宋代官药局源流再考——兼论理学思潮对其性质嬗变的影响

A Re-Examination of the Public Pharmacy in the Song Period——Also on the Role of Neo-Confucianism in the Development of the Agency

宋代是中国历史上官药局首次出现的时期。关于官药局的起源,此前不少研究认为是王安石推行新法后设立的市易务卖药所,实则当为北宋的太医局熟药库合药所。此机构后来与市易务卖药所合并,几经名称、隶属机构及规模上的变化,一直延续到南宋末,并曾被两宋朝廷扩展至地方。这一系统的官药局在性质上可以称为官营商业机构,以制造、出售药品为原则,以获取利润为目标。而至南宋宁宗在位后期以及理宗在位期间,在朝廷尊崇理学态度的影响之下,一批有理学思想背景的地方官员开始在各地设立新型的官药局,致力于将官药局由官营商业机构转化为慈善机构。这一时期官药局性质的嬗变是理学思想指导下的社会实践的结果,也是官药局自宋代至明代发展历史中的关键环节,具有重要的历史意义。

China’s first state-run pharmacy came into existence in the Northern Song.Existing studies on this agency very often attribute its founding to the reform efforts by the prominent politician Wang Anshi;however,the true origin of the public pharmacy is a department of the Imperial Medical Service responsible for preparing and selling processed drugs.The department absorbed an agency created by Wang Anshi to sell drugs on the market,and thereafter last through the rest of the two Songs.Although having undergone multiple changes of name,as well as expanding or shrinking of scale,the public pharmacy system founded by the court constantly operated as state-run commerce,aiming at gaining profits.Meanwhile,in the late Southern Song,a considerable number of local officials identified as followers of then on-the-rise Neo-Confucianism,with backing up from the court,started establishing public pharmacies of different nature in the localities.These new pharmacies tended to run more as charitable organizations,constituting a key link in the development of the public pharmacy in Chinese history.