Qing Colonial Enterprise 清朝的殖民事業

Qing Colonial Enterprise: Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern China. by Laura Hostetler

University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (May 15, 2001)

Review
"This book makes a significant contribution to existing scholarship by drawing attention to the importance of visual representation in relation to the process of empire-building. This is a carefully researched, highly readable, and visually appealing work." - L.J. Newby, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"This book's comparative approach and exciting insights should prove influential both inside and outside Qing history; serious students of cartography, ethnography, and empire cannot afford to overlook developments in Qing China or this book." - C. Pat Giersch, Journal of Asian Studies"

Product Description
In Qing Colonial Enterprise, Laura Hostetler shows how Qing China (1636-1911) used cartography and ethnography to pursue its imperial ambitions. She argues that far from being on the periphery of developments in the early modern period, Qing China both participated in and helped shape the new emphasis on empirical scientific knowledge that was simultaneously transforming Europe—and its colonial empires—at the time.

Although mapping in China is almost as old as Chinese civilization itself, the Qing insistence on accurate, to-scale maps of their territory was a new response to the difficulties of administering a vast and growing empire. Likewise, direct observation became increasingly important to Qing ethnographic writings, such as the illustrated manuscripts known as "Miao albums" (from which twenty color paintings are reproduced in this book). These were intended to educate Qing officials about various non-Han peoples so that they could govern these groups more effectively.Hostetler's groundbreaking account will interest anyone studying the history of the early modern period and colonialism.

本書最有意思的是導論，作者把清朝政府與同時代歐洲的殖民帝國相提並論，她期期要告訴我們，從近代早期（early modern）觀點來看，中國與歐洲的差異沒那麼大。我們老用近代歐洲的標準，去衡量前近代的中國，才是有問題的。特別是在本書的兩個主題：地圖學與民族誌的發展上，我們看到兩方的經驗何其相似，儘管他們未必有密切的相互影響。作者的解釋是，這個時代的地圖學也好，民族誌也好，都是為了因應帝國擴張而產生的統治工具。他們反映出清朝或歐洲，要掌控邊疆陌生地帶（本書的例子是貴州）的用心與企圖。這樣的觀點在近來中國史研究中，得到不少呼應，比如Peter Perdue或Nicola Di Cosmo等人的作品。

本書不乏敏銳的觀察，特別是最後兩章。（這似乎是從作者博士論文中改寫得部份）比如作者發現，從乾隆到嘉慶的幾年中，清朝政府對於西南邊疆的態度產生了大的變化，官方與地方的齟齬日益增加。這個現象也反應在作者倚賴的史料－－各種「苗圖」之中。原本比較中立、溫和的口吻，轉變成為充滿敵視和輕蔑的論調。

不過，整體來說，還不能感到讓人完全滿足。雖然作者利用二手研究，對歐洲的歷史現象提供了豐富的描繪，但相形之下，讀來總感覺對中文材料的掌握有所侷限，分析或也能更為深入。