通貫天學、醫學與儒學:王宏翰與明清之際中西醫學的交會

祝平一

  本文之目的有二:一、以王宏翰為例,分析一般親教士人如何理解天主教。入清以後,奉教士人甚少有像徐光啟一類的大官。因此,一般士人成為在特定區域支持天主教的主力,但目前我們對這些士人理解甚少,希望本文有補闕之效。二、探討王宏翰如何以醫者的身分,融匯天主教士所傳入的西方醫學知識,以理解知識在不同的文化系統中傳播時所可能發生的問題。

  本文認為王宏翰所理解的西方醫學知識,主要來自傳教士討論性學之書籍,其主旨多在討論人如何透過身體各部份的功能認識外在世界,進而認主。王氏便將這些知識嫁接到儒學中「格物」的概念,進而將自己刻畫成儒醫的身分,以這些域外的醫學知識,為他在競爭激烈的江南地區,提高自己的地位。由於在王氏所知的西方醫學知識中,只談身體之功能,未談如何療治。因此,在治療方面王氏仍須回到傳統的中國醫學。總之,王宏翰從他的生活世界中,獲取了儒、醫與天學的各種概念,形成他別具特色的醫學觀點;而王氏所擁有的知識又成為他在醫療市場上區隔與批評其他競爭者的手段,也同時合法化了他為儒、業醫與天學信仰者的三重身分。

關鍵詞:王宏翰 醫學原始 耶穌會士 醫學史 解剖學

 

Medicine East and West: Wang Honghans Synthesis of Medicine, Christianity and Confucianism

Pingyi Chu

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica

    The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the one hand, I use Wang Honghan as an example to examine how local Christianized literati, who were the main supporting force to the Western missionaries in local society after the Ming, appropriated Western learning and Christianity. On the other hand, I discuss what happened when Western medical knowledge trespassed its cultural boundaries in seventeenth-century China.

    I argue that Wang Honghan gained access to Western anatomical knowledge mainly through proselytizing materials which describe how the human body can function as an interface between this-worldly factual knowledge and the other-worldly truth of God. Although this kind of writing presents the body according to Galens theory, it does not discuss how to cure disease. For healing, Wang had to turn to the Chinese medical tradition. Nevertheless, Wang transplanted Western anatomical knowledge to the Confucian concept of gewu and thus shaped his identity as a christianized Confucian literatus as well as a Chinese medical practitioner. This identity enhanced his reputation as a Confucian physician (ruyi) in the highly competitive medical market of the Jiannan area.

Keywords: Wang Honghan, Christianity, Jesuits, the history of medicine, anatomy