从“园林之都”至“天马之乡”——蒙元时期中原士人的西域观

From“City of Gardens”to“Hometown of Sky Horses”——The Western regions view of the Central Plain Scholar in Yuan Dynasty

西域观是指中原人对西域环境及典型物产的认识并由此而塑造的区域形象。蒙古西征时期进入西域的中原士人,以写实的笔触记录了西域河中地区的绿洲城市,这里渠水环绕,杂花绮美,园林绵延百里而不绝,是名副其实的“园林之都”;然而在元朝文人科考及拂郎贡马时的诗赋中,西域遥居月窟之西,需远涉流沙而至,是荒僻鄙陋之地,是受中原教化感召而向中原进贡天马的九夷之区,是“天马之乡”。这样迥然有别的西域认知,表象是中原士人的耳闻目见不能与传统观念抗衡的结果,实质是具有话语引导权的中原帝王的天下之中的自傲心态和臣工们化被远裔的政治想象的产物。这意味着传统时代域外区域形象的构建,不以亲历者的记载为依据,而以话语主导者的政治需要为基础,加之以物品的具象性超越环境的模糊性,使得物化的天马形象超越泛化的园林形象,固化了汉唐时期业已成形的“天马之乡”的异域想象,延续着中原君臣化被远裔的梦想。

The view of western regions refers to the regional image formed from the Central Plain people’s cognition of western regions’environment and their typically local products.During the Mongol Invasion of Europe,intellectuals from the Central Plain depicted oasis cities located in Transoxiana of western regions in a realistic way.Surrounded by canals and decorated with various flowers,these cities were worthy of the name,“City of Gardens”,with gardens in them extending hundreds of miles.However,in the poems by emperors and courtiers in the Yuan Dynasty,western regions were described as a desolate area to the far west of the Central Plain,which can be reached only by crossing a vast desert.This area was seen as a barbarian land civilized by the Central Plain.It was also known as the“Hometown of Sky Horses”,for it gave horses,which are called sky horses,as tributes,to the Central Plain.The difference between the cognitions of western regions was caused superficially by the result that what the Central Plain people had seen and heard couldn’t compete with their traditional ideas.The essence of the difference,however,was political imagination of the emperors and courtiers in the Central Plain.The emperors,who controlled the right to speak,had the arrogance to believe their land was the center of the world,while the courtiers lived in hope of having the civilization of the Central Plain spread to outlying areas.It means that in ancient times the building of western regions’image was not based on records of those who had actually experienced the western regions,but on political needs of those who controlled the right of speech.Moreover,specific objects before eyes spoke louder than abstract environment beyond reach.As a result,since the Han and Tang Dynasty,the specific image of sky horses,rather than the abstract image of gardens,had become people’s imagination for western regions as the“Hometown of Sky Horses”,which was a continuation of courtiers’dream to have their civilization widely spread to border areas.