同光之际的西礼知识、体验与译介

The Knowledge, Experience and Translation of Foreign Court Etiquettes in Tongzhi and Guangxu Period

随着外使入觐问题引起争议,“西礼”成为同治朝野普遍关心的议题。有关西礼形制与规模的种种知识使儒家觐礼的政治意涵被普遍化,引发士林重新看待中西礼仪之争,也为清廷在被迫接受外使以西礼入觐时留有一定的思想回旋余地。光绪初年,清廷对外派驻使团后,以英国为代表的西方觐见礼仪呈现在清代士人面前,西礼概念开始出现分化,不同的觐见仪式被出使者的旅行书写记录下来。郭嵩焘使团的翻译张德彝利用英国礼仪手册和官方文书译为《朝眷会规》,成为晚清士人首次译介的西方礼仪文献。借由还原这一文本的英文文献来源和翻译过程,不仅可以深入理解西礼由知识、体验转化为文本的具体历程,也可以考察晚清士人对西方政教的接受尺度。对西礼的体验与译介不仅为国人提供了重新看待中西关系的思想契机,也开启了近代中国西礼东渐的进程。

During the Tongzhi reign(1861-1875),the controversy over issues of receiving foreign envoys drew wide attention within and beyond the administration to the“foreign court etiquettes.”Various knowledge about the form and scale of Western ceremonies made the political connotation of the Confucian rituals generalized,leading Qing scholars to rethink the dispute between the two ritual traditions.These discussions also provided the Qing court with intellectual justifications when it was later forced to adopt Western ceremonies to receive foreign envoys.In the early years of Guangxu(1875-1908),after the Qing court sent delegates abroad,the Western admission ceremonies represented by the British royal style were introduced to the Qing scholars.The Chinese concept of“Western rituals”began to diversify,and various styles of admission ceremonies were recorded in travel writings by the Chinese envoys.Zhang Deyi,the translator of Guo Songtao’s mission,translated the British etiquette manuals and official documents into Rules of the Court Etiquettes(《朝眷会规》),which became the first Chinese translation of Western etiquette documents in late Qing Dynasty.By investigating the original English sources of this text and its translation process,we can not only understand the process in which Western ceremonies were crystalized from knowledge and experience into texts,but also evaluate the extent to which the late Qing scholars accepted Western political ideologies.Qing intellectuals’experience with and translation of Western ceremonies not only provide an opportunity to reevaluate the relationship between China and the West,but also started the process of the eastward spread of Western rituals in modern China.