医生、手术师与"杰出的药剂师":罗德贤生平研究--破译清初一位耶稣会士的行医旅程

A biographical study of Bernard Rhodes S.J.(1646—1715),physician,surgeon and insignis pharmacopeus:deciphering medical itineraries in Qing China

罗德贤(1646-1715)身为耶稣会中的辅理修士(coadjutor temporalis)以及在华传教士的人生旅途,非凡而复杂。他在加入耶稣会并被委以各种任务之前已是医生。在到达中国前的9年间,他在欧洲与亚洲间的旅游线路基本上受欧洲各国间的对抗所左右。1699年他最终到达北京并服务于康熙帝,隶属于内务府,这决定了此后他在中国的人生轨迹。跟踪罗德贤在京以及扈从皇帝出巡间的活动,是展现这位耶稣会医疗实践者"流动性"的独特切入点。他服务满人政权,为帝国核心网络中的特权病人提供过不为中国宫廷太医和医学传统所知的治疗方案。在康熙朝宫廷多元医学以及满族统治者出于意识形态目的将医学视为统治工具的背景下,罗德贤不但要与太医院专家而且要和蒙古的医师、喇嘛治疗师相竞争。他在清帝国的职业生涯表明,这些曾在欧洲受训的医生在北京现身,不足以有效地传播他们所掌握的专业知识。通过西方语言材料加之汉文材料尤其是满文材料所呈现出的医疗问题,为更加深入地理解康熙朝的宫廷生活以及医学对于巩固统治的作用,提供了很好的案例。研究罗德贤这位侍奉皇帝的边缘人物的生平以及对于他行程的追踪,是对于强调非汉文材料的"新清史"的有益补充。

The itinerary of Bernard Rhodes S.J.(1646—1715),temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus and missionary in China,is of remarkable complexity.He was already a doctor before he was recruited by the Jesuit order and sent on various missions.During the nine years before his arrival in China,his route between Europe and Asia was largely determined by rivalries between European powers.When he eventually arrived in Beijing in 1699 and entered the service of the Kangxi Emperor,he became attached to the Imperial House,and this seems to have decisively determined the course of his itineraries in the Middle Kingdom henceforth.Following his movements in the capital and in the emperor’s cortege during imperial tours gives us unique insights into the mobility of this Jesuit medical practitioner.In the service of the Manchu rule,he provided therapies-unknown to Chinese palace physicians and their medical traditions-to privileged patients belonging to the core imperial networks.In the medical pluralistic setting as it existed at the court and was instrumentalized by the Manchu ruler for ideological purposes,Rhodes was in competition not only with experts of the Imperial Academy of Medicine,but also with Mongolian doctor and Lama therapists.His career in the Qing empire illustrates that the presence in Beijing of doctors trained in Europe was not enough to ensure the transmission of the specific knowledge they held.Medical matters reveal to be an important case study in which Western language sources,combined with those in Chinese and especially in Manchu,provide us with a deeper understanding of courtly live and the function of medicine in consolidating Manchu rule during the Kangxi reign.Thus,the study of the biography of Rhodes,one of the marginal actors in the emperor’s service,and the tracing of his itineraries is a complementary contribution to New Qing History,with its emphasis on exploring non-Chinese voices.