傳統的中醫理論以「心」為神明之主，掌管思維、記憶與情感，此一觀點在近現代受到西方解剖學的巨大挑戰，「心主神明」或「腦主神明」從此便成為中醫學界爭訟不已的重要問題。醫學典籍的知識脈絡自然能夠最直接反映人們對於「腦」的理解，卻未必能呈現「腦」之概念的完整面貌，因此，本文將「腦」的語義發展分為三個階段，希望能透過各階段文獻中「腦」的語義脈絡及其構詞情形，間接探知時人對「腦」的認識，再與同時期中醫學、宗教與方術中對「腦」的直接陳述比較，試圖呈現較為完整而具體的演變情形。透過梳理「腦」的語義脈絡，我們意圖說明這一場「腦」與「心」之爭，不但是語詞之爭，也是科學實證的手術刀與相互繫聯的意義網絡的衝突，更是西方現代化知識體系與中國傳統文化思維之間的拉扯與對抗

Traditional Chinese medicine theory takes ＂Heart＂ as the lord of Spirits, which rules over thought, memory and emotion. This point of view had been challenged by the modern anatomy. From then on, it is Heart or Brain takes control of the Spirits has been an important issue in traditional Chinese medicine. The thread of thought in the medical statement may be a direct way to present how did people understand the idea of ＂Brain＂, but it could not show the whole prospect of it. For this reason, we divide the development of the meaning of ＂Brain＂ into three stages. We want to present how people understood the concept of ＂Brain＂ indirectly with its development of meaning and words building in each stage. After that, we will compare it to the statement in medicine, religion and occultism. We try to explain this competition between ＂Brain＂ and ＂Heart＂ is not only a conflict of language, but also contention between the scalpel of science and the network of meaning. It is a war between Western modern knowledge system and traditional Chinese culture