In the thirty-second year of Kangxi's reign, Kangxi suffered from a strange disease and was already terminally ill. Although Kangxi was covered with several thick quilts at that time, he was still sweating all the time, and his face was very pale, which made people feel scared when he saw him. It's not like Kangxi never asked imperial doctors to come to treat him, but it was of no use. There was also a turbulent situation in the palace at that time, because in the Qing Dynasty, emperors had already died of illness. At this time, Kangxi was going to follow the footsteps of his father, Emperor Shunzhi, and also die of illness. The emperor died of illness, which was ominous. A sign. Does this mean that the Qing Dynasty’s national destiny is about to end?
And those imperial doctors believed that the disease Kangxi suffered from was a disease with a high fatality rate. Many people had died from this disease before, and Kangxi seemed to have no cure. Saved. The imperial doctors in the palace also tried every method they could think of, but none of them could cure Kangxi. Therefore, seeing that Kangxi was about to give up and return to the west, the ministers had no choice but to post a list to ask for help from all over the world and ask famous doctors to come and treat Kangxi.
At this time, two Westerners arrived, both of whom were French missionaries. They presented a Western medicine to Kangxi, saying that this medicine was very useful for Kangxi's illness. However, Kangxi and the entire Qing court had complete distrust of the medicines brought by Westerners, because Western countries were considered by the Qing Dynasty to be barbarian lands at the time, and Kangxi's illness was not common in a place like China, which claimed to be a kingdom of heaven. There is no cure. How can a small country like that cure it?
But after all, it was a dead horse being treated as a living horse doctor. Kangxi also gave the order and found a few patients to take this medicine to try it. When Kangxi saw that these people all recovered after taking these medicines, he was also very happy, and he also took the medicines immediately afterwards. Only three to five days after Kangxi took the medicine, he recovered from his serious illness. It was precisely for this reason that Kangxi not only allowed these two people to preach in Beijing, but even helped them build a cathedral. The medicine these two men gave to Emperor Kangxi at that time was quinine, which is very common today and is used to fight malaria.