北宋「老人」的食療與養生內涵――以《奉親養老書》為核心的文獻分析

Literature Review Based on Health Care for the Elderly

老年化、高齡化社會似乎已成為全球性的趨勢，目前台灣正面臨高齡化的危機，作為一位歷史工作者，必須對社會現狀有所反思，並尋求古人智慧，一方面增進我們對老人的理解，一方面也思考可能的應對之法。本文以北宋陳直所著的《奉親養老書》（1058）為主，探討該書出現的時代背景與具體內容，分析上著重文獻內的歷史脈絡，用中醫與食療歷史的觀點，來梳理當時老年人的養生與身體觀。可以發現，書內直接把食物視為日常治療之藥物，並且重用動物藥，提升食物的補養功能。該書為當時的通俗醫著，可看出主要讀者應非專業醫者，而強調的多是一般居家照護者的角色，顯示出醫療知識的日常與普及面向，還可看出該書對後世著作的影響，已從經典醫書中淬煉出日常合用的飲食療法，是近世專業醫書通俗化歷程中的一本代表著作。

Aging society seems to be the global trend. At present, Taiwan is encountering the crisis of aging. The researcher, as a historical worker, has reflected on current social situation and reviewed the ancestors’ wisdom to approach the elderly and develop the possible strategies. Based on Health Care for the Elderly (1058) written by Chen Chih in North Song Dynasty, this paper explores the time and specific content of the book and analyzes the historical context of the literature. From the perspectives of history of Chinese medicine and diet therapy, it generalizes the views of health care and body of the elderly at the time. The book shows that food was treated as the daily medicine and it emphasizes the medicine of animals to reinforce the therapy effect of food. The book was a general medical publication at the time and most of the readers were not medical experts. The book focuses on domestic care givers and it reveals the prevalence of medical knowledge. It influences the publications of the following generations with daily diet therapy extracted from classic medical book. It is an example of the popularization of modern professional medical books.