十七世紀中西知識體系的相遇—以康熙皇帝為中心的探討

Abstract

十七世紀的歐洲是一個變動的時代，進入到近代早期(Early Modern)，政治、宗教版圖重劃；甚至是社會經濟層面也因白銀的流動而有不小的變化。十七世紀的中國也是個動盪的時代：時值明末清初，政治上改朝換代，思想上也由活潑轉而嚴肅；甚至在社會風氣上亦然。傳教士的東來使得東方與西方的文化在此變動的時代相遇，而知識體系更是其中最主要的媒介。 十七世紀中西知識體系相遇的諸多案例中，康熙皇帝是一個特殊的例子。身為一國之主，康熙皇帝有所能，有所不能。他能夠親身接觸到當時各樣技術、知識最精進的「西洋人」，也能夠接觸最多的西洋新知，甚至能夠主導將西洋學術知識匯入帝國的學術體系之中。然而由於他身份的特殊性，康熙皇帝也因此不可能改信天主教，甚至基於政治考量，儘管年輕時與許多西洋人往來密切，在晚年時卻與羅馬教廷決裂，進而使得日後中西文化的交流逐漸緩和下來。而傳教士在清宮中的地位變化，也可再次印證滿清作為一個亞洲多元帝國主宰的統治策略及眼光。 由康熙皇帝的例子可以看到，中國人在這樣一個知識體系交會的過程當中，往往選擇將西洋的知識直接納入中國既有的框架之內。儘管康熙皇帝已經是最能夠身體力行學習西洋學術的皇帝，但是從他的例子也可得知，對當時的中國人而言，學習西洋知識的意義，能夠實際運用往往比實質的瞭解來得重要。

Europe in the seventeenth century saw an era of a change. It was Early Modern, a time when the politics, religious, and the socioeconomic domains were being moved by the flow of silver in societies. China in the seventeenth century also saw a turbulent era. It was a time of political changes between dynasties. From Ming to Qing, the social climate went from vivacious to serious. Christian missionaries came to China and bridged the Eastern and Western cultures in this era of change. The systems of knowledge were the main catalyst in this encounter. Among the many encounters of Chinese and Western knowledge systems in the 17th century, Kangxi Emperor was a special case. As an emperor of an empire, Kangxi Emperor had the power to achieve many things, yet he was also restricted in many ways. He was able to engage personally with the Westerners who were technologically and scientifically superior to the Chinese at the time. He was also in the best position to learn from the new Western system, and he could even import Western academics into the imperial academic system. Because of his unique identity, however, Kangxi Emperor could not convert to Catholicism. In addition, due to political considerations, although he had been close with a lot of Westerners in his youth, he broke off ties with the Pope during his old age, which resulted in gradual decline of Chinese and Western cultural exchanges. And the change of Westerners’ status in the Qing court also witnesses to Qing’s ambition to become a successful ruler in a multiethnic empire of Asia. In Kangxi Emperor’s example, we can observe that when Chinese are undergoing the process of knowledge system interactions, they often choose to directly fit Western knowledge into the Chinese framework. Although Kangxi Emperor was a special emperor by personally taking part and studying Western academics, but from his example we can also learn that the meaning of studying Western knowledge for Chinese was mostly functional and applicability was more important than actually understanding the essence.