Chapter 36: Old Ten's Lazy Inoculation Technique...
As November arrived, the weather in Beijing grew increasingly cold. Although winter had not officially begun, the days were getting shorter and the sun was setting earlier, while the nights were getting longer and the darkness deepening.
As the temperature dropped, Yin'e became increasingly lazy, even less willing to go out, and too lazy to move.
He slept until the early morning when it was fully light, only to be dragged out of bed by Yin Tang, who came excitedly to Yongshou Palace to play with him.
Every time Yinzhen woke him up, Yin'e, still sleepy and with watery eyes, was puzzled. Where did Yinzhen get so much energy? Didn't he know that children need to sleep more to grow taller?
However, as he spent more time with Yinzhen, the two became more familiar with each other and their relationship grew better. Yinzhen now had a good grasp of Yinzhen and no longer felt that playing with Yinzhen was tiring or draining his life force.
The two snuggled on the soft couch, learning a few phrases of Mongolian, fiddling with toys, and playing a few rounds of Ludo. They used a large box of beads given to them by Consort Yi to play marbles and checkers, then ate some snacks and drank a few cups of fruit syrup. The day passed in this way, and it was time for Yinzhen to return to Yikun Palace.
However, in the past few days, Yin'e has been somewhat absent-minded, occasionally lost in thought, which has led to him being completely outmaneuvered by Yin'tang in various games, resulting in countless defeats.
The person who troubled Yin'e was none other than the Sixth Prince, Yinzuo.
Of course, Yin'e's annoyance wasn't because he disliked the Sixth Prince, but because he remembered that the Sixth Prince would die young.
Compared to Yinyu, Yinzuo was fortunate enough to be re-ordered in the order of birth and become Kangxi's sixth prince, but he was not lucky enough to live to adulthood.
On October 30th, the sixth birthday of the Fourth Prince, Yin'e met the Sixth Prince for the first time in Chengqian Palace.
If it weren't for that meeting, Yin'e would never have thought of the Sixth Prince, his elder brother who lived in the Eastern Six Palace. Not to mention that he had never met the Sixth Prince before this life, even in his previous life, the Sixth Prince only had a faint impression of him: the younger brother of Emperor Yongzheng who died young.
Moreover, although he remembered that the Sixth Prince would die young, Yin'e could not recall exactly when Yinzuo died. He only vaguely remembered that Yinzuo was six years old when he died, but Yin'e had no idea whether this six-year-old was the traditional age or the actual age.
Whenever he thought of this, Yin'e felt despair about the mixed recording of ages in the Qing court.
The princes usually calculate their age using the traditional Chinese age system (虚岁). For example, the Fifth Prince was born in the twelfth month of the eighteenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, and he is not yet five years old, but he is said to be seven years old.
However, the age at which princes start school at six is calculated based on their actual age. The Fourth Prince started school early last year at the age of five, which is calculated based on his actual age. Otherwise, if calculated according to the traditional Chinese age system, the Fourth Prince, who was born in October of the seventeenth year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, would have been seven years old last year, which would not be considered early.
Besides not knowing the exact time of Yinzhuo's death, Yin'e also doesn't know why Yinzhuo died young. Was it a sudden accident, a serious illness, or a disease like smallpox?
From the bottom of his heart, Yin'e truly wanted to save the Sixth Prince.
The Sixth Prince was different from Yinyu. Yinyu was born weak and needed constant medicine. But the Sixth Prince that Yin'e saw in Chengqian Palace that day was lively and healthy, and seemed to be on the verge of recovery.
Unlike Yin Yu, who died too young to understand death, the Sixth Prince has already begun his education, is knowledgeable and courteous, and will be able to study in the Imperial Study in another year.
Yin'e was reborn just a year ago. A year ago, he was a college student who was born under the red flag, grew up in the spring breeze, and received a complete modern education.
He still had compassion for the weak; he could not remain indifferent to the passing of life, nor could he stand idly by and watch a living, breathing life perish.
Even though he wasn't familiar with the Sixth Prince, since he knew that the Sixth Prince would suddenly die at the age of six, he couldn't pretend not to know.
Even if he can't actually do anything, being unable to do something and not doing it at all are two different things.
