马戛尔尼使团来华“名义”辨

关于1793年英国马戛尔尼使团来华一事,多种著作均称,使团是以给乾隆皇帝祝寿的名义来中国的。实际上并非如此。之所以产生祝寿说,非因英人冒借名义,实源于对英方致两广总督信件的误译。翻译的错位则是传统华夷观念的反映。

The Reason for Macartney Embassy to China

According to many academic works,Macartny mission visiting China in 1793 was under the name of celebrating birthday for Emperor Qianlong of Qing Dynasty.However,such claim is not possible to be true.The spread of the saying of celebrating birthday is not because that British made excuses.In fact,it is the influence of the traditional concept of domestics on Sino-Foreign Relations that lead to the mistranslation of the letter delivered to the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Provinces by the British authori...