漢唐之間的女性醫療照顧者

Women Healers in Late Antiquity and Early Medieval China

漢唐之間，女性為人治病，或以巫祝符咒禱解、或靠物理治療、或賴醫藥。所治療者，除瘡傷、消渴、溪蜮之毒外，最大宗者則屬與產育相關之病變，包括代人求子解決不孕、看產並視產乳之疾等。有些仗口碑活動於民間，有些則以醫技邀寵於皇室。就其醫療技術而言，女武或賴神啟，看產倚靠經驗，用藥知識之來源雖較隱晦不顯，但生活經驗之累積與家學背景應為重要管道。其中貧困婦女或以助產為生，煢獨孤女或賴行醫致富，民間生女占卜未來，亦稱「為醫」、「為賈」，醫療照顧對平民百姓或窮困之人而言，或不失為一專業營生之道。然而，女性從事醫療照顧未嘗不受限制。除了宗教女性如尼、冠、女巫之醫療活動曾遭禁絕之外，唐代官方醫學的考核過程中，亦因以明堂經脈為醫學知識之正統、以本草針藥為療病主流，而將習於手治的女性醫療者排除在外。

Women applied various methods to remedy different disorders in late antiquity and early imperial China. Some healed the ill by shamanistic prayers and charms, some helped their patients with physical therapies such as massage and exercise, and others cured the sick with herbal medicine. They treated ulcers, wounds, diabetes, and reptile poison. But most often they relieved their fellow sisters from various ailments concerning reproduction, including infertility, pregnancy problems, childbirth complications, and postpartum maladies. These women either acquired fame and respect within their neighboring communities or got access to higher society within the aristocracy for their techniques and knowledge. 　Women obtained healing abilities through various means. Female shamans were endowed with healing capacity by supernatural power while midwives and many childbirth-related women healers may have come to master their skills through life experiences. Although the process whereby women learned materia medica and other medical techniques, such as acupuncture and moxibustian, was less clear than for their other healing abilities, extant documents suggest that women acquired these techniques and knowledge, which later became orthodox definition for Chinese medicine, either through family heritage or by exchanging life experiences with other women. 　Nevertheless, women encountered obstacles in their practice as healers. First, while composing their medical texts, male doctors of the sixth and seventh centuries, though seldom present at childbirth scenes, except for complications, accused women midwives of disturbing the natural process of delivery. Second, although shamanistic healings never disappeared and were sometimes applied by medieval Taoist medical doctors in treating their patients, it was however gradually removed from orthodox medical practice during its formation in the seventh century. Granted that witch-hunts and comparable tragedies of medieval Europe never occurred in medieval China, womens healing opportunities still dwindled somewhat when female shamans were either distrusted or executed. Third, extant documents suggest that both Taoist and Buddhist nuns practiced healing before the seventh century. But, both were outlawed by the Tang government during the establishment of official medical examinations. Meanwhile, in shaping up the orthodox medical practices, official regulations embraced the learning of medical texts of materia medica, acupuncture and moxibustian, and excluded physical therapies such as massage and exercise, two crafts practiced most often by women healers.