谈王韬与英国形象的“去夷化”

摘要

Around the Opium War , the image of Britain in the eyes of the Chinese changed from a "barbarian"country into an"un-barbarian"country.During this process, Wang Tao, one of the influential scholars in late Qing Dynasty played an important role in his shaping the unique image of Britain .He not only exculpated the "barbarian"image from Britain, but also depicted it as a prosperous , benevolent and righteous "Utopia"which was far better than contemporary China in many places .He presented a brand-new interpretation on the Sino-British relations after the Opium War .For the first time , he juxtaposed this witnessed Brit-ain to"Utopia"which could match the old China in history .In this way , Wang Tao narrowed down the actual "status gap"be-tween China and Britain .%鸦片战争前后，英国形象在中国人眼里经历了从“夷”到非“夷”的过程，其中，颇具影响力的晚清文人王韬起了十分重要的作用。王韬对英国形象作了别具一格的塑造，他不仅将英国从“夷”类形象中开脱，还把英国描画成一个富强仁义、在很多地方远胜当时中国的理想国。他对鸦片战争后的中英关系作了全新的阐释，首次把其亲见的英国塑造成一个能够与历史上的中国媲美的“乌托邦”形象，最大限度地拉近了鸦片战争后中英两国间实际的地位差距。