Yes… Yin E couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Even if he wanted to save Yin Zuo, what could he do for Yin Zuo?
Was the death of the Sixth Prince related to the character "Zuo" in his name?
Rubbing his face, Yin'e shook off his dejected thoughts and began to think seriously:
If the Sixth Prince died unexpectedly, what could he do? He couldn't very well pretend to be a charlatan and tell the Sixth Prince that he had a bloody disaster when he was six years old, and tell him to be extra careful in his daily life.
There's a saying: "You never know which will come first, tomorrow or an accident." For everyone, accidents are the most uncontrollable factor. In the face of accidents, everyone is equal, and no one can escape them.
If the Sixth Prince died of a serious illness, then Yin'e felt that the imperial physicians in the palace could help him more than he could. After all, he didn't have any cheat codes, a system, a spatial ability, a spiritual spring, any effective medicine, or even a elixir to bring the dead back to life.
With a soft sigh, Yin'e casually tossed the white ivory dice.
This time, he rolled a number again, and the four pieces remaining in the base still could not move.
The game of Ludo had been going on for quite a while, but Yin'e's pieces remained motionless in the base the whole time. He rolled the dice more than twenty times, but didn't even get a six.
In stark contrast to him, not only had all four of Yinzhen's pieces left the base, but two of them were also close to reaching the finish line.
Seeing that Yin'e had thrown another dot, Yin'tang covered his mouth and giggled. His delicate phoenix eyes curved into crescent moons with laughter, and his beautiful face beamed with a smug smile, unable to hide his gloating: "Tenth brother, your luck is so bad~"
With his delicate white hands, Yinzhen picked up the dice that had rolled to the edge of the small table. He tossed it casually, and the white ivory die came to a stop after a series of tumbling motions, with the face up displaying a six.
Fei gave Yin'e a smug look, and Yin'e proudly raised his pointed chin, looking arrogant and conceited, and boasted with pride, "Look, it's six o'clock again!"
Yin'e glanced listlessly at Yin Tang, but he was not very enthusiastic. However, he still clapped his hands in support and praised sincerely, "Ninth Brother is amazing."
He did not believe that Yinzhen's success was simply due to good luck.
In fact, when Yinzhen wanted to roll a six, he would usually succeed two out of three times. This couldn't be explained by luck alone; it could only mean that Yinzhen had indeed mastered some special skill.
But... isn't something wrong here? Did Yinzhen allocate his talent points incorrectly? (scratching head)
After Yinzhen rolled the dice again and got a three, it was Yin'e's turn to roll the dice again. He picked up the thumb-sized die from the Ludo board, but instead of throwing it immediately, he stared blankly into space once more.
If Yinzhuo had died from smallpox, then perhaps he could have done something.
Yin'e was not a physician and did not understand medicine, so of course he could not cure patients who had already contracted smallpox.
However, he could spread the concept of hygiene and protection, so that people in the palace could take preventative measures when smallpox spread, and minimize the risk of the Sixth Prince contracting smallpox, thus preventing him from dying from the disease at its source.
Moreover, it wasn't just the Sixth Prince; smallpox had an extremely high mortality rate during the Qing Dynasty, with tens of thousands dying from each outbreak. With scientific hygiene and prevention measures in place, the risk of smallpox infection among the common people was greatly reduced when the Qing Dynasty experienced outbreaks.
"Tenth Brother," Yinzhen's fair and delicate face puffed up as he urged impatiently, "It's your turn, hurry up and roll!"
With a slight loosening of his grip, Yin'e dropped the dice from his palm, which landed on the small table with a crisp sound.
As the ivory dice spun rapidly, the layers of fog that had been obscuring Yin'e's mind seemed to be completely severed from top to bottom by a sharp sword. The white fog vanished in an instant, allowing him to see clearly and find the key to solving the problem.
Besides scientific prevention, there is another way to prevent smallpox, which is—
Get vaccinated!
The ivory die that had been rolling on the small table came to a stop, and the face-up side clearly showed a six.
Yin'e opened his almond-shaped eyes wide, and his eyes gradually brightened as he felt happy to have found a solution.
