“商胡辄自夸”:中古胡商的药材贸易与作伪

Foreign Merchants' Trade in Herbal Medicines and Fake Medicaments in Medieval China

唐宋时期,通过丝绸之路的胡商贸易比较繁荣,药材是其中主要商品之一。胡人识宝的故事,多正面展示胡商的职业道德与人格魅力,而其负面事迹往往被忽略。出于求取高额利润的需要,胡商或夸大其辞,或以次充好,或真中杂伪,在药物的性能、形状、颜色、质地等方面大做手脚。针对胡药假伪的现象,中土的医药学家和文人提出多种辨伪方法。这些方法不仅在当时的日常生活中使用,而且对中药学的发展起到一定的推进作用。

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, trade with foreigners prospered along the Silk Road. Medicinal herbs were one of the major commodities traded. Foreigners' discernment in this respect was legendary. Stories about them generally showed their professional ethics and personal charm in a good light while overlooking their defects. Driven by the quest for high profits, some foreign merchants made overblown claims for their products, substituted inferior goods, and mixed fake products with real ones, cheating their buyers in terms of the medicaments' function, appearance, color and texture. In the Tang and Song dynasties, some Chinese pharmacologists and literati proposed various means of telling fake medicines from the real thing. Such methods were not only effective in everyday life but also facilitated the evolution of the pharmacology of Chinese herbal medicine.