1873~1874年福赛斯使团“出使”新疆路线与探察活动考

A Study of the routes and activities of Forsyth's 1873-1874 expedition to Xinjiang

为掌握路线通道信息、拓展殖民贸易版图、将新疆打造为英俄中亚大博弈“缓冲区”,英属印度殖民政府于1873~1874年派遣福赛斯使团“出使”新疆。使团由列城出发、翻越喀喇昆仑通道、经桑株至叶尔羌抵喀什噶尔,停留期间并曾前往察提尔库里、巴楚、阿图什、阿合奇等地考察,返程途中经柯克亚、喀喇昆仑回到列城,另派人穿越瓦罕走廊探察大小帕米尔抵阿姆河沿岸、前往和田并经西藏阿里地区返印。此次探察成果标定了沿途经纬度和海拔信息,记录下使团所见之自然与人文状况,将中国新疆及帕米尔地区首次纳入英国殖民主义知识系统,更影响到《1873年出使叶尔羌报告》的新疆知识获得与东方学话语建构,成为其作者宣扬英国加速侵略新疆政策之工具。

In order to control the information of relevant routes and passages,expanding the horizon of colonial trades,and turning Xinjiang into the buffer zone of the Great Game between Britain and Russia in the Central Asia,Forsyth's expedition to Xinjiang was dispatched by the British Raj in 1873-1874.The team set off in Leh,travelled through the Karakorum Pass,and reached Kashgar through Sanju and Yarkand.During its stay in Kashgar,the team also explored Chadyr Kul,Maralbashi,Artysh,and Akchi.It returned Leh through Kugiar and Karakorum,with some small groups reached the Amu Darya area by traversing the Wakhan Corridor and exploring the Greater and Little Parmir,and some returned India via Hotan and the Ali region of Tibetan.Results of this expedition included the records of longitudes,latitudes,and altitudes information,as well as the natural and cultural landscapes that the team witnessed along the way.These results represented the first time that Xinjiang and the Parmir region into the colonial knowledge system of the British Empire,and drastically influenced the construction of Xinjiang' knowledge production system and the oriental discourses in Reports of a Mission to Yarkund in 1873.They had become the device for the author to propagate Britain's intensifying invasion of Xinjiang.