Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 176: Can You Become a Saint Without Taking a Bath, Jiangnan’s Big Belly Disease [Please Subscribe]

Liu Kuan said: "The main reason is naturally because Europeans did not know the source of the Black Death, nor did they know that it was spread by rats and fleas."

"Under the influence of religion, or the policy of keeping the people ignorant, people didn't even know the Black Death was a disease. Instead, they viewed it as divine punishment or wrath."

"They believe that those who are sick are being punished by God because they are disloyal to their Lord, the only supreme God in Western religions, or because they have moral problems."

"In fact, the frequent and large-scale outbreaks of the Black Death in Europe were mainly related to two things."

"First, Europeans don't like to take showers. Secondly, taking showers frequently is a burden in life, as it requires heating water and takes time."

"Furthermore, according to traditional European beliefs, bathing opens the pores, giving diseases an opportunity to invade, or in other words, damaging the body's vitality."

"Later, European religions incorporated this custom into their religious philosophy, claiming that the dirtier the body, the closer it is to God. Therefore, not bathing became a symbol of 'cleanliness'."

"Some people who don't bathe for years are even considered 'saints' of their religion. For example, there was a person in history who insisted on not bathing for 50 years and was eventually canonized."

Stunned, stunned!
The current situation of Lao Zhu's family can only be described by these four words.

Because Liu Kuan's words really challenged their cognition, everyone was shocked beyond words, even Lao Zhu was no exception.

The idea of ​​loving bathing is ingrained in the Chinese people. There must be records of Confucius' various bathing experiences in "The Analects of Confucius", and there are more than one or two sentences. The most famous of them is an article that students in later generations needed to recite.

"In the late spring, the spring clothes are ready, five or six crowns, six or seven boys, bathing in Yi, dancing in the wind, singing and returning."

In addition, in traditional Chinese concepts, bathing is necessary whenever there is a sacrifice or anything involving immortals or gods - because a clean body will prevent being rejected by ancestors and immortals.

In other words, Europeans' ideas about bathing are completely opposite to those of the Chinese.

Being canonized as a saint after not taking a bath for fifty years is something that no one in China can imagine.

After coming to his senses, Zhu Bo, who usually loves cleanliness, frowned and said with disgust, "These Europeans are worse than barbarians. They canonize people because they insist on not bathing. It's really tarnishing the word 'saint'. They deserve to be trapped in the Black Death!"

Zhu Yuanzhang also frowned, but he was thinking that if this happened, it would be even more difficult for him to establish a vassal state in Europe in the future - Europeans were accustomed to not taking baths, so how could someone like Zhu Bo, who loved cleanliness and was even a bit of a mysophobia, be willing to go?
However, if Europe really wanted to be a vassal state, its religion would have to be destroyed and its people would have to be educated with Confucianism. Then perhaps Westerners could be persuaded to change their habit of not bathing.

Zhu Biao shook his head and commented, "People don't like bathing. Religion should be trying to persuade them to change this habit, but this Western religion is actually encouraging this bad habit. It's like a cult."

At this time, Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Speaking of which, the population of the entire Europe today is probably about the same as that of the Ming Dynasty, or even less than that of the Ming Dynasty."

"But their demand for spices is several times, or even dozens of times, higher than that of the Ming Dynasty. This is because the upper and middle class elites need to use spices to cover up the strong body odor caused by not bathing for a long time."

Hearing this, Lao Zhu, Zhu Biao and other men just frowned.

Some of Zhu Yuanzhang's concubines and princesses imagined the smell that might be produced by someone not taking a bath for decades and often burning incense. Many of them felt so nauseous that they wanted to vomit.

Liu Kuan said, "The second thing is that Europeans don't like cats, especially black cats. It's not that they dislike them by nature, but in their culture, cats are like foxes, weasels, and snakes here, creatures with mysterious attributes."

"People often associate cats with demons, witches, and so on. Western witches are similar to the witches and sorcerers in our countryside. They are actually the remnants of many primitive religions before the unification of Western religions."

"When the Black Death in Europe became difficult to control, their religions blamed it on the devil and witches, and witch hunts were launched in Western countries."

"Because cats were believed to be associated with witches and demons, they were hunted and killed – but in fact, cats are the natural enemies of mice."

"So, Europeans killed cats in large numbers, which led to a greater proliferation of rats, which in turn made the Black Death even more widespread."

"The same goes for bathing. The more the Black Death struck, the less likely Westerners were to bathe, and the more likely they were to be infested with fleas."

"The combination of these two factors created a vicious cycle, which, combined with other minor factors, led to the outbreak of the Black Death in Europe over the past century."

After listening to Liu Kuan's story, Old Zhu, Zhu Biao and others were silent for a while.

They inexplicably felt that the Europeans were quite pathetic - so many people died, but no one knew the cause of their death, and they even insisted on the two things that led to the outbreak of the Black Death. It was truly lamentable.

Old Zhu was the first to pull himself out of his complicated emotions and asked, "So, if we want to rule Europe in the future, we only need to change our customs and habits, and we won't have to worry about the Black Death breaking out, right?"

"Old Zhu actually wants to rule Europe?"

Liu Kuan was secretly surprised.

Then he nodded and said, "Indeed."

Then, Liu Kuan remembered something important and said, "In fact, there are some bad customs among the people here, such as drinking raw water. I have mentioned this to the Imperial Hospital and the Imperial Medical College a long time ago."

