Compared to Li Shimin and the others, who had abundant historical records to verify and cross-check what later generations described, the Han officials in Chang'an could only stare at one another in silence.
After all, according to later accounts, the widespread popularity of Five-Stone Powder occurred during the Jin dynasty, while the Great Han was still standing firm.
Thus, even the toxicity of Five-Stone Powder could only be vaguely inferred from a few scattered remarks left by later generations.
It was true that Five-Stone Powder originated in the Han, and Divine Physician Zhang had already affirmed this point.
But because they had learned of its harm early on from the light screen, everyone under Liu Bei deliberately avoided it. Even Liu Zhang, who indulged in pleasure in Jiangling City, did not consume it.
As a result, it was even harder to imagine how such a thing could bring disaster to a nation and harm an entire people.
"Has Divine Physician Zhang ever seen this thing called poppy?" Kongming asked, clearly more concerned about this substance.
Stroking his beard and pondering for a moment, Zhang Zhongjing instead felt the burden on his shoulders grow heavier.
"I have not. It may be that its name differs slightly between ancient and modern records."
This was likely the most reasonable explanation. After all, exchanges between East and West had existed for a long time through the Silk Road. If this substance truly had such miraculous effects, someone would surely have brought it to the Han to seek great profit.
Kongming nodded thoughtfully, exchanging glances with Pang Tong and Fa Zheng. Both of them also showed investigative interest in their eyes.
With their intelligence, they could tell that later generations had spoken of this matter with considerable restraint.
For example, the difference in naming between poppy and opium products, and the specific symptoms of opium addiction.
Such vague treatment might be similar to how the Han court suppressed Daoist teachings at present. Having suffered from it, they banned it as a warning.
And judging from the historical trajectory of later generations, contact between Huaxia and the West was inevitable.
Following the military principle of knowing both oneself and the enemy to remain undefeated, poppy would also need to be thoroughly studied to clarify its medicinal and poisonous properties.
However, at a glance, later generations said very little about it. In the end, it would likely require attempts through merchants traveling the Silk Road.
Of course, matters concerning this substance would still need to be discussed carefully with Lord Xuande and handled in strict secrecy.
For a moment, the sense of crisis in Pang Tong and Fa Zheng's hearts grew even stronger.
In truth, this sense of crisis had never truly faded.
From what later generations had revealed, their understanding of the state and the people was no longer what it once was. The importance of mathematics, the power of engineering, the necessity of scholarship, and now the realization that medicine itself could endanger or save an entire nation.
To secure the state above and protect the people below, what one needed to know and learn had become far more complex than before.
And every time, Kongming always gained the initiative first. Just like with Divine Physician Zhang. Everyone knew how miraculous Zhang's medical skills were, yet the one closest to him was still Kongming.
Pang Tong sighed. Now he felt that imitating later generations by compiling a work similar to the Yongle Encyclopedia might not be such a bad idea.
At the very least, after reading it, even if one mastered none of it, one should still gain a hundred strengths. In governing the state and administering affairs, that would already put one a step ahead.
[Lightscreen]
[Five-Stone Powder itself is actually quite fascinating.
For example, the famous Ge Hong of the Southern Dynasties recorded its components as cinnabar, realgar, alum, azurite, and magnetite.
The renowned Sui dynasty physician Chao Yuanfang recorded a different formulation: stalactite, sulfur, white quartz, purple quartz, and red stone.
As for He Yan, who first sparked the trend of consuming Five-Stone Powder, his exact formula can no longer be verified.
It is also said that He Yan was the legitimate grandson of General-in-Chief He Jin. After the Coup at Gaoping Tombs, he was falsely accused by Sima Yi, Emperor Xuan of Jin, and executed along with the extermination of his three clans.
From this perspective, the Coup at Gaoping Tombs can indeed be considered a pivotal event linking the late Han and the Jin.
The great epidemic of the twenty-second year of Jian'an completely changed Cao Pi's personality, and from him onward, extravagance gradually spread throughout the aristocracy.
He Yan went even further on this basis, competing in pure discourse with Xiahou Xuan and Wang Bi, setting the fashion of the age and establishing Wei-Jin metaphysics.
Yuan Hong of the Eastern Jin wrote Biographies of Eminent Scholars, calling these three the Zhengshi luminaries, which shows how great their reputation was at the time.
When a top-tier celebrity like this endorses something, the effect is roughly equivalent to Li Bai writing poems praising tea and wine in the Tang dynasty. The impact can only be described as astonishing.
Moreover, with epidemics recurring endlessly and cold damage making people feel chilled, and with limited means of keeping warm in ancient times, Five-Stone Powder, which stimulated bodily heat, naturally became very popular.
The hallucinogenic sensation it produced also gave users a floating, transcendent feeling, earning even more praise.
However, if consumed long-term, the harm caused by Five-Stone Powder was even more severe than that of opium products. Aside from causing dependency, records of death and disability due to Five-Stone Powder never ceased throughout the Two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties.
By the Tang dynasty, Sun Simiao devoted significant effort to studying Five-Stone Powder and issued a warning:
Five-Stone Powder is a substance of extreme and violent toxicity. Better to eat wild kudzu than to take Five-Stone Powder. Upon encountering this prescription, it must be burned, lest it harm living beings.
But the disappearance of Five-Stone Powder could not rely solely on the advocacy of Sun Simiao as a medical world opinion leader. Many other complex factors were involved.
The greatest factor was that the climate officially began a significant warming trend. During the Tang dynasty, the average temperature was about 1.5 degrees Celsius higher than today, and about two degrees higher than at the end of the Han.
Climate has the most direct impact on people's livelihoods, and the quality of livelihoods likewise determines the fate of feudal dynasties. Here we can present a relatively intuitive comparative chart.
At the center of the chart is the temperature change index.
At the top are three indices: changes in the latitude of the farming and pastoral transition zone, changes in rice price indices across different eras, and the number of wars.
This is not difficult to understand, because the largest-scale wars in ancient times were agricultural versus pastoral conflicts, which directly affected livelihoods.
It is not hard to see that as the severe cold of the Two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties ended, the farming and pastoral transition zone moved northward. After nomadic peoples were pushed back, livelihoods steadily improved, the cost of living for the populace decreased year by year, and suitable climate reduced droughts and floods.
Moreover, as the cold retreated, cold damage epidemics lost the soil in which they could take root. With the climate already warm enough, there was no longer any need for Five-Stone Powder to stimulate bodily heat.
And as temperatures rose, China once again moved toward reunification. Emperor Wen of Sui resumed promoting Confucian governance.
Although Confucianism during the Sui dynasty did not enjoy the same exclusive dominance as during the Han, it remained the mainstream school.
Under the scrutiny of Confucian cultural values, the habit of "Wei-Jin scholars" running around naked appeared extremely inappropriate.
Furthermore, after the Tang dynasty, cotton introduced into China began to shine. Cotton cloth was relatively cheaper and provided better insulation.
With all these factors combined, large-scale cold damage epidemics like those at the end of the Han lost most of their breeding ground, and the popular consumption of Five-Stone Powder among the populace came to a halt.
However, Five-Stone Powder did not completely disappear among the aristocracy. During the Song dynasty, based on Tang-era research on mineral medicines, the formula of Five-Stone Powder was modified to reduce its toxicity.
Then the Ming dynasty went all out. On the original basis, they added male silkworm moths, urine powder, menstrual water of virgin girls, and red lead, creating the famous imperial aphrodisiac known as the Red Pill.
And when one considers the inexplicably short lifespans of Ming emperors, the effects of this Red Pill speak for themselves.]