晚清使官「入耶穌教國」對基督教的見證與誤讀－以晚清使官「使西日記」為中心

晚清使官出使「泰西」使中國人對基督教的認識由「旁觀」、「傳聞」進入了「親歷」、「見證」階段，由此關於「基督教」的種種誤解、謠傳、汙名化不攻自破。通過此種「親歷見證」，依據「使西日記」文本，晚清使官儘管對於泰西的器物政教風俗讚譽有加，對於「耶穌之道」的「自養光明」教義也表認可，但其對基督教則秉持一種反駁、質疑、排斥的立場。核心原因：第一，使官對基督教的理解附著慘痛的「耶穌教國」、「爭戰殺人」、「鴉片流毒」的現實背景；第二，使官對基督教義的認可以儒家「智仁」為標準，彼此在文化、價值觀層面有深刻的歧異，因此對基督教良風美俗的認可以儒家傳統倫理觀念為判準。由此導致晚清使官對基督教持有承認其「和美之意」的同時依然「質疑排斥」這一看似矛盾的立場，這也構成了基督教與中國近代思潮的跌宕起伏，同時也讓我們反復審視、評估、比較基督教的本土化事業，在慎重選擇中走向未來。

關鍵字

耶穌教國；愛天主；見證

並列摘要

The late Qing envoys to the West brought the Chinese understanding of Christianity from the stage of "observing" and "hearing" to the stage of "experiencing" and "witnessing", so that all the misunderstandings, rumors and stigmatization about Christianity were dispelled. Based on the diaries of envoys to the West, it can be seen that through such "experiencing" and "witnessing", the late Qing envoys, although praising Western artifacts, politics, religion and customs and recognizing the "self-cultivating light" doctrine of the "Way of Jesus", held a position of refuting, questioning, and rejecting Christianity. The core reasons for this are: firstly, the envoys' understanding of Christianity was based on the tragic background of "the states of Jesus", "war and murder" and "opium popularity"; secondly, the envoys' recognition of Christianity was based on the Confucian "wisdom and benevolence", and there were profound differences in culture and values between them, so their recognition of Christian virtues and customs was based on the traditional Confucian ethics. This led to the seemingly contradictory position of the late Qing envoys in recognizing Christianity's "harmony and beauty" while still questioning and rejecting it, which also constitutes the ups and downs of Christianity and modern Chinese thinking, and makes us repeatedly examine, evaluate, and compare the cause of Christianity's localization, and move towards the future with careful choices.