康熙御用西洋藥「阿爾格爾墨斯」考

An Examination of the Kangxi Emperor’s Western Remedy Alkermès

根據耶穌會士的記載，康熙皇帝服用西洋醫師所建議名叫Alkermès的紅色藥酒，治癒了心悸之疾，自此對於這種神藥產生濃厚的興趣，要求沿海督撫搜求此漢譯為「阿爾格爾墨斯」的西洋藥品，此外他也派人在全國遍尋其原料樹果，但始終未曾找到。中譯本稱Alkermès為胭脂紅酒，來自胭脂蟲，與記載所述不符，從而引發爭議。本文追溯Alkermès一名來自阿拉伯文，為九世紀的波斯處方，其原料長久一直被誤認為樹子，到了十七世紀末才發現是寄生於莓果的胭脂蟲。本文考察該藥在西洋流行的軌跡，考證當時醫書的記述，藉此說明康熙服用的背景與誤解的原因。

According to the records of the Jesuits, the Western physician Bernard Rhode cured the Kangxi Emperor’s heart palpitations by advising him to take a medicine called Alkermès. From then on, the emperor became very interested in this medicine, and ordered his governors to acquire this medicine translated into Chinese as“Argermusi”. In order to find out whether the trees that are the source of this medicinal raw material grow, a search was carried out across the empire but it eventually proved fruitless. In the modern Chinese translation, Alkermès is translated into cochineal wine made of a medicinal animal, inconsistent with the report. This article traces the history of Alkermès and argues that it had long been for mistaken for a kind of seed; it was not until the end of the seventeenth century it was discovered to be the cochineal insect that parasitizes on the berries. This article explains the reasons why Rhodes first recommended it to Kangxi and the reasons for misunderstanding.