論中藥作為保健食品：以四物湯的生命史為例探討藥品與食品範疇的革命

From Chinese Herbs to Functional Food: a Study of the Category Revolution of Food and Drug by a Biography of Four-agent Soup

本文透過馬克思以及阿帕杜萊（Arjun Appadurai）的觀點，討論四物湯轉型為四物飲的生命史。四物湯的轉型，突顯「物的歷史性」，揭露物乃是社會關係的歷史綜合產物，指出物品的表現形式與實質存在具有差異。藥品、食品以及健康食品作為既有分類，忽略了民間藥食如一的態度與實作。「保健食品」範疇的出現，對既有分類造成革命。國家既鼓勵又限制的產業政策，廠商既守法又游走法律邊緣的創新、消費者嚐試與體驗的行動，與物質元素自身的屬性，共同譜寫出四物的生命史，促成中藥作為保健食品現身。中藥作為保健食品出現，不僅揭露了食品、藥品與健康食品三分法的僵硬與片面性，也反映了台灣社會所具有的混融多變特性。

This article discusses the biography of four agent soup(Si Wu Tang) transferring into four agent functional foods from the perspectives of Marx and Appadurai. This paper emphasizes the importance of ’the historicity of objects’ in the transformation of four agent soup. The analysis assumes that objects are the synthesis of social relations in history and emphasizes the distinction between the representative form and the substance of an object. The emerging category of ’Functional Food’ is revolutionary to the existing classification of food, drug, and healthy food, which ignores lay people’s attitude and practices of ’food as medicine’. The interaction between the government authorities, corporations, consumers, and the materiality of objects delineates the historicity of these objects and transforms the Chinese herbs into functional food. The transformation of Chinese herbs into functional food discloses the rigidity and unsoundness of the authoritative classification of food, drug and healthy food, and it highlights the flexibility and hybridity in Taiwan.