从新见英国皇家亚洲学会藏品看马儒翰的中国民间信仰研究

J.R.Morrison’s Research on Chinese Folk Beliefs:Starting from the Newly-Found Collection in the Royal Asiatic Society

本文以在英国皇家亚洲学会发现的汉学家马儒翰旧藏民俗画及道家符箓为基础,阐述马氏从图像资料入手分类研究中国民间信仰的方法,剖析他在这一领域的开创之功及其研究中存在的缺陷,进而综述马氏之后西方汉学界的相关研究,展现19世纪末20世纪初欧美汉学界中国民间信仰研究由业余逐步向专业化发展的历程,及其为现当代学者提供的研究路径和范式。

Based on the newly-found folk paintings and Taoist talismans collected by John Morrison in the Royal Asiatic Society,this paper introduces Morrison’s pioneering study on Chinese folk beliefs to the academia and illustrates his research method,which began with collecting image data and categorizing the folk beliefs represented by them.It also analyzes his pioneering work in this field as well as the defects in his research.Finally,there is a summary of the related achievements made by Western sinologists after his work,so as to demonstrate the development of the study of Chinese folk beliefs from amateur to professional in European and American sinology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and to provide a research path and paradigm for modern and contemporary scholars.