欧洲传统游记中的嘉绒藏区社会

Gyalrong Tibetan Society in the Light of Older European Travel Literature

19世纪下半叶到20世纪中叶,游历于藏区东缘嘉绒地区的外国传教士、探险家、动植物学家和驻华领事官员络绎不绝于途,并且留下了不少考察观光型文字资料,较少为学界所知。通过对这些文献的比较阅读,可以使我们获得不少相关区域的有价值的资料,加深我们对汉藏边缘嘉绒藏区经济、政治、风俗、语言、宗教与族群认同的了解。当然,在使用这些游记资料时,还需做比较阅读,避免单个游记在知识上的局限。

From the late 19thcentury to the middle of 20thcentury,many western missionaries,explorers,botanists,zoologists or consular officers in China traveled to Gyalrong Tibetan area for various purposes.They left behind a lot of travelogues or investigation reports related to this area.In the past one hundred years,the official history books related to Gyalrong area have attracted many sinologists' concern on the marginal area of the Qing Empire.Series academic articles shows the academic interests in this area,however,most of these articles depend on an analysis on the Han-Chinese and Tibetan literatures.The Western travelogues or investigation reports are absent from these studies.The author thinks that although from the angle of methodology,it is somewhat problematic to use the travelogues to do a 'scientific'research on the history of Tibetan area,the role of these travelogues cannot be ignored.In this article,the author gives a review on those Western travelogues and finds out that all the travelogues actually have their own important value in helping us to understand the history and geography of this region from various angles.For examples,Arthur von Rosthorn,an Austrian sinologist,had been in Gyalrong in 1891.Later,his travel experience appeared in a German magazine.The main value of his report is that he included some Han-Chinese historical literature into his travel record,and introduced the micro geography of Gyalrong to the world for the first time.The report included a lot of valuable information on cultural geography of this area.Isabella Bird-Bishop was a traveler who had been to the northern part of Gyalrong.She included her adventure in this region into her travelogue.In addition to a detailed description of this region,the most important contribution of her travelogue is that she presented very interesting photos of the region for the first time.In 1899,G.N.Potanin,a Russian botanist,published an article about Gyalrong area.His contribution lies in his knowledge of biology.His report included a lot of information on the way of farming,land use and crop planting etc.in the region.Through these materials,we have a better understanding on the agriculture of Gyalrong.Hosie,a British consular officer,also left us a rich,accurate and vivid record related to the middle part of Gyalrong.He described not only the geography of the region,but also the local economic situation and the important role of Han-Chinese to this area.Pere Gore' s record not only included the geography and residents of this area,but also the regional political situation of the region as well as the role of missionaries.Ferguson' s travel reports even covered some more isolated region,including Drukagi/Chogtsi,Runga/Zunga,Chosschia/Choskia,and Gaishechia/Getitsha.He left us tremendous photos,from which we can find watchtowers in Dangba and Dangdong,official seat village of tusi( native ruler)in Zhuokeji and Geshizha.His record is helpful for us to understand the military camp,castle,and monastery in isolated areas.Moreover,he had his own understanding on feudal ruler,social organization and social status of the people in the tusi' s political region.Wilson,a British botanist,provided very valuable information on the local plants and crops;Tafel gave a very detailed description of the travel route of Gyalrong in his book entitled Meine Tibetreise;In addition,Ainscough,Walther Stotzner,Eric Hanisch,Liljiestrand,J.H.Geffory,Liu En-lan etc.all left us very splendid documents regarding to this area.All the information mentioned above indicates that there are rich historical information about Gylarong in the Western travelogues,which will help us to learn more about the history and geography of the region.The author states that if there was any locality identity of Gyalrong in the history,then,that kind of locality identity should exist in the splendid lifestyle on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.Through the travelogues,we could reconstruct the basic status of the region,including the local agricultural activities,domestic animals feeding,rituals,the gap between the rich and poor,seasonal grazing,opium cultivation,herbs collecting,trade,migrates etc.All these re-constructed activities will help us further understand this area.Although the region has been influenced strongly by Tibetan culture and is still in an ongoing process of' sinicization',Gyalrong language,especially of the eastern part of Gyalrong,is close to the Qiang language.The main language of this region belongs to a branch of Tibetan-Burmese family.Scholars state that the lifestyle of the Qiang,an ethnic group who live on the border between the Han-Chinese and Tibetan,is very characteristic,and this specialty has always been mentioned as a reference while discussing the ethnic identity of Gyarong.It is true that the content of the travelogues sometime are confusing due to the authors' lack of understanding to local culture and language,but the complexity of Gyalrong' s ethnicity could be noticed in the travelogues,.Normally,it is not easy to reconstruct the micro geographical politics of a specific place,therefore,it might be difficult for us to know the exact number of tusi and their development level,but on the whole,these travelogues reflect a kind of feudality,that is,under the ruling of the Qing court,there was a kind of autonomy on varied degree,and the local rulers had their power in managing the local affairs.An interesting theme contained in the travelogues is the tusi and the social institution within the tusi' s regime.The travelogues were full of descriptions on the local tusi mansion,tusi and their family,marriage as well as land property,labor relation etc.Moreover,there were also descriptions on religion and monastery system.The early religion of Gyalrong was related to the Bon.After the second battle of Jinchuan( 1771-1776),it started to have relation with Dge-lugs-pa.Gyalrong,in the past or even now,was and is still the center of the Bon on some certain degree.Through reading the travelogues,we have an impression that the Bon was very popular in Gyarong in the past.Moreover,from the travelogues,we can also notice the immigrates' influence on the politics and material life in Gyalrong.If we want to make a final evaluation of the European travelogues' contribution in understanding the history and geography of Gyalrong region,the answer is positive to some extent.However,we must aware that the quality of the travelogues is generally uneven.Moreover,the information is also composed of fragments.Normally,the writers of the travelogues had no enough cultural and linguistic knowledge of the region.Therefore,if we read the travelogue separately,we might be disappointed from it,but if we put them together and read them in a comparative way,it will help us to further understand this region.Hence,the best way for us to use these materials is to read them in a comparative way.In other word,if we read the travelogues in the right way,our gains will certainly be considerable.