□ 刊发于《城市中国》
2009年第02期
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西方对中国园林描述中的自然与意识形态
英 柯律格
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西方对中国园林描述中的自然与意识形态
Nature and Ideology in Western Descriptions of the Chinese Garden
撰文 (英)柯律格
Text by Craig CLUNAS（UK）
翻译 傅凡 薛晓飞
Translation by FU Fan and XUE Xiao-fei
柯律格(Craig Clunas)博士是一位英国艺术史学家，着重于对中国艺术史，特别是明清时期的视觉和物质文化的研究。他现任英国牛津大学艺术史教授；此前，曾就职于著名的伦敦大学亚非学院(2003-07)，维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆(1979-92)等多处。他发表了大量的论著，是《硕实之所: 中国明代园林文化》(伦敦, 1996)(Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture inMing Dynasty China)一书的作者。2006年，因在中国文化和艺术史研究领域中的卓越成就和贡献，他被提名为英国人文社会科学院院士。
Dr. Craig Clunas (Chinese name 柯律格) is a British art historian,
specializing in the art of China, in particular the visual and material culture of the Ming and Qing periods. He is now Professor of History of Art at University of Oxford prior to which he worked in the famous School of Oriental and African Studies, London (2003-07) and Victoria and Albert Museum (1979-92), among others. He has published extensively, and is the author of the book, Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China (London, 1996). In 2006, he was elected a member of the British Academy in honor of his achievements in and contribution to the studies of Chinese culture and art history.
《西方对中国园林描述中的自然与意识形态》一文探讨从18世纪下半叶起到20世纪上半叶西方文献中关于中国园林文字记载。其研究重点不在于中国园林本身，而在于当时欧美主流出版物中就中国园林所作的诠释。在阅读本文时读者应该注意到，这些西方文献描写的主要是明清江南文人园林和清代皇家园林，对中国更广义上的山水文化（如阳宅风水，名山大川等）鲜有触及。对此，作者开篇即批判性地指出：这些言论本身就是东方主义文库的一部分，“自然”一词往往被普遍地等同于一个无差别的，概念化的，单一的“中国园林”。另外，为了对一个多世纪以来漫长而复杂的文化变迁给予层分缕析，文章必须依赖于对文献的广泛引用和分析来重现历史的真实过程。许多在19世纪的语境下产生的引言中对中国人和花园的记载在我们今天看来充满了误解，甚至歧视。对此，作者也指出：读者应以历史性的眼光来阅读。
在早期传教士们对中国的文字记载中——如法国耶稣传教士王志誠（Jean DenisAttiret）所作的《北京附近中国皇家园林特写》（1752）（A Particular Account of theEmperor of China’s Gardens near Pekin）——中国园林被推崇为以人工来模仿自然的典范；是一门关于不规则性和自然形态的至高艺术。在此后的近百年中，这一认识在诸多作者，包括William Temples, William Chambers等人的文章中得到持续的回应。19世纪上半叶，满清王朝与世界列强之间力量对比的变化导致了西方对中国和中国园林的重新诠释。
文章细致地揭示了在1850至1950的100年间，西方关于自然与中国园林的关系的态度发生了根本的逆转，由全盘肯定转为全盘否定。导致这一逆转的原因在本质上不是所谓的对中国山水园林理念的了解的深化，而应纯粹归咎于欧美本身对他们所认可的“自然观”的定义的改变。通过对这些园林史资料的深入剖析和解读，作者为当今更广泛深入的，关于近代西方意识对中国现当代社会的影响的反思提供了一个有益的启迪和有力的范本。
“Nature and Ideology in Western Descriptions of Chinese Garden” examines Western textual records of Chinese gardens from the late-18th to the early-20th century. The focus is not Chinese gardens themselves, but the interpretation of Chinese gardens developed in European and American main stream discourse. When reading this article, readers need to be aware in particular that these Western descriptions were based on Jiangnan scholar’s gardens and imperial gardens of the Ming and Qing periods, and that there was virtually no mention of Chinese landscape
culture in a broader sense (such as fengshui theory, and worship of mountains and waters). As the author has critically pointed out at the very beginning of this paper: these statements are part of the great archive of Orientalism, in which the term nature is deployed in an essentializing way with regard to an undifferentiated “Chinese garden”. Besides, in order to dissect cultural changes of over a century, the article has to rely on historical sources to reveal a long and complex process.Many of the quotations on Chinese people and garden from the 19th-century discourses appear misunderstanding, even offensive, to contemporary Chinese eyes. For this, readers should read the article in a historical perspective.
In early missionary records of Chinese gardens--such as French Jesuit Jean Denis Attiret’s book, A Particular Account of the Emperor of China’s Gardens near Pekin (1752)--the gardens were admired for their using of artificiality in creating an illusion of nature; an art of the irregular and the natural. In the following decades, this view endured through out the writings by authors such as Sir William Temples, William Chambers and beyond. Major changes in the power relationship between the Qing Empire and the rest of the world in the first half of the 19th century led to new interpretations about China and its gardens in the West. The article has convincingly shown that Western attitudes to the place of nature in Chinese gardens underwent a complete reversal in the hundred years from about 1850 to about 1950, and how this reversal owes less to any supposedly increased understanding of constructions of the idea of the garden in China than it does to changes in the construing of the idea of nature purely within Europe and America. Through his scrutiny of the historical discourses about Chinese gardens in the West, the author sheds light to a broader in-depth reflection of Western influences to modern and contemporary Chinese society, with the powerful example of a scholarly analysis.
栏目主持：吴欣/哈佛大学敦巴顿橡树园高级研究中心当代景观设计收藏主任与亚洲项目协调人
Dr.WU Xin, is the Ass. Curator of Contemporary Landscape Design Collection & Coordinator of Asian Programs at Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University.
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