胜景的圮毁:大报恩寺琉璃塔外文史料中的中国形象嬗变

The Collapse of the Magnificent Landmark:The Changing Image of China in Foreign Historical Materials of the Porcelain Tower of the Great Bao'en Temple

17世纪以降,南京大报恩寺琉璃塔的可视化形象逐渐借由各色丰富的外文史料传到西方,其中纽霍夫的《荷使初访中国记》是最早将琉璃塔的视觉形象带到欧洲的开山之作,启发了欧洲对中国城市与建筑的无尽想象。鸦片战争前后,阿罗姆、怀特等人尝试向西方世界展现一个“真实”的中国,琉璃塔宏伟壮观的形象与南京城的破败萧索形成对比。尽管琉璃塔最终毁于太平军的战火,但西方世界对琉璃塔历史意涵的追溯和重建并未停止,借由报恩寺琉璃塔视觉形象的变迁,可进一步观察17—19世纪西方世界对中国的想象和认知。

The visualised image of the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing has been gradually transmitted to the West via a range of historical materials since the 17th century.The first work to introduce the visual image of the Porcelain Tower to Europe was Johan Nieuhoff's An Embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces,which inspired Europe's infinite imaginations of China's cities and architecture.Following the Opium War,Thomas Allom,G.N.Wright,and others attempted to portray a"real"China to the Western world.At the time,the magnificent and spectacular image of the Porcelain Tower stood in stark contrast to Nanjing's ruin and desolation,Though the Porcelain Tower was eventually demolished during the Taiping Rebellion,the Western world did not stop tracing and rebuilding its historical significance.The imagination and perception of China in the Western world over the 17th and 19th centuries can be further observed through variations in the visual image of the Porcelain Tower.