Understanding the prevention and cure of plagues in Daoist medicine

ABSTRACT

Daoist medicine, a special form of traditional Chinese medicine with distinct Daoist styles, has played an important role in the history of plague control in ancient China. Emerged from the pandemics at the end of the Han Dynasty (146 C.E.-220 C.E.), Daoism, the native Chinese religion, has always had a religious mission to end the spread of plagues;thus, it has actively participated in treating plagues through various techniques of medicine and religion. In the practice of plague treatment for thousands of years, Daoist medicine has developed a special etiology of plague that includes Qi-based theories (Qi is considered to be the force that informs and animates all things in Daoism, thus, plague is also considered to be caused by specific and hazardous Qi.) and worm-based theories, forming a strategy of plague control that includes prevention before an epidemic, active treatment during the epidemic, and recovery after the epidemic;these developed plague prevention methods combine isolation, disinfection, and drug use. Additionally, it is the first to practice a primitive immunoprophylaxis method that uses tissues and secretions of infected persons and animals to infect healthy individuals to gain disease immunity. It has formed a plague treatment method mainly based on drug treatment and ritual treatment, supplemented by acupuncture and physical treatment. It has left behind many effective drugs and prescriptions for plague treatment, some of which have a wide clinical application. Hence, Daoist medicine has made great contributions to plague control in Chinese history. Its strategies, methods, medicines, and prescriptions for plague control still have considerable theoretical and application today, especially in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.