The last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Zhang Zhongjing lived, was an extremely turbulent period in the history of China. Within the ruling class, consorts and eunuchs fought and killed each other. Warlords and powerful people also fight for the hegemony of the Central Plains. The bonfires of peasant uprisings broke out one after another.
There was a time when wars were frequent. People fled to escape the war, and there were more than one million displaced people. In the first year of Chuping in Xian Di (AD 190), Dong Zhuo moved to Chang 'an with millions of residents in Xian Di and Luoyang. All the palaces and houses in Luoyang were burned, and Fiona Fang was burnt. Countless people died on the road.
In less than ten years since the early years of Jian 'an, two-thirds of people died of epidemic diseases, and seven-tenths of them died of typhoid fever. Facing the plague, Zhang Zhongjing was very sad and angry. He hated the corruption of the rulers and pushed the people into hot water. In this regard, Zhang Zhongjing made up his mind to study the diagnosis and treatment of typhoid fever and must subdue the plague typhoid fever.
Extended data
Although Zhang Zhongjing hated officialdom and despised official career since he was a child. However, since his father was an official in the imperial court, the system of selecting officials based on "filial piety" and "talent" was implemented from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which was a way to find and train candidates for official positions in the Han Dynasty. It is stipulated that every 200,000 households will be promoted to a dutiful son every year, and the official position will be appointed by the court.
The cited students should be filial to their parents and behave incorruptibly, so they are called filial piety. "Filial piety" has been regarded as the subject of selecting officials in the Han Dynasty, and people without "filial piety" cannot be officials. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were many children in the world. Zhongjing inherited his family. During the Lingdi period (about AD 168 ~ 188), he was promoted to filial piety by the county and entered the officialdom.
During the Jian 'an period (A.D. 196 ~ 2 19), he was appointed as the magistrate of Changsha by the imperial court (Changsha County: Qinjia, which governs nine counties including Hunan, Luo, Yiyang, Yinshan, Lingling, Hengshan, Song and Guiyang, and governs Hunan County and now Changsha City).
But he still used his medical skills to relieve the suffering of the people. In feudal times, officials could not enter houses and get close to people at will. But without contact with ordinary people, there can be no treatment and medical skills can't be improved. So Zhang Zhongjing thought of a way to open the yamen on the first and fifteenth day of each month, and let the sick people in without asking about political affairs. He sat upright in the hall and treated everyone carefully.
Baidu Encyclopedia-Zhang Zhongjing