武威漢代醫簡簡73「老瘦者」釋義──兼論「叜」「叟」二字字形演變問題

An interpretation of the phrase“Lao shou zhe”(老瘦者, the old and thin ones) on the Wuwei Medical Bamboo Slips in the Eastern Han Dynasty and a study on the evolution of the glyphs of ''叜'' and ''叟''

東漢武威漢代醫簡自1972年在甘肅省武威縣出土以來，研究者甚夥。其中簡73有一字釋作「瘦」，却從無異議。筆者考察醫學文獻，疏通文義後，亦同意此釋。但過去的研究，對於「老瘦」一詞尚欠分析，而「以人事感之」一句的意義，亦有待闡述。此外拙見認為該「瘦」字寫法特殊，尤其内部似「更」而非「叟」，值得研究。本文考察甲骨文、秦文字、楚文字之「叟」字，提出漢代通用「叟」字形有三種，一種來自秦文字「叜」，繼承象形的甲骨文字形；一種來自楚文字「叟」，是假借「受」字造出；而武威醫簡「瘦」之聲符「叟」寫似「更」狀者，可能是受到秦、楚兩方面影響的第三種。至此可以釐清「叟」在隷變以前字形的流變，也對傳世文獻「叟」、「更」混淆的現象加以解釋。

Since the Wuwei Medical Bamboo Slips in the Eastern Han Dynasty was unearthed in Wuwei County, Gansu Province in 1972, numerous researchers are involved.
Slip #73 has the following:“Lao shou zhe yi ren shi gan zhi ci yao yi zhong zhi du yang”(老瘦者以人事感之此藥亦中治毒養). The word which we commonly interpret as“Shou”(瘦, thin) was written as“”in the original text, which is an unusual handwriting. It is thus worthy that we investigate deeper into the identification of this word. From past literature and research, conclusion has been made on 4 possibilities:“Geng”(㾘),“Geng”(㾘),“Shou”(瘦) and“Sou”(廋).
After examining the medical literature and understand the meaning of the sentence, the author agreed to the former interpretation of“Sou”(廋), but the word“Sou”(廋), was written in a special way.
Despite confirming“Shou”(瘦) as the word used in the sentence, there is no evidence of the appearance of the phrase“Lao shou zhe”(老瘦者, the old and thin ones) in other literature. A closer example will be a quote in“Yang Yi Da Quen”(瘍醫大全, A Collection of Treatment to Ucler) by Eastern Han-Dynasty medical expert Zhang Zhong-jing (張仲景). The quote specifically names a certain“Lao ruo zhe”(老弱者, the old and weak ones).“Yinyi”(音義, A Dictionary on Pronounciation and Meaning) by Tang-Dynasty Monk Huilin points out that“Shou”(瘦) and“Ruo”(弱) carry similar meanings and thus are interchangeable. Hence“Lao shou zhe”should be equal to“Lao ruo zhe”.“Lao ruo zhe”does not necessarily point towards a certain patient-type, but it seems to be refered as symptoms and conditions of such.
This article also examines the ''叟'' characters of Oracle, Qin and Chu characters, and proposes that there are three types of ''叟'' in the Han Dynasty. One type comes from the Qin script ''叜'', which inherits the shape of the oracle bone form; one comes from the Chu manuscript ''叟'', which is probably a borrow word of ''受'', in Wuwei Medical Bamboo Slips is written as ''更'', which may be the third one affected by Qin and Chu. At this point, it is possible to clarify the evolution of the glyphs of ''叟'' before the change of ''叟'', and also explain the phenomenon of ''叟'' and ''更'' confusion in the handed down literature.