ILSITM Chapter 66

After some bargaining, we gave the boat owner one tael of silver as fare.

We brought enough silver with us on this trip to the Qing Dynasty to meet any unexpected needs.

Today, the Shunzhi Emperor went to Minzhong Temple to observe the tonsure ceremony of Wu Liangfu, a eunuch of the inner court.

Just as Wu Liangfu was having his head shaved to become a monk, a eunuch reported to the Shunzhi Emperor that there were four people outside the temple claiming to have traveled from the future, requesting an audience.

The four of us entered the temple and saw the Shunzhi Emperor in the distance, dressed in ornate ceremonial robes.

After we accompanied the Shunzhi Emperor to watch Wu Liangfu’s tonsure ceremony, the Shunzhi Emperor formally received us in the Minzhong Pavilion.

“We have traveled from Jiudong Prefecture three hundred and sixty-one years in the future. However, Jiudong Prefecture will no longer be called Jiudong Prefecture three hundred and sixty-one years from now; it will be renamed Jiudong City. We came to the Great Qing to help the Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youxiao of the Ming Dynasty retrieve his ring,” I said bluntly.

The Shunzhi Emperor looked astonished.

In ancient times, rings were called finger rings. By the Ming Dynasty, the term finger ring was replaced by ring.

Ming Dynasty rings began to be inlaid with precious jewels such as gemstones, cat’s eyes, turquoise, and pearls.

However, the cutting technology at that time was not refined enough, and the traces of manual cutting were still very obvious.

“After Emperor Tianqi Zhu Youxiao traveled from the Ming Dynasty to our Jiudong City, he fell in love with a beautiful girl. He is preparing to get married in a few days, so he hopes that we can travel back to the Royal Palace and help him retrieve two gemstone rings hidden in the Royal Palace.”

The Shunzhi Emperor was dubious after hearing what I said.

“Where are those two gemstone rings placed?” The Shunzhi Emperor asked.

“They are placed behind the throne in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace, on the back of the five-panel screen with gold-lacquered carved cloud dragon patterns,” I said.

The Qianqing Palace was the bedroom of sixteen emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Fourteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty and two emperors of the Qing Dynasty (Shunzhi and Kangxi) lived here.

“I’ll go back to the palace and take a look for you. If it is really hidden in the place you said, I will find it and give it to you,” said the Shunzhi Emperor.

Old Lin saw that the matter of the ring had “a glimmer of hope”, so he began to talk about Buddhism with the Shunzhi Emperor.

Old Lin not only liked Taoism, but also had some research on Buddhism.

Although Buddhism and Taoism are different, they always learn from each other in the long river of history, and they also have many common points.

“I often think that my previous life was a Buddhist disciple. Every time I enter a temple, I want to stay in the temple and not leave,” said the Shunzhi Emperor childishly.

The four of us couldn’t help laughing when we heard what the Shunzhi Emperor said.

The Shunzhi Emperor continued, “Sakyamuni abandoned the palace and became the Buddha, and Dharma abandoned the throne and became the Zen ancestor. I really want to follow their example and become a monk.”

Old Lin then advised, “If we talk about it in terms of the laws of the mortal world, the Emperor should always sit on the throne, so that he can reassure the Holy Mother above and enable the people to live and work in peace below; if we talk about it in terms of the laws of transcendence, the Emperor should also always be a monarch and emperor, so that he can protect those who practice Buddhism from the outside and live in the place where all the great power Bodhisattva wisdom dwells from the inside.”

The Shunzhi Emperor pondered for a while and felt that what Old Lin said was not unreasonable, so he temporarily gave up the idea of becoming a monk.

After returning to the palace in the evening, the Shunzhi Emperor suddenly developed a high fever, and the imperial physicians were unable to determine the cause of the illness for a while.

Early in the morning on the third day of the first lunar month, we were summoned to the palace to see the Shunzhi Emperor.

