《中國叢報》、耶穌會、歐美漢學

Abstract

傳教士與近代中西交流史，一般多區分為明末清初的天主教耶穌會士，以及清末的新教傳教士兩個不同階段，極少重視與討論兩者間的關連性。而歐洲近代的發展與中國文化關係密切，當其邁入啟蒙與現代，入華耶穌會扮演了關鍵性角色。其對中國的研究與報導催生了歐美漢學，後逐漸從歐陸向英美傳播，近年回歸本位，在中國本土興起海外漢學研究熱潮。儘管歐美漢學史可謂中國傳統在域外傳播的歷史，卻是過去中西文化交流史研究中受忽略 的一環。本計畫擬更廣泛、深入地，探索明清天主教耶穌會與新教傳教士之間如臍帶般緊密的關連性與延續性。研究焦點是以兩代傳教士的漢學研究如何在《中國叢報》匯流做為論述主軸，然後沿著歐美漢學的發展脈絡，重新閱讀、詮釋與書寫傳教士與近代中西文化交流。

“We are still at the beginning stage of a much-needed revisionist history of the world,” says Janet Abu-Lughod in reviewing John Hobson’s The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation. The history of the Christian missions in the early modern Sino-Western encounter also needs revisionist. The connection between the early Jesuit mission in China and the Protestant mission in the 19th century has been long overlook. The Chinese Repository (1832-1851) was a periodical published for the use of Protestant missionaries working in China and was seen as the first American sinological journal in the nineteenth century. Very interestingly, one may find that quite a few early Jesuit sinological publications were introduced and translated by the American protestant missionaries in this periodical right from the first issue in 1832. This connection between two parties deserves more scholarly attention. The three-year project proposes to first trace the continuation of the missionaries’ sinological contributions via both synchronical and diachronical investigations to the Jesuit works presented in The Chinese Repository and hope to be one of the revisionists to re-read and re-write the history of missionaries and the Sino-Western encounter from the 16th to 19th centuries.