From Human Being to Drug: Discourses on the Human Body and the Making of Human Drugs in the “Man Division” of Bencao Gangmu (1596)

Abstract

中國有使用「人藥」的長遠歷史，不少本草書對其主治、性味、炮製與應用均有詳述。明代本草書的「人部」乃歷代人藥知識的集大成之作，其中尤以《本草綱目》為代表，收錄的人藥涵蓋髮鬚、陰毛、爪甲、牙齒、口津唾、眼淚、人汗、人血、乳汁、人精、月水、屎尿、人骨、人肉、人膽、天靈蓋等。本文以此為考察起點，試圖追問：把人體局部入「藥」的基本思維是什麼？人體「可吃」與「不可吃」的界線何在？為何有些人藥需要特定程序來製作？當人體變成「藥」，其所展現的「物性」與「療效」為何？在明代曾引發哪些倫理爭議與道德疑慮？而人藥所型塑的人體認識論與宇宙觀又是什麼？本文擬探究的，不僅是「人部（藥）」本身在中國本草傳統中的定位，更在於從物質文化的角度，檢視其所彰顯的人與物、物與物之關係；除了本草中的人體論述，本文同時關注帶有方術寓意的人藥之應用與實踐。釐清上述議題，將有助於揭示明代較為人忽略的「食人主義」（cannibalism）面向，同時反思人類學關於「污穢」（dirt）、「污染」（pollution）的概念用於歷史研究之適切性。

For a long time, Chinese had applied human body parts for medical treatment and ritual healing. Numerous evidences in relation to their collection, production, efficacy and application were widely recorded in works of materia medica. In the late sixteenth century, Bencao gangmu (1596), the largest-ever volume of Chinese pharmacology, illustrated thirty-five ＂human drugs,＂ ranging from human hair, beard, pubes, nails, teeth, saliva, tear, sweat, blood, milk, semen, menstrual blood, urine, stool, bone, flesh, gallbladder to skull. This article will answer the questions as follows: What are the rationales for using human body parts as drugs? How do they draw the boundaries between the ＂edible＂ and ＂inedible＂ body parts? Why do certain kinds of human body parts require specific procedure before they are used as drugs? What are the ＂materiality＂ and ＂efficacy＂ of the ＂human drugs＂? What kinds of ethical issues and moral concern did they cause, particularly in Ming China? Last but not least, what are the epistemology and cosmology of human body as revealed in the discourses on the human drugs? In the approach of material culture, what I attempt to do is not only to find out how ＂human drugs＂ were characterized in Chinese materia medica, but also to depict the relationship between human beings and things, as well as the relationship between one thing and another. In addition to discourses on human body, this article also focuses on the application of human drugs in both Daoist and shamanistic ritual healings. It will also help us to rethink the neglected aspects of cannibalism in Ming China, as well as to evaluate the applicability of using anthropological concepts of dirt and pollution on historical studies.