从徐朝俊到徐继畬:嘉道时期新旧西学的知识脉络

From Xu Chaojun to Xu Jiyu:Transition of the Old Western Learning to the New Western Learning during the Reins of Emperors Jiaqing and Daoguang

学界常将明末清初西学(旧西学)与晚清西学(新西学)分作两期,实则新旧西学间有其内在的知识脉络,嘉道时期正处于新旧西学转换期。松江徐朝俊家族约自康熙年间始,五代研习西学、西器,并家藏大量汉文西学文献,借助血缘与文本,促进了旧西学的传承与下渗。徐朝俊《高厚蒙求》五集先后刻于1807—1829年,它既是旧西学的总结之作,又是徐继畬《瀛环志略》(1848)稿本——《瀛环考略》(1844)的主要参考书之一。当《瀛环志略》付梓时,《高厚蒙求》却从参考书中消失。本文提出一类与二类西学文献概念,以《高厚蒙求》为代表的二类西学文献,是晚清时期国人认识新世界、应对新变局、接引新西学的重要本土思想资源,在新旧西学跨时空接榫中扮演了过渡性角色。

Researchers generally divide western learning efforts in modern China into two stages,namely the Old Western Learning(in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties)and the New Western Learning(in the late Qing dynasty).Such a division,albeit useful,tends to downplay the consistent trajectory of western learning efforts in modern China.The transition from the Old Western Learning to the New Western Learning in China took place during the reins of Emperors Jiaqing and Daoguang.The Xu Chaojun family in Songjiang started to study western knowledge during the rein of Emperor Kangxi and they collected a large amount of western books and materials later thanks to their five generations of tireless efforts,which promoted the inheritance and spread of the Old Western Learning in China.Between 1807 and 1829,Xu Chaojun finished the five-book series of Gaohou mengqiu,which was both a sum-up of the Old Western Learning and a major reference book for Xu Jiyu's Yinghuan kaolue wrtten in 1844.However,Gaohou mengqiu surprisingly disappeared from the reference list in the final version of Xu Jiyu's Yinghuan zhilue in 1848.This article makes a distinction between the Primary and the Secondary Western Learning Texts.The Secondary Western Learning Texts represented by Gaohou mengqu provided important domestic sources for the Chinese in late Qing dynasty to understand the outside world,deal with new changes and embrace the new Western Learning.They played an importantly transitional role in bridging the Old and the New Western Learning in modern Chinese history.