"In addition, there is also the consumption of raw food, especially raw fish. Many animals actually have parasites that are difficult to detect with the human eye, and aquatic animals have even more. Therefore, eating raw food frequently can easily allow these parasites to survive and reproduce in the human body, thereby causing some diseases."

"For example, the famous Jiangnan potbelly disease is caused by a parasite called schistosomiasis infecting the body."

Potbelly is a common disease south of the Yangtze River, and countless people suffer from it. Therefore, when Liu Kuan mentioned this disease, Zhu Biao immediately asked, "Does my brother-in-law know how to treat this potbelly?"

Liu Kuan shook his head. "In later times, people would use a special medicine to treat potbelly. I can't remember the name of the medicine, and even if I did, it would be difficult to make with the current pharmaceutical level of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Yuanzhang frowned in confusion, "What level of skill is needed to make medicine?"

Liu Kuan said, "Your Majesty, of course it is necessary. In the future, we can use various scientific and technological means to extract the essence that can truly treat diseases from various medicinal materials, making the finished medicine more effective."

"In addition, some medicinal materials are purely synthesized through chemical means. If the chemical industry does not reach a certain level, those medicines will not be able to be produced."

"What is chemical industry?" Lao Zhu asked again.

At this time, Zhu Tan answered, "Father, Teacher Liu said that chemical engineering is the abbreviation of chemical industry, and chemistry is somewhat similar to alchemy."

"Of course, chemistry doesn't seek immortality. Rather, like other sciences, it explores the principles underlying all things in nature from a chemical perspective, and then applies them through chemical methods to benefit the people!"

A smart student is indeed likable - when he doesn't cheat his teacher.

After hearing what Zhu Tan said, Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Highness Prince Lu is right."

Zhu Yuanzhang was also quite pleased with Zhu Tan's performance. He nodded and asked, "Since the big belly disease cannot be cured at present, are there any other ways to deal with it? Or even prevent it?"

Liu Kuan said, "Just like the method I mentioned earlier for dealing with the plague, we must first understand its source, and then we can use various targeted measures to reduce the likelihood of the people getting sick."

"Pot belly disease was later called schistosomiasis. Schistosomiasis originally parasitized snails, using them to hatch numerous eggs invisible to the naked eye, giving birth to larvae."

"Humans and animals can be infected by schistosomiasis when they come into contact with larvae through their mouths, mucous membranes, or even their skin."

"After the larvae parasitize, they don't cause illness immediately. Instead, they continue to multiply in the human body. The external manifestation is that the person becomes thinner and thinner, while the belly becomes larger and larger."

"At the same time, schistosomiasis continues to spread through human and animal excrement and the blood and flesh of livestock, making it difficult to eradicate it."

"So, if we want to reduce the risk of people suffering from potbelly disease, we must first let them understand the truth about the disease, and then promote hygienic concepts such as not drinking raw water, not even using raw water for washing, and not throwing human and animal excrement into rivers."

"Secondly, we must find a way to eradicate snails on a large scale in Jiangnan. As for how, I don't know, but as long as the court promotes it, perhaps someone among the people will come up with a good idea."

Zhu Biao nodded after hearing this.

Old Zhu said, "Biao'er, after the New Year, you will be in charge of supervising this matter. Liu Kuan, if the method you proposed is effective, I will definitely not forget to reward you."

After talking about the Black Death and big belly disease, Zhu Yuanzhang remembered another question that arose when he was watching the video just now.

"Liu Kuan, according to the video, after the Black Death swept across Europe, theocracy declined, and the royal powers of various countries began to compete with theocracy, and even moved towards royal autocracy."

"Can we understand that the current conflict between theocracy and monarchy in Europe is a good time for the Ming Dynasty to intervene?"

When Liu Kuan heard this, he knew that Zhu Yuanzhang had made up his mind to attack Europe.

He was happy to see this happen.

He nodded and said, "Indeed, that is true—but given Europe's current strength and state, even without the conflict between divine and royal authority, it would be unable to withstand the Ming army."

Old Zhu stroked his beard with satisfaction, "That's very good."

Then he said to Zhu Biao and the other princes, "The video just mentioned something - Portugal and Spain were the first to start the great voyages of discovery and colonize the world."

"However, because they plundered too much wealth in Africa, America and other places, and their descendants enjoyed the fruits of their labor, they became complacent and were eventually surpassed by Britain, France and the Netherlands, becoming a second-rate country in Europe."

"Now, our Ming Dynasty will undoubtedly be the first in the world to embark on the great voyages of discovery, and may even dominate the world in the future. When that happens, we must learn from the experiences of Portugal and Spain and not become complacent. We must always maintain our ambitions!"

Zhu Biao and the other princes stood up and bowed, "Your Highness, I will remember your instructions!"

Seeing this, Liu Kuan shook his head secretly.

Old Zhu's advice may have some effect on his children and grandchildren, but the fourth generation of Old Zhu's family may not take it to heart.

He would not be so tactless as to point out this matter. After Lao Zhu finished his work, he asked, "Your Majesty, would you like to put down a video?"

"Let it go."

Liu Kuan called up the second video to play.

This video comes from the "Planetary Research Institute" and is titled: How the Chinese Repair the Earth!
　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)