The smallpox vaccination in the Qing Dynasty was essentially the same as modern-day vaccination. Both involved acquiring antibodies in advance to resist infection with diseases.
However, unlike modern, well-developed vaccine registration technology, smallpox inoculation technology in the Qing Dynasty was still in its infancy.
Emperor Kangxi first learned that successful inoculation would prevent reinfection with smallpox and ordered the Imperial Medical Academy to establish a Smallpox Department specifically responsible for inoculation and treatment. This occurred in the nineteenth year of his reign.
It was only the 23rd year of the Kangxi Emperor's reign, and the Department of Smallpox had been established for less than five years. Not only was human variolation still being used, but the method of inoculation was also a very simple and brutal one: the smallpox clothing method, which involved the person being inoculated directly coming into contact with the clothing of a smallpox patient to contract the disease.
Whether it's vaccinia or the inoculation method, the inoculation techniques used in vaccinia clinics are currently very outdated, which makes the risks of inoculation extremely high, and the success rate of vaccinia in vaccinia clinics is very low.
However, the backwardness of the technology also means that there is a lot of room for improvement in vaccination techniques.
Even though Yin'e wasn't a medical student in his previous life, with his knowledge and broad perspective from his later life, he could still easily point out two directions for improvement in the smallpox inoculation method: first, to use cowpox instead of human smallpox; and second, to use the water-based inoculation method instead of the more direct and dangerous methods such as smallpox clothing, smallpox pus, and dry inoculation.
The so-called "water inoculation method" involves grinding a small amount of smallpox scabs into powder, mixing it with clean water, wrapping it in a thin cotton pad, shaping it into a ball, and inserting it into the nostrils of the person being inoculated. The "dry inoculation method," on the other hand, involves grinding smallpox scabs into powder and blowing it directly into the nostrils.
Strictly speaking, the smallpox patching method, which involves soaking cotton balls in the fresh pus from smallpox patients and inserting them directly into the nostrils of the person being inoculated, is actually a dry inoculation method, as it directly exposes the person being inoculated to a large amount of smallpox virus.
The water-based inoculation method improved the smallpox vaccination process. The scabs were ground into powder and mixed with water. The person being vaccinated still came into direct contact with the smallpox virus, but the number of viruses they came into contact with was greatly reduced. This made the symptoms less severe after the person was vaccinated, the mortality rate dropped significantly, and the success rate increased dramatically.
Now the question is, regarding the smallpox epidemic, he has thought of hygiene and protective measures and related scientific knowledge on epidemic prevention, but how can he spread this knowledge?
Secondly, regarding the direction of improvement for the smallpox vaccination method, such as cowpox and water-based vaccination, how could he tell the imperial physicians in the smallpox department, and how could he convince those senior doctors who had studied medicine for decades to believe that he was just a child and to conduct a highly dangerous smallpox vaccination experiment based on his suggestions?
Standing frozen in place, with a blank expression, Yin'e, urged by Yin'tang, stiffly picked up a chess piece and placed it at the starting point, then threw the dice again.
The dice spun around for a while, then stopped, revealing a dot on the top side, as if mocking Yin'e.
So, he still has to pretend to be a charlatan, lie and say that his ancestors sent him a dream, in order to make his words believable and not be suspected of being too monstrous?
Haha, why don't we just say that Emperor Shunzhi appeared to him in a dream? Emperor Shunzhi died of smallpox, so it's perfectly reasonable for him to appear in a dream to his descendants about the advanced inoculation method for preventing smallpox; there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
...Of course, this was just a joke.
Yin'e wasn't stupid; he wouldn't stoop to such elaborate schemes as ancestors appearing in dreams within the palace. He probably thought his status as the son of a concubine wasn't prominent enough, so why fabricate a dream from Emperor Shunzhi to make it seem like he was favored by the late emperor?
However, the outdated vaccination technology remained a major problem, which was not only related to the premature death of the Sixth Prince, but also closely related to the safety of him, Yinzhen, the Fifth Prince, and other princes.
If Yin'e remembers correctly, all of Kangxi's princes were vaccinated against smallpox when they were young.
He really didn't want to be inoculated with human variolation when he was getting vaccinated, especially since he was using the oldest and most dangerous method of variolation.
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