他者镜像中的中国近代民间礼俗——法国传教士禄是遒对中国婚丧、岁时风俗的书写与研究

Modern Chinese Folk Customs in the Mirror Image of the Other:Researches into Chinese Wedding, Funeral and Festival by French Missionary Henri Doré

近代来华传教士用他者的眼光打量中国社会,在其作品里勾勒出一幅中国近代社会风俗的图景。禄是遒的《中国民间崇拜》是一部较全面描述中国区域民间信仰风俗的巨著,为后世学者研究19世纪末20世纪初的民间信仰提供了宝贵的文献资料。其中《婚丧习俗》《岁时习俗》两卷通过文字和图片详细记载了中国民间社会的婚丧习俗与岁时节日,不少表述已经触及中国民间社会观念的核心特征,并从"异域"的视角出发进行了简单却不失水准的分析,为研究近代中国婚丧岁时文化保留了大量具有学术价值的资料;同时,这些记载中折射出的西方文明与中华文明的矛盾与冲突,为理解传教士对近代中国社会的想象与建构提供了参考文本。

In modern times,missionaries in China surveyed Chinese society from the perspective of the other and sketched out in their works a picture of the customs of modern Chinese society.Researches into Chinese Superstitions by Henri Doréis a monumental work that comprehensively describes regional folk customs in modern China and provides valuable literature for later scholars to study the state of folk beliefs in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.In the volumes of Wedding and Funeral Customs and Customs of Seasonal Festivals,various customs related to wedding,funeral and seasonal festivals are detailed through depiction and pictures.Many accounts have touched on the core features of Chinese folk society and analyzed them from an alien perspective,leaving a large number of academic materials.What’s more,these records reflect the conflict between Western civilization and Chinese civilization,providing us with reference texts to understand how missionaries imagine and construct modern Chinese society.