极目南望:晚清国人关于新西兰认知的演变

With an Eye to the Southernmost: Evolution of the Chinese Perception on New Zealand During the Late Qing Period

对中国而言,新西兰是位于太平洋西南部汪洋世界深处的年轻岛国,二者远隔万里重洋。由于地理知识以及航海技术、航海工具的局限,古代欧亚文明远洋交流的触角极少涉及南太平洋地区。经康熙年间来华天主教耶稣会士介绍欧洲地理大发现的最新成果,有关新西兰的地理知识始为国人所认知,南怀仁的《坤舆全图》中出现用“新瑟兰第亚”汉译新西兰的称谓。鸦片战争以降,国人有关新西兰的记述,从地理知识展开,内容渐次涉及其殖民地社会政治、历史、经济、文化等方面。在此基础上完整的地球五大洲知识的进一步完善,激发国人从整体上对世界大势变化和自我重新定位的深层探求,而对这一全新的殖民地文化和民族主义发展类型的认知演变,无疑丰富了近代国人对世界多元性的理解和认识。19世纪末20世纪初清政府在“南洋”的框架内关于新西兰设立领事问题的讨论,一定程度上折射出地理视野的拓展所引发的国人关于地缘政治的突破性思考。近代国人对新西兰的认识,以及由此展开的中新关系,远比我们想象中的丰富和紧密。

As a young island country of the southwestern Pacific,New Zealand is extremely faraway from China. Due to limited geographic knowledge and the lack of navigation technologies and vessels during the ancient era,there was very few,if any,exchanges between Eurasian and South Pacific civilizations. The Chinese started to have some geographic knowledge about New Zealand during the reign of Emperor Kangxi,thanks to the efforts of Jesuits who introduced the latest geographic knowledge during the Age of Exploration into China. In Kunyu quantu(A Complete Map of the World),Ferdinand Verbiest gave New Zealand its original Chinese name “xin se lan di ya.”After the Opium War,Chinese writings about New Zealand started to cover a wider range of topics: apart from geography,they also introduced the politics,history,economy and culture of the colonial society of New Zealand. In keeping with this trend,the Chinese further enriched their knowledge about the five continents. They had much deeper understanding of the changes in the world and tried hard to seek a new identity for China. The Chinese evolving perceptions on the colonial culture and nationalism in New Zealand undoubtedly enriched the understanding of the Chinese on the diversity of the world. At the turn of the 20th Century,the Qing Government even discussed the possibility of establishing a consulate in New Zealand,demonstrating that the Chinese started to develop some out-of-the-box geopolitical thinking with the increase of geographic knowledge. It turned out that the Chinese perceptions on New Zealand and China-New Zealand relations in the modern era were more colourful than we think.