交流与互鉴:《清宫海错图》与中西海洋动物的知识及画艺

Exchanges and Mutual Learning of the Knowledge and Painting Craft of Marine Animals between China and the West:A Case Study of Atlas of Marine Animals Collected by the Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty

《清宫海错图》是清宫所藏五部表现海洋生物、飞禽、走兽等动物题材的画谱里,唯一出自民间画师之手的画谱,也是中国现存最早的一部关于海洋生物博物学的“复合图文”。该书具有博物学知识和博物画艺术的双重性。书中的“麻鱼”“井鱼”与明清汉文西书《西方答问》《西洋怪鱼图》《海怪图记》有着中西海洋动物知识的交流;其中的“人鱼”描绘,更是从想象动物的视角,表达了大航海时代之后中西海洋动物方面的若干知识互动。作为博物画图册,它在绘制手法上不受当时官方主流画风所限,既表现了中国传统鱼类绘画的特点,又吸收了西洋博物画的表现手法,为中西鱼类博物知识和画艺的比较与互鉴,提供了出类拔萃的历史文本。

Atlas of Marine Animals Collected by the Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty is one of the five painting atlases collected in the Qing Dynasty,which illustrate marine life,birds,beasts and other animal subjects.It is the only atlas painted by a folk artist called NIE Huang and is also the earliest extant“composite image-text”on marine biology in China.The book has the duality of naturalistic knowledge and the art of painting natural animals.The“Ma fish”and“Jing fish”in the book on the one hand and the content in Chinese translations of Western books such as Answers from the West,Strange Western Fish Pictures and Sea Monsters Illustration on the other show an exchange of knowledge of marine animals between China and the West.Among them,the description of the“mermaid”,from the perspective of imaginary animals,illustrates some knowledge interaction between China and the West concerning marine animals after the era of great navigation.As a painting atlas of natural science,Atlas of Marine Animals was not limited by the official mainstream painting style at that time.It shows the characteristics of traditional Chinese fish painting on the one hand,and absorbed the expression techniques of Western paintings of natural science on the other.Therefore,it serves as an outstanding historical text for the comparative study and mutual learning of fish knowledge and painting craft between China and the West.