從漢字內涵探討小兒驚病

Research on Infantile Convulsion from the Perspective of the Connotation of Chinese Character

《說文解字》之成書，主要以文字兼聲韻訓詁，嚴謹訓釋字的原本之意。其內容廣泛，知識龐備也體現了古時社會的文化與生活樣貌，其中多有涉及中醫藥內容，對於疾病名、證候、診斷等有精闢的解釋，此亦反映了東漢時期傳統醫藥學的發展成就。小兒之病，古人謂之「啞科」，以其言語不能通，不能自述病情，其情不易推測，因此最為難醫。而漢字中有關疾病的文字，代表著什麼意義？這些字，其形體不同時期的演變為何？字形與字義的關聯性？相關疾病中的漢字，其本字本義為何？從漢字結構、形體與本義，與文獻記載的疾病內容為何？
本文擬以從漢字的形體結構，探討小兒疾病中，有關受驚、客忤的症狀與病因來源，並察考相關文獻，以窺其病之理。
首先探析疾病的程度，漢字「疒」、「疾」、「病」、「癘」、「㽺」、「㿄」、「痼」、「癈」等字，表現出病痛時的樣貌，如流汗、倚床，或者病的部位，以及病程的輕、重、急、危、新、久之差異。其次，小兒病之「瘨癇」有風癇、食癇與驚癇，其中驚癇症是最嚴重的。「癇」亦稱「驚風」，依脈症分為陽癇（急驚風）與陰癇（慢驚風），即實症與虛症，瘛即指陰癇。「瘈瘲」是指小兒病驚後，手足發生抽動、拘攣，不能自主的動作。再者，「女魃」原為天女形象，後代文獻記載，逐漸作為鬼婦、小兒鬼之義。「魅」為老物精，「鬾」為小兒鬼，皆為迷惑小兒的鬼物。
字體歷經不同朝代，多有更變，或有訛誤，或有假借，惟有訓釋尋其字源，始確認本字之義。小兒致病皆有原因，從文獻記載的疾病內容，溯源漢字的本字本義，以清晰本字與疾病所表現的內容意涵。

The formation of Shuo Wen Jie Zi 說文解字 primarily uses character and sound to explain words in ancient books, which is a rigorous way in the explanation of the original meaning of the character. The content of the book is comprehensive. The enormous knowledge reserves also reflect the culture and life styles in ancient times. This book covers many contents of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Its explanations of name of disease, syndrome, and diagnosis are quite brilliant and accurate, which also reflects the development and achievements of traditional medicine in Eastern Han Dynasty. Children’s disease is called numb category by the ancients because children cannot speak well and have difficulties in self-stating their state of illness so that it is the most difficult to practice medicine. Among Chinese characters, what do those characters related with diseases stand for? What do their character patterns look like in different evolution periods? What is the relation between the character pattern and its meaning? What is the original meaning of the character related with diseases? What are the contents of the disease that can be told from the structure, pattern and original meaning of the character, and that are recorded in historical documents?
From the pattern and structure of Chinese characters, this study aims at exploring the symptoms and causes of children’s diseases that are related with convulsion and fright seizure, and referring to relevant literatures to find out the pathology.
First of all, this study explores and analyzes the severity of disease. The Chinese characters like “ chwang”(疒), “ji”(疾), “bing” (病), “li” (癘), “ji” (㽺), “yi” (㿄), “gu”(痼), “fey” (癈)and other characters manifest the appearance of illness. For example, the character may display sweating, leaning bed, disease’s location, and the different courses of disease -- light, heavy, acute, dangerous, new, and chronic. “Dian-xian” (瘨癇) can be classified into fong-xian (風癇), shi-xian (食癇), and jing-xian(驚癇), among which jing-xian(驚 癇)is the most serious. “Jing-xian”(驚癇) is also called jing-fong(驚風)which is divided into yang-xian(陽癇) (acute infantile convulsion) and yin-xian(陰 癇) (chronic infantile convulsion) according to pulse manifestation. They are sthenia syndrome and deficency syndrome. “Chi”(瘛)refers to yin-xian.(陰癇) “Chi-zong”(瘈瘲)means that when a child suffers from the infantile convulsion, the child may act twitching, muscular spasm, and other uncontrollable acts. “ba” (魃)originally refers to a goddess. However, according to the subsequent literature, “ba” is gradually used as the meaning of ghost woman and children ghost. “Mei” (魅) refers to the old spirit and “ji” (鬾) refers to children ghost. Both of them are ghosts puzzling and tempting children.
The font of Chinese character has experienced different dynasties and changed a lot. There are errors and phonetic loan characters. Only making explanations from its origin can the character’s meaning be identified. There is a reason for a child’s disease.
If we can trace the original meaning of the character in accordance with the disease contents recorded in literature, the character and contents and connotation of the disease will be clearly identified.