郭嵩焘三观英法天文台及其感知

KUO Sung-tao's Three Visits to British and French Astronomical Observatories and His Perception

郭嵩焘是洋务运动的发起者和中坚,也是中国近代第一位驻外外交官,他以极大热情关注当时科学技术最新成就,并认真思考科学技术除器物之外的社会文化功能。然而,目前学界鲜有从科技视角对郭嵩焘与西学思想或从文化视角对他的科技兴趣和认知的专门系统的探讨。作者以郭嵩焘游访英国格林尼治天文台、牛津大学天文台和法国巴黎天文台所记日记为案例和线索,将其所闻所感置于西方工业革命、中西方文化碰撞与融合的大背景下,在首次深入考证郭氏笔下天文仪器的基础上,对其科学游访活动及感知予以蠡测。

Kuo Sung-tao(1818-1891), a prime mover and key personnel of the Westernization Movement, is the first diplomat abroad of modern China. He paid close attention to the latest scientific discoveries and technological inventions in the 19th century, and thought seriously about the social and cultural function of science and technology. However, there are few monographic and systematic researches into the relations between Kuo Sung-tao and Western learning from the scientific and technological perspective, or into his interest and knowledge in science and technology in the view of culture. Based on his visits to Greenwich, Oxford and Paris observatories and a deep research into the astronomical instruments depicted in his diaries, this paper explores his scientific visits to Europe and what he saw and felt there in the context of the Industrial Revolution and the collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures.