羅懋登的西洋

Luo Maodeng’s Occident

晚明小説家羅懋登的《三寶太監西洋記通俗演義》(别題《三寶開港西洋記》,簡稱《西洋記》,1597年自序),以明初鄭和下西洋爲題材,堪稱中國第一部海外旅行小説。在地理大發現和大航海時代的宏觀背景下來讀這部小説,昭示我們昧于現實將會是何等的可笑。當世界已經天翻地覆的時候,小説家卻仍舊做着前塵舊夢,不免使自己淪爲後世的笑柄。對照百餘年後笛福的《魯濱孫飄流記》、《魯濱孫飄流續記》,《西洋記》的種種"夜郎自大"式描寫,尤其讓人覺得觸目驚心,匪夷所思。同時,《西洋記》也使我們認識到,早在"東方主義"流行之前,我們就曾持有過"西方主義",甚至是"四方主義"("華夷之辨")。

Based on Zhenghe(鄭和)’s voyage to the West that took place at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty,the Sanbaotaijian Xiyangji Tongsu Yanyi(《三寶太監西洋記通俗演義》),also kownd as Sanbao Kaigang Xiyangji(《三寶開港西洋記》)or simply Xiyangji(《西洋記》),1597 according to the preface,by the late Ming Dynasty writer Luo Maodeng(羅懋登),is the first Chinese over-sea travel story.As long as we take into account the backdrop,which is great geological discoveries and long navigations led by occidental people,we shall see what absurdity has occurred when a blind eye was turned to the reality.While the world was changing greatly,the writer was still dreaming about the past,and thus became ridiculous in the eye of readers nowadays.Compared to The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe published about one century later by Daniel Defoe,the unmitigated conceit in Xiyangji seems to be stunningly absurd and unbelievable.At the meantime,Xiyangji shows that long before the trend of the Orientalism(東方主義),we have had an"Occidentalism"(西方主義),or even"distinction between Chinese and Barbarians"(華夷之辨).