"How is it that only foreign monks are good at debating doctrine…"
Zhang Fei muttered under his breath. It was not really a complaint, more like a puzzled grumble.
After all, thinking about it carefully, Daoism had once managed to rally the Yellow Turbans and send the Han dynasty to its grave. If Buddhism could stand on equal footing with it, then it was obviously not some harmless presence either.
Moreover, Buddhism had even forced later Tang emperors to personally step in and carry out a "suppression of Buddhism."
Seen this way, if one were to measure how dangerous a doctrine could be to a state, then between Buddhism and Daoism, neither really had the right to mock the other.
Pang Tong might not understand many other things, but when it came to why Buddhism managed to rise to prominence, he saw the reason very clearly.
Thus, he arrived at a simple conclusion.
"This so called Five Sciences of Buddhism, I do not fully grasp them. But judging from this, if one wishes to govern a state well, craftsmanship and medicine are both indispensable."
Everyone in the hall nodded in agreement.
After all, Xiahou Yuan, Du Xi, and others were still under house arrest, and among the laborers rebuilding Chang'an, the overwhelming majority were surrendered soldiers.
To secure Guanzhong and pacify the Three Qins without suffering any real damage was already proof enough that victory did not always rely on battlefield command.
Not to mention that in a winter showdown, if the enemy had coal cakes for warmth and medicinal soups to drive out cold and prevent illness, then even if the Marquis of Huaiyin were reborn, he would probably find the situation extremely troublesome.
From this alone, one could already see the might of medicine and craftsmanship.
Thus, in the end, everyone's gaze converged on the Light Screen.
With the Light Screen's guidance, it was truly a blessing for the Han.
Following that, their gazes naturally shifted to Kongming.
That Kongming was admired by later generations was likewise a blessing for them all.
Off to the side, Zhang Zhongjing was also filled with emotion.
Fame in later ages, the pinnacle of medicine, the rise of medical arts, epidemics that never truly disappeared. All kinds of thoughts swirled endlessly in his mind.
In the end, these tangled emotions condensed into a confidence he had never felt before.
If in the past Zhang Zhongjing had faced epidemics alone and fought bitterly without victory, then now, he was no longer alone.
The atmosphere in the hall grew even more harmonious.
Ma Chao, who rarely engaged his brain this seriously, could tell that whether it was the Imperial Uncle, Strategist Zhuge, Divine Physician Zhang, or even Master Jian, all of them carried great ambitions in their hearts.
Then what about him, Ma Mengqi?
He was already nearing forty. What was his own great ambition?
The four words that once let his pride soar to the heavens, "dominate Yong and Liang," now felt almost shameful to even speak aloud.
As for the later Light Screen's talk about unequal fortune and virtue, almost everyone in the hall scoffed at it.
If fortune and virtue were truly equal, then there would never have been the chaos of the Ten Attendants. How could there have been an age of turmoil?
Such things might fool the common people, but to those who had survived the chaos themselves, they were not even worth considering.
[Lightscreen]
[Whether in ancient times or the modern era, epidemics have always been a problem that large states must confront.
This was true for the Han dynasty, and naturally it was no exception for Rome. In terms of timing, the two were also remarkably close.
The first recorded great plague of ancient Rome occurred between 165 and 189 AD, corresponding to the late reign of Emperor Huan of Han through the death of Emperor Ling.
It is hard not to think of the Chancellor's first line of blame in the Memorial on Sending Out the Troops: "I have never not sighed and lamented over Huan and Ling."
This period in Rome belonged to the Antonine dynasty, so the plague is also known as the Antonine Plague.
Some of its background has been discussed earlier. At the time, Rome was at the end of the era of the Five Good Emperors. On one hand, Rome dispatched envoys to the Han dynasty in search of a reliable ally.
On the other hand, Rome had launched a prolonged war against the Parthian Empire, eventually capturing its capital Ctesiphon and burning it to the ground.
However, smallpox broke out within Parthian territory. Large numbers of soldiers fell ill, forcing Rome into a hasty retreat. These soldiers then carried the epidemic back to Rome, directly bringing an end to Rome's golden age.
Based on current research, the Antonine Plague was similar to the typhoid epidemics of the late Han. More than one disease was spreading at the same time.
The destructive power of a compound epidemic was enormous. According to ancient Roman historians, nearly ten thousand people were newly infected every day, while over two thousand died daily.
By the time the plague subsided, total deaths reached five million. Some provinces lost a full third of their population. Rome's national strength was cut in half, and Marcus Aurelius, the last of the Five Good Emperors, died directly from the epidemic.
But for Rome, the chain reaction caused by the plague was only just beginning.
Soldiers were the first to face the epidemic. As manpower became increasingly insufficient, Rome was forced to recruit new troops from gladiators and slaves, causing the quality of soldiers to decline rapidly.
With the sharp population drop, silver mining, which supported military expenditures, came to a halt. Rome's economy fell into stagnation, and all industries suffered heavy blows.
Just as Roman citizens breathed a sigh of relief and celebrated the end of the disaster, the epidemic returned in 191, catching Rome completely unprepared and plunging the slightly recovering state back into winter.
The following year, Marcus Aurelius's biological son, Emperor Commodus, was assassinated. The Antonine dynasty came to a complete end, and Rome entered nearly a century of the so called Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the era of the Thirty Tyrants.
The script was strikingly similar to China's. Internal slaughter, barbarian invasions from the north, the people drowning in suffering, and the elite fighting to mutual destruction.
However, thanks to Rome's emphasis on medicine at the time, the first major epidemic period instead became an important era of growth for Roman medicine.
Galen was the most famous physician of this era. He successfully studied anatomy, verified the function of the heart, conducted serious research on the brain and spinal cord, and recognized the human digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems.
He also refined animal experimentation and was the first to apply medical knowledge gained from experiments on monkeys to the human body.
As Galen's works spread to the Arab world, Arab scholars summarized from them the principles of abstracting, exploration, skepticism, options, practice, and guidance.
These became medical dogma that all medical students were required to follow, and they persisted all the way until the seventeenth century.]
"The timing… it really is this coincidental."
Liu Bei was momentarily dazed. If later generations had not repeatedly emphasized that science did not speak of ghosts and gods, he would have suspected the existence of an actual plague deity.
Kongming, however, remained calm in his understanding.
"At most, this only shows that Rome and our Han were quite similar, both lacking in public health."
"And this cooling of the climate seems not to have plagued only the Central Plains. The entire world suffered."
After making this judgment, Kongming grew curious instead.
If this theory of climate cycles was correct, then as the chaos of the Northern and Southern Dynasties ended and the climate warmed again, the East would see the splendor of Sui and Tang.
Then what about the West?
From the scattered remarks of later generations, it could be inferred that Sassanian Persia fell, Byzantium was not far behind, and in the end, the unexpected rising power was…
Could it be the Arab Empire, positioned along the Silk Road, drawing upon the scientific essence of both ancient China and ancient Rome?