阿美士德使团(1816~1817)中方译员研究

On the Interpreters of the Chinese Camp at the Amherst Embassy(1816-1817)

引言阿美士德(William Pitt Amherst)使团是英国第二个正式访华的使团,旨在打破清政府对英贸易的限制和建立平等的外交关系,但使团不愿行叩头礼而被嘉庆皇帝拒绝接见,最终失败而回。与1793年首次访华的马戛尔尼(George Macartney)使团相比,历史学界对1816年来华的阿美士德使团的关注,主要以中英关系和礼仪之争为焦点。①在翻译学领域,目前只有一篇长文专题讨论使团的翻译问题,①其他主要讨论使团中的马礼逊(Robert Morrison)和小斯当东(George Thomas Staunton)二人。②本文谨以前人研究为基础,结合近年个人所见的清朝中方档案、英方使团成员的日记和回忆录、英国外交部编号F.O.1048档案、19世纪在广州出版的英语报纸以及美国商人日记手稿,聚焦于可以说是完全被忽略的中方译员——广东通事。

The Amherst Embassy was Britain’s second attempt to build an official relationship with the Qing court on an equal footing,yet it failed as the Emperor declined to meet the British delegates who did not perform the kow-tow protocol in Beijing.Nevertheless,the Chinese authorities appointed some local men to serve the embassy as interpreters for the simple fact that they had been working at the foreign trade in Canton with foreigners.Such men,called Canton linguists in the foreign archives even though they could not speak any foreign languages properly,were of course not qualified nor willing to interpret.However reluctant they were,two of them actually made their way to the North and accompanied the embassy to return to the South,while others stayed in Canton to take charge of the communication.Strange enough,the Chinese official records keep stating that"the Canton linguists haven’t arrived(at the North)yet"whereas the British and the American sources showed otherwise.What happened to the Canton linguists?Who are they by their real names and alias?How different were they from their British counterparts such as Robert Morrison?What role did interpreting and translation play for the embassy in particular and for the Canton trade in general?Why are they lesser-known figures not only back then but at present as well?This paper attempts to answer these questions by cross-referencing with the Chinese and English archives.