疾病的隐喻:清前期天主教传播中的医疗文化

The Metaphor of Illness:Medical Culture in the Dissemination of Catholicism in the Early Qing Dynasty

清代前期伴随天主教逐渐深入民间传播,其在民间医事活动中所扮演的角色也愈加重要。传教士不仅通过施药治病以换取社会好感,直接吸引民众入教,而且通过围绕疾病所建构出的一系列社会想像,在民间社会中与佛教、道教及民间信仰为争夺宗教传播空间而展开激烈竞争。在传教过程中,天主教的圣水、十字架、念珠等物品及各项圣事仪式的驱魔治病功效,曾经被传教士与教徒有意识地加以放大。清前期天主教医疗故事中所呈现的与佛教、道教及民间信仰之间的仪式对话,是天主教医疗文化的重要组成部分。

During the early Qing dynasty,with the gradual spread of Catholicism among local society,the role of Catholic Church in treating peoples' disease was increasingly important.The missionaries not only tried to gain favorable impression thus converting them directly through the distribution of medicines and the conduct of other medical practice,but were also involved in the competition with Buddhism,Taoism and folk beliefs for the space of the diffusion of religion by way of the construction of a series of social imagination concerning the illness.The efficacy of exorcism of Holy water,Cross,Rosary and other things for Catholic worship,and the sacramental ritual had been exaggerated by missionaries and Chinese Christians when they introduced the Christian faith to grassroots communities.The ritual dialogue between Catholicism and Buddhism,Taoism,folk beliefs seen from the Catholic medical stories in the early Qing dynasty was an important part of the Catholic medical culture.