will write it down.Among the several kinds of medicinal materials, some were known by the queen mother, so she weighed them by herself and did not ask the old eunuch any more.While watching and asking, the queen mother picked up twelve kinds of herbs according to her own wishes, then stopped, and ordered an eunuch to write down the twelve kinds of medicines honestly, and the fifth prescription was born in this way.The fifth prescription is a mixed prescription. It is better to say that it is made up randomly than it is composed of the strengths of various schools.The fifth prescription used some of the medicinal materials from the first four prescriptions. As for whether the combination of these medicinal materials is suitable, the Empress Dowager never cared.After writing the new prescription, she didn't let the imperial physicians study it, so she had to get the medicine right away.Even so, if something happens to the queen mother after taking these medicines, it will be the four imperial doctors who will be punished.So, when I saw this prescription, I almost jumped up in surprise.

The Queen Mother turned around and said to me: "The prescription has been written now, De Ling, you have to make another trip. You must be very careful when those imperial doctors are prescribing the medicine for me, and don't let them play any tricks." Since it is the Queen Mother's order, I have no other choice but to obey.Rather than accompanying the four imperial doctors, it is better to say that I escorted them to the pharmacy.The pharmacy is in a remote side hall, separated from the Queen Mother's bedroom by two palaces.From the outside, the palace of the pharmacy is very newly decorated and very beautiful, but because there are too few people coming in and out, the weather inside is quite gloomy.As soon as the door was opened, a musty smell rushed in.Rows of wooden shelves are nailed on the four walls of the hall. Many white or blue jars are placed on each row of wooden shelves. Each jar is covered with a special cover, and the outside of the jar is covered with a square of red paper. Write down what medicinal materials are stored in it.Smaller medicinal materials are usually packed in two or three kinds into one jar, so there are five or six hundred kinds of medicinal materials in the entire temple.This should be considered a very complete pharmacy.For those medicinal materials that must be kept fresh, they will be supplied by outside pharmacies once they are needed.

Until now, the four imperial doctors were lucky enough to witness the fifth prescription written by the Queen Mother. As for the first four prescriptions they worked so hard to write, all of them had been torn up by Li Lianying.Although they may disagree with the Queen Mother's prescription in their hearts, they have no choice but to follow the order and match the medicines in the prescription one by one.These four imperial physicians are not young, and they must have dealt with medicinal materials for a long time, but for some reason, their movements of taking the medicine were as if they were novices, and they dared to take out the medicine after repeated confirmation. very slowly.In any case, this caution is a little too much.After the medicinal materials are taken out, it is not over yet, and a very fine balance must be used to carefully weigh them, which cannot be wrong at all.After all the work was done, they wrapped these medicines into small packages with paper and asked the little eunuch to hold them.After all the twelve herbs are packaged, I have to take the imperial doctors back to the queen mother's palace.When we went to grab the medicine, corresponding preparations were also made in the Queen Mother's Palace. A small stove had already been set up in the back hall where boiling water is usually boiled, and there were silver medicine jars on it. A device for boiling medicine.Next to the stove was a table, and on a gold tray stood a jade bowl, specially chosen from among the Queen Mother's tea sets, to hold medicines.In addition, there are four small porcelain cups on the small table. After looking at them, I feel very strange, and I don't know what is the use of them.

The four imperial doctors were also involved in cooking the medicine. When they came to the stove, they carefully took the packets of medicinal materials and carefully put them into silver jars.There was more than half of the water in the silver jar, which had been kept at a lukewarm state. After the medicine was put in, the medicine began to be officially boiled.Since it is something the Empress Dowager wants to use, it is natural not to follow the usual way of cooking medicine. The four imperial doctors have been standing around until the water in the pot boils, and one of them immediately takes the silver pot down and puts it on the ground. Let it cool naturally, then put it on the stove again, wait for it to boil again, let it cool down again... and cook like this three times before giving up.The next thing to do is to filter the medicinal juice. When doing these tasks, the expressions of the four imperial doctors are very serious, as if they are holding a human head in their hands.The smell of Chinese medicine is not pleasant, I couldn't help covering my nose when they filtered it, I can't believe the Queen Mother would drink something like this.Because the filter is not very fine, after the first filtration, there are still many impurities in the concoction. This is absolutely impossible and can only be filtered again.After several times of filtration, they did not dare to pour the medicine into the Empress Dowager's jade bowl until there was no impurities at all.There is a lot of concoction, and it is impossible for the queen mother to finish it. When I was still surprised, the four imperial doctors had already filled the four porcelain cups with concoction.I was very surprised: why should the medicine be poured into those four porcelain cups?Could it be that there are other patients who also want to drink this decoction?
After everything was prepared, all that remained was to deliver the medicine to the Queen Mother.A young eunuch ran over to report to the Queen Mother that the medicine was ready, and then the four imperial doctors and I filed into the main hall to meet the Queen Mother.Walking in the front was the eunuch holding the empress dowager's jade bowl, followed by me, then the four imperial doctors, and finally the little eunuch holding four porcelain cups.After meeting the Empress Dowager, the four imperial doctors kowtowed to pay their respects as usual, and at the same time, the jade bowl had already arrived in the hands of the Empress Dowager.After the four imperial doctors stood up, I was surprised to find that the four porcelain bowls filled with concoctions were in their hands, but I didn't know what they were going to do.It was obviously a very embarrassing thing, but each of them was doing their best to bear it.Then the Queen Mother cast a look, and they raised the porcelain cups to their mouths together as if they had received some order, raised their necks and drank the concoction in one gulp.This move of theirs really surprised me a lot. This is to see a doctor for the Empress Dowager, and they themselves are not sick. If they drink these medicines, they might get sick again.Those medicines must be very bitter, but after the four imperial doctors drank them, they didn't even blink their eyes. If they weren't well-trained, they must be unbearable at this time.I really admire their courage.

(End of this chapter)