晚清使臣西洋观剧再考

A Further Examination of the Late Qing Envoys’Records of Western Plays

晚清使臣和他们的随员在西洋“看戏”,实为中国人较早接触西方文学的重要史实。因缺乏语言能力或文化基础,他们的观剧录往往成为令人费解的“天书”,因之被学界长期忽略。运用国外电子文献数据库综合考析,可知晚清使臣李凤苞所观西洋剧为《睡美人》,张荫桓所观为《迷娘》《不可告人》《科西嘉弟兄》等三部剧,张德彝所观为《地狱中的俄耳甫斯》《恶魔》《新欢旧爱》《罗蕾莱》《穷汉乔纳森》《圣女贞德》《蚱蜢的报复》等七部剧。这些事实的揭出,可以补足19世纪中西文学关系史中缺位的中国人面向,富有学术价值与意义。

The late Qing envoys and their entourages watching plays in Western countries is actually one of the earliest important aspects of Chinese people’s contact with Western literature.Due to lack of language skills or cultural foundation,their theatre going records often become incomprehensible and have thus been ignored for a long time.Making use of the 19th century foreign literature electronic databases,the author has recently identified:Dornröschen(Sleeping Beauty)watched by Li Fengbao;Mignon,The Dark Secret and The Corsican Brothers watched by Zhang Yinhuan;Orphée aux enfers,The Demon,The Old Love and the New,Die Loreley,Der arme Jonathan,Jeanne d’Arc,la Revanche des Cigales watched by Zhang Deyi.The revelation of these facts is of great significance in completing the 19th century Sino-Western literary relationship history.These facts can show the presence of Chinese in the literary relationship between China and the West,thus revealing great academic values and significance.