航海贸易与“中国根”——菝葜类中草药在欧洲的传播和重定义

Maritime Trade and the“China Root”:How a Group of Smilacaceous Chinese Herbs Entered European Medicine and Acquired Their New Definitions

俗称“中国根”的一类中草药在16世纪介绍到欧洲,市场需求维持约二百年。为了认识这些草药的来源植物、外销原因及在欧洲古典医学中的应用,本文从记载有中国根的4种16世纪欧洲古籍的成书背景和刊行源流出发,介绍了它们在传布药物知识方面的有效作用;结合同时期引入欧洲的其他治疗梅毒的植物药的情况以及当时的疾病流行背景和医学实践,分析了中国根进入和逐渐退出欧洲药材市场的原因;基于欧洲古籍出现的中国根图像、中国本草记载和中国国内中医学、生物学的有关研究成果,讨论了“中国根”来源植物的种属;根据欧洲医生对中国根用法的多处具体描述和同时期中国医籍的记载,对比了16世纪的中西医生对同一疾病和同一类药物认识上的相通点与相异之处,解释此种医治新发疾病的外来新药物是如何在盖仑医学体液论的旧有理论框架中得到定义。结论认为:中国根是菝葜族若干植物和其他一些外观形态及药理作用相似的药用植物的统称;它们因梅毒的流行而进入欧洲药材市场,其间最主要的原因当是该类药物发汗利尿的显著作用,但另一因素也同等重要,即东半球的产地和低廉售价使得它们成为葡萄牙商人的理想选择。它们在欧洲取代了售价昂贵的愈创木,承袭了前者在盖仑医学体系中的使用方式。尽管医学理论迥然不同,中西医生为中国根找到的用途大致相似。中国根进入和退出欧洲药材市场更多是由商业利益而非医学考虑决定的。它在欧洲医生手中得到采用和重新定义的过程,代表了药物及其知识的流通在航海贸易时代出现的全新方式。

A group of Chinese herbs known by the collective name“China root”began to be imported to Europe in the sixteenth century,and remained in demand for the next two hundred years.To answer the questions about what this group was,why it was chosen,and how it was used in Galenic medicine,four 16th-century European books containing relevant records have been examined.The publishing backgrounds of the books and their subsequent editions in a variety of languages are briefly introduced in the first part of the paper in order to achieve an understanding of the active roles they played in disseminating knowledge of new medicines.Based on the information drawn from them,and from recent research in the history of medicine and disease,the paper discusses how and why“China root”first came into,and then eventually disappeared from,European drug markets,linking it to other newly introduced plant drugs for the treatment of syphilis,and situating the process against the backdrop of epidemics and medical practice of that time.Since the botanical origin of“China root”was not clearly indicated in any of the above European books,possible source plants are suggested by contrasting an illustration in one of the books to information obtained from present research in plant taxonomy,Chinese materia medica and traditional Chinese medicine.Remarks on the“China root”by renaissance physicians and recipes in Chinese medical books of the Ming dynasty have been compared from the aspects of therapies for syphilis and the forms of application of the roots to explain how an exotic drug received its new definitions in an existing framework of humoralism,while being used to treat an emerging disease.The paper arrives at the following conclusions:The so-called“China root”is a trade name for the rhizomes of a variety of plants of the Smilacaceae family,as well as some other pharmacologically-and morphologically-related medicinal plants.They were traded to Europe in response to the spread of syphilis.That they became a bulk commodity in the Euro-asian spice trade was due to a number of reasons,a major one being the remarkable sudorific and diuretic effects they possessed.However,no less important was another fact that they were indigenous to the eastern hemisphere where they were inexpensive,making them an ideal choice for Portuguese merchants.Once in Europe,the herbs took over the place of the costly guaiacum,being prepared and administered in similar ways within the framework of Galenic medicine.Although the theoretical bases of their medicinal practices differed substantially,Chinese and western physicians found comparable applications for the herbs.The rise and decline of“China root”in the European drug market had more to do with commercial interests than with medical considerations.Its adoption and redefinition in western medicine exemplify the new circulation routes that medical knowledge and materials took in an era of maritime trade.