“中医”名实源流考略

On the origin and development of the nomenclature and substance of 'Zhongyi'

当今的"中医"历史悠久,一般认为"中医"一词是西医传入后出现的、专门用于指称我国原有的医学或医生。爬梳古今相关文献,发现"中医"一词存在古今词义演变,且有一词多义、一义多词等现象。"中医"一词最早见于《汉书·艺文志》,指中等水平的医生,而后世主要有动宾词组、名词两种用法。作为动宾词组的"中医",意为切中医理。而作为名词的"中医",古今皆有两种含义,古义指中等水平的医生或医术,并引申为普通医生或医术;今义指中国原有医学或从事中国原有医学的人,既知最早见于1857年《西医略论》。中医学曾有"岐黄""华医""旧医""国医""汉医"等异名,其中"国医"一词于1923年由章太炎最早提出。中医生古今曾用名颇多,如郎中、大夫、先生、明医、名医、儒医等。对"中医"名实源流进行认真梳理,可为中医、中医药名词规范提供坚实的学术支撑。

There is a long history for current traditional Chinese medicine. It is generally believed that the term of traditional Chinese medicine came into being after the introduction of western medicine. TCM is used exclusively to refer to the original medicine or medical practitioner in our country. Through the ancient and modern literature, we have found that there are phenomena of word meaning evolution, polysemy, words with synonyms for the word ‘Zhongyi'. ‘Zhongyi' first appeared in Hanshu Yiwenzhi. It refers to doctors with medium medical abilities. There are two kinds of usages-verb object phrases and nouns. When used as verb-object phrase, ‘Zhongyi' means according with the principles of Chinese medicine. As a noun, ‘Zhongyi' contains two kinds of meanings in ancientand modern.Ancient meaning refers to the middle level of doctors or medical techniques and extends to ordinary doctors or medical techniques. Modern meaningto the original Chinese medicine or people engaging in original Chinese medicine. TCM was earliest recorded in the 1857 Brief Introduction of Western Medicine. There are variant names of TCM, such as Qihuang, Hua medicine, Old medicine, Guoyi, Han medicine, etc. And Guoyi was first proposed by ZHANG Tai-yan in 1923. Chinese medical doctors have many names used before, such as Langzhong, Daifu, Xiansheng, excellent doctor, famous doctor, confucian physician, etc. Carefully combing on the origin and development of the nomenclature and substance of Zhongyi can provide a solid academic support for the standardization of TCM and TCM terminology.