鸦片战争前英国人对舟山群岛的环境调查

British environmental investigation of Zhoushan Islands before the Opium War

在鸦片战争爆发前的200多年里,英国对舟山群岛的调查就已经在不断地展开。17世纪上半期,《海洋之奥秘》海图集中就有舟山群岛;17世纪末,桑顿绘制的舟山地图就很全面、准确。18世纪初,坎宁安在舟山进行植物采集和气象观测,发表过两篇关于舟山地区自然与人文状况的调查报告;18世纪中期,《英国领航员》中收有以科学投影方法绘制的舟山岛地图,细节标注非常精确。马戛尔尼使团成员出版的日记等,留下了大量关于舟山群岛地理、航海、物产及人文的调查内容。19世纪上半期,林德赛等人乘坐“阿美士德”号前往中国沿海对舟山群岛的地理环境进行调查。1833年,詹姆斯爵士向英国外交部递交的报告中详细介绍了舟山群岛的各方面情况,并反复强调它在英国对华贸易中的重要地位。1836年和1838年,德庇时和麦都思分别出版著作,不仅对舟山群岛,对整个中国沿海地区甚至整个中国都已经有非常清楚的了解。客观上讲,英国对舟山群岛的地理环境调查有利于中西文化交流,但另一方面,它为后来英军对中国沿海,特别是对定海的进攻提供了指南和方便。

For more than 200 years before the Opium War, the Great Britain had paid great attention to Zhoushan Islands and investigated it constantly. In the first half of the 17 th century, the marine atlas Del’Arcano del Mare had recorded it and at the end of the 17 th century Thornton drew a comprehensive and accurate map of Zhoushan Islands. At the beginning of the 18 th century, Cunningham conducted plant collection and meteorological observation in Zhoushan and published two investigation reports on the natural and human conditions in Zhoushan. In the middle of the 18 th century, The English Pilot published the map of Zhoushan Islands drawn by scientific projection method, which was extremely accurate in detail. Members of the Macartney Mission published numerous diaries and kept a large number of investigations on Zhoushan Islands’ geography, navigation, property and humanity. In the first half of the 19 th century, Hugh Hamilton Lindsay et al went to coast of China by the ship Lord Amherst to investigate the geographical environment of Zhoushan Islands. In 1833, James Brabazon Urmston submitted a detailed report of the Zhoushan Islands in various aspects to the British Foreign Ministry, in which he repeatedly stressed the important position of Zhoushan in British trade with China. In 1836 and 1838, John Francis Davis and W.H.Medhurst published works respectively, which had a very clear understanding not only of Zhoushan Islands but also of the whole China and its coastal region. Objectively speaking, Britain’s investigation of the geographical environment of Zhoushan Islands was conducive to cultural exchange between China and the West, but in the meantime, it provided guidance and convenience for the later British attack on the Chinese coastal region, especially on Dinghai.