宋人对远域国家“拂菻”的想象与认知

Imagination and Cognition of"Fu Lin"in The Song Dynasty

宋人搜集境外信息的途径与方法有碍于当时生产力、交通以及周边环境等因素的限制,文献上对于超远距离外国家信息的文献记载具有模糊性、奇幻性等特点。不同于“职贡图”等绘画作品传递出的万方朝贡的想象的天下帝国观,文献中对超远距离的国家,如拂菻(一说为当时的罗马帝国),从地理空间以及其国的器物与物产等各方面都呈现了尽量客观且称赞的态度。另外,从宋代文献关于拂菻地理空间、生活与物产、文化与信仰的论述之中,也出现了一些意象因为地区交流与实践发现而使文献中的宋人的想象与认知也随之更新的情形。同时,某些意象也出现了随着中原王朝的变化而加强的趋势。说明了宋人对远域国家的记述并非全盘吸纳与借鉴先人的记载,而是在尽可能客观的前提下完善其对当时世界“拼图”的整理。

The methods of the people in the Song Dynasty to col lect foreign information at that time were restricted by some factors such as productivity,transportation and the surrounding environment.Literature records of the far-away countries’information were characterized by fuzziness and fantasy.In contrast to the costmetic-style of imperial imagery,which is conveyed in"Zhigong"pictures,Fu Lin(maybe the Roman Empire)that is considered far away,in the literature records,is as objective and complimentary as possible in terms of geography,artifacts and products.In addition,there are also some records in the discourses of Fu Lin's geographical space,life and products,culture and beliefs being found in the documents of the Song Dynasty.Due to in-ternational communications and discoveries in practice,the imagination and cognition of the people in the Song Dynasty in the lit-erature are also updated.At the same time,some records have also shown a strengthening tendency with the changes of the Song dynasty.It shows that their description of the distant countries is not completely from the records of their ancestors,but a refined"jigsaw"of the world at that time as objective as possible.