The Updating of the Explaining of Infectious Diseases and the Disenchantment of the World in Late Qing Dynasty

Infectious diseases were often ascribed to ghosts and gods, or caused by the disorder of Yin-Yang in ancient China. Therefore the body view were closely related to personal ghosts and gods or impersonal cosmic order. Because ghosts, gods and cosmic order could be divided into good ones and evil ones, the traditional body view had a certain degree of moral attributes, thus the methods of dealing with infectious diseases often contained moral self-cultivation. However, the scientific knowledge on hygiene and bacteriology imported in the late Qing Dynasty believed that bacteria leads to infectious diseases. The new explanation having more stable repeatability and stronger persuasiveness, thus triumphed over the traditional theories on infectious diseases and Chinese intellectuals’ understanding of infectious diseases and their body view were updated. The new explanation of infectious diseases is a purely secular cause-and-effect relationship, and personal ghosts and gods or impersonal cosmic order are no longer necessary. The new body view no longer presupposes the existence of divine beings, nor does it have moral attributes. This disconnection of secular world from divine beings in the field of the body view reflects the disenchantment of the world, and reflects the crisis of the tradition of Chinese thought and belief caused by the challenge of modernity.