秋石并非壮阳药——基于秋石药效及使用的医学、社会文化史考察

Qiushi and Aphrodisiac: Medical, Social and Cultural Historyof the Function and Practice of Qiush

以人尿炼制的秋石被认为是壮阳药。文章从性味归经、使用秋石的方剂和医案出发考证了秋石的功用,从社会文化史的进路析究了秋石的使用状况。研究发现,认为秋石是壮阳药是一种误读。秋石入药治疗的疾病种类很广泛,其主治功用随炼制方法、作为解释者的医家、历史时期的不同而变化。明代中期虽掀起使用秋石的热潮,但宫廷和民间使用秋石都不是为了壮阳。明代中期,医者特殊的社会地位、秋石与政治和社会之间的密切互动造成现代人的理解误区;现代人从民族主义情感出发,易于接受秋石含性激素的观点,从而强化了对秋石是壮阳药的误解,这是秋石被污名化为壮阳药的社会文化成因。

Qiushi(urine deposit preparation/prepared salt), a medicine prepared from urine, was considered a mixture of sex hormones and used as an aphrodisiac in traditional China. Through literature review, this paper makes a systematic research for the function and practice of Qiushi from the perspective of the traditional Chinese medicine, society and culture. Then, it argues that instead of being an aphrodisiac, Qiushi was used to treat cough, asthma and other diseases or symptoms. View of the function and effect of Qiushi changes with its preparation methods and the medical interpretation theories of it in different periods. In the middle of the Ming dynasty, Qiushi was used widely, but not as an aphrodisiac by the emperors and the common people. Moreover, the viewpoint that Qiushi contains sex hormones and the culture in the Ming dynasty has intensifi ed the misunderstanding about it.