十七、十八世纪西方人的中国观

Westerners' Ideas about China: 17th and 18th Centuries

17世纪到18世纪中期前后,以耶稣会士和思想家为代表的西人利用文化间天然的误读机制,充分发挥自己的想象力,竭力美化中国,形成了独特的中国观。之所以呈现出这样的中国观,主要原因有四个:一是中西对比呈现出中强西弱的态势,二是西方历史上有关中国的知识文化再生产的结果,三是意识形态的需要,四是受到个人立场的影响。他们的中国观表面上是他们的自我愿望得不到满足的一种表达,实际上是欧洲启蒙时代文化自觉和文化自信的一种表现。

Westerners in 17th to mid-18th centuries, represented by Jesuits and philosophers, formed unique, rosy ideas of China. Such ideas were developed through the distinct Orient-Occident cultural misreading mechanism and by the receivers powerful imagination. Reasons for that can be summarized as four： first, the cultural unbalance between stronger China and weaker West; second, result of the reproduction of existant western knowledge about China; third; ideological needs; fourth, influence and personal favor. A first survey may suggest that the ideas are the Westerners expression of unsatisfied self- expectations, while a further examination will reveal that they are embodiment of European＇s cultural self- awareness and confidence in the age of Enlightenment.