玉在中國醫學的角色初探

Primary Research on the Role of Jade in Traditional Chinese Medicine

中國人是一個愛玉的民族，幾千年以來都是如此。玉的功用除了大家所熟知的祭祀、盟誓、餽贈、佩飾之外，甚少人提及玉在醫療上的功用。其實，因為中國人認為玉具有一種神秘的力量，是巫醫用來禳除疾病時所用及與神祇或與祖靈溝通的工具。而且，玉是修煉飛昇或追求長生不老時，必須服食的靈藥。晉‧葛洪在《抱朴子》一書中就曾說：「服金者壽如金，服玉者壽如玉。」，除此之外，在實際的臨床上，玉也曾扮演重要的角色。在《神農本草經》，《本草綱目》中，均將其列為「上藥」，在《備急千金要方》、《千金翼方》及《本草綱目》中，並有多則用玉的方劑。在筆記小說中，亦提及以玉做為口含劑，以清肺熱；或做為外用擦劑以消除瘢痕。雖然，現在醫界已罕見以玉入藥者。但本文仍試從「文化」的觀點，來探討「玉」與「醫」之間的關係。

Chinese has been a jade-loving people for thousands of years. The uses of jade in ornamenting, gift-giving, sacrificial offerings, and oath-takings are commonly known to people. However, its uses in medicine are seldom mentioned. In tradition, Chinese people believe jade possesses magic power, and it was used by shamans as a vehicle to communicate with gods or ancestral spirits in an attempt to expel diseases. Besides, jade was a panacea people have to take in Taoist practices to seek for immortality or ascension to Heaven. Ge Hong of Jin Dynasty in his well-known Taoist book Bao Po Tzu wrote: “The lives of those who take gold will be as long as that of gold; the lives of those who take jade will be as long as that of jade”. In addition, in clinical practices jade played an important role as well. In the Shen Nung Pen T'sao (the Divine Husbandman's Materia Medicas) and the Pen T'sao Gang Mu (the Outline of Materia Medicas), jade is listed in the superior category; jade is also used in herbal formulas listed in the Bei J Qian Jin Yao Fang (the Thousand Gold Essential Emergency Formulas), the Quin Jin Yi Fang (the Thousand Gold Wing Formulas), and the Pen T'sao Gang Mu (the Outline of Materia Medicas). In the Notebook Fiction writings, jade is often put in patients' mouths as troche in order to clear Lung Heat or applied externally to eliminate scars or marks. In spite of the fact that nowadays jade is rarely used in medicinal formulas, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between jade and medicine from the perspective of cultural analysis.