慕维廉与中文版西方地理学百科全书《地理全志》

William Muirhead and Universal Geography: Western Geographical Encyclopaedia of Chinese Edition

慕维廉是活动在晚清文化界的一位著名的传教士，他曾在中国学者的帮助下译出过《大英国志》和《格致新机》等颇有影响的译著，１８５３—１８５４年上海墨海书馆出版了慕维廉的《地理全志》。作为第一部中文版的西方地理学百科全书，该书较为系统地向中国人介绍地质、自然地理、人文地理、区域地理的知识，也介绍了气候学、水文学和人种学的一些基本知识，其中“地史论”较早详细地介绍了荷马、希罗多德、马可·波罗、洪堡等一些西方著名的地理学家。１８８３年慕维廉为迎合中国读者的接受能力而将该书重新修订，修订版《地理全志》虽然内容有很大的缩减，但却产生过很大的社会影响。目前地学界有郑《地理全志》一些错误的认识应予纠正。

William Muirhead was a famous missionary in the culture circles of the Late Qing Dynasty. With the help of some Chinese scholars, he translated into Chinese Da Yingguo Zhi and Gezhi Xinji. William Muirhead's Universal Geography was published by London Missionary Society Mission Press in 1853 - 1854. As a first Western geographical encyclopaedia of Chinese edition, it systematically introduced geology, physical and human geography, regional geography, and also provided some basic knowledge of climatology, hydrology and ethnology to the Chinese. Detailed information of such famous western geographers as Homeros, Herodoturs and Humboldt was included in Dishi Lun (History of geography) of Universal Geography. This thesis corrects some wrong conclusion about Universal Geography in geographical circles.