We were summoned to the palace by Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, the mother of the Shunzhi Emperor.

The Shunzhi Emperor ascended the throne at the age of six. At that time, he was still young, and the court was controlled by the Regent Dorgon. Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang then supported her son in listening to the government behind the curtain.

Even now, the Shunzhi Emperor has long passed the age of twenty, and Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang is still “listening to the government behind the curtain” in disguise.

Old Lin and Old Zhang both knew some traditional Chinese medicine and were knowledgeable. After “looking, smelling, asking, and feeling the pulse,” they found that the Shunzhi Emperor, who was lying on the sickbed, was afraid of cold, had a high fever, headache, fatigue, and back pain.

“These are typical symptoms of smallpox,” Old Lin and Old Zhang said in unison.

Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and the eunuchs looked pale after hearing this.

You must know that in the Qing Dynasty, once people contracted smallpox, they could only resign themselves to fate. The infected usually died within three to five days. The cause of death was generally uncontrollable toxemia or massive hemorrhage.

There was no treatment for smallpox in ancient times, and prevention was the main focus.

Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty, extracted pus from the sores of smallpox patients and applied it to the skin to prevent smallpox based on the principle of fighting poison with poison.

By the Qing Dynasty, the method of human smallpox inoculation began to be gradually promoted, but there was still no effective treatment method.

In the afternoon, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang summoned the imperial physicians to the palace again. After another consultation with us, she diagnosed the Shunzhi Emperor with smallpox again.

The Shunzhi Emperor’s condition developed very quickly. At this time, his skin had begun to fester, and the imperial physicians were at a loss in front of the Shunzhi Emperor’s sickbed.

In response to the development of the Shunzhi Emperor’s condition, Old Lin and Old Zhang prescribed “Shengma Gegen Tang + Sha Shen Mai Dong Tang”.

After the Shunzhi Emperor took these two decoctions for three days in a row, his condition was brought under control and there were no signs of deterioration.

On this day, the Shunzhi Emperor, who was able to get out of bed and walk around, urgently summoned us to the palace.

“The reason why I urgently summoned you to the palace today is because I found the ring you wanted. One is to hand it over to you in person, and the other is to ask you for something,” said the Shunzhi Emperor, sitting on the edge of the sickbed, looking at us weakly.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I know that my illness is serious and I am about to die. I want to return to Jiudong Prefecture three hundred years later with you. I wonder if it is possible?” The Shunzhi Emperor’s eyes showed a longing expression.

I looked at Old Lin, Old Zhang and Wen Rourou. Their eyes were gentle and full of kindness.

“Okay,” I said to the Shunzhi Emperor.

The *Jiudong Prefecture Chronicles* records: On the evening of the sixth day of the first lunar month in the eighteenth year of the Shunzhi reign of the Qing Dynasty (1661), five people who had rushed from the capital jumped into a bottomless underground cave opened by foreigners, and their fate was unknown.

The next day, the Shunzhi Emperor Aixinjueluo Fulin “died” in the Yangxin Hall in Beijing at the age of twenty-four.

Before leaving the palace, the Shunzhi Emperor appointed the eight-year-old Xuan Ye as Crown Prince.

The Shunzhi Emperor had eight sons, two of whom died early. Why did he choose Xuan Ye at that time? Because he had had smallpox and was immune.

Later, the empire established by the Aixinjueluo family became strong under the leadership of the Kangxi Emperor, who had a face full of “pockmarks”.

After the Shunzhi Emperor traveled back to Jiudong City with us, we sent him to the First People’s Hospital of Jiudong City and helped him cure smallpox.

After being discharged from the hospital, the Shunzhi Emperor and we attended Zhu Youxiao’s wedding.

At the wedding, the two young emperors looked at each other and smiled, and hugged for a long time.

The next day, we sent the Shunzhi Emperor, who was determined to become a monk, to Mount Wutai.

When we were preparing to go down the mountain, Old Lin suddenly refused to leave the mountain.