本文分析當歸在二十世紀上半中國製藥救國論中的位置，以期刊論著和報章廣告為主，政府檔案和藥廠出版為輔進行考察，一窺傳統通用本草在現代中國經歷陌生化和再認識的過程。 當歸調血，自古即為止痛良藥，在宋代確立其婦科地位，至明代更被視為「女人要藥」。但其用處甚廣，醫方常見，乃至有「十方九歸」之稱。唯十九世紀末，德國學者引介當歸，促成默克藥廠產製專利通經藥，販售全球並回銷中國。西潮來襲，中國既面臨知識危機，亦催化國藥改良。有志之士起而迎戰，或建立藥廠、研發製劑，並頻繁運用廣告宣傳。也有醫生檢討傳統炮製之法、專家嘗試辨識當歸原植物種類和功效來源，甚至在中日戰爭的艱困環境下進行臨床試驗。 在此期間，當歸的論述從傳統本草的性味炮製一變而為生物分類與有效成分；當歸的功能則從「十方九歸」的廣效形象聚焦於調經助孕。雖然，學者對分類和成分的討論莫衷一是，但製劑和煎湯並用的百人月病試驗再度確認了古人對當歸調血的識見之明。同時，在父系家族文化和救國人口需求的交互作用下，藥廠頻發的廣告插圖，忽略當歸的多功能傳統，強調其溫宮催孕之功、逐漸將之形塑成健美廣嗣的幸福人生解方。

This article investigates the role of Danggui (Angelica sinensis) within discourses of pharmaceutical modernization and national salvation in early twentieth-century China. Drawing on journal articles and newspaper advertisements, supplemented by government archives and pharmaceutical publications, it explores how this widely used materia medica underwent a process of estrangement and re-recognition in modern China. Esteemed for its blood-regulating properties, Danggui had been valued as an effective pain reliever since antiquity. It assumed important status in women’s medicine with the establishment of Chinese gynecology between the fifth and the thirteenth centuries, and was further extolled as an “essential medicine for women” in the sixteenth century. Despite this specific association, the herb continued to be regarded as highly versatile, encapsulated in the popular saying “nine out of ten formulas contain Danggui”. In the late nineteenth century, however, Danggui was introduced to Europe, prompting Merck pharmaceutical company to manufacture Eumenol, a patented emmenagogue that was marketed globally and eventually re-imported into China. Confronted with Western medical encroachment, Chinese practitioners experienced both a crisis of knowledge and a stimulus for reform. Nationalist entrepreneurs established pharmaceutical factories, developed new formulations, and promoted them through extensive advertising. Physicians critiqued traditional methods of preparation, experts sought to identify botanical species and isolate active components, and even amid the hardships of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a clinical trial was undertaken. During the 1920s and 1940s, discourse on Danggui shifted from traditional categories of flavor and preparation toward biological taxonomy and chemical composition; its therapeutic image narrowed from a broad-spectrum remedy to a drug focused on regulating menstruation and promoting fertility. Although debates over botanical classification and pharmacological constituents remained unresolved, combined trials of new-style extracts and traditional decoctions, involving more than one hundred patients with amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea, reaffirmed ancient understandings of its efficacy. At the same time, under the joint pressures of patriarchal family needs for offspring and nationalist demands for population growth, pharmaceutical advertisements—with their striking imagery—dropped Danggui’s multi-functional image and progressively presented the root as a modern solution for uterine warming, fertility enhancement, and the promise of familial prosperity.

當歸；女人要藥；新式製劑；性別與醫療；二十世紀上半中國

Danggui; Angelica sinensis; extract and formulation; gender and medicine; early twentieth century China