晚清士大夫对古埃及的历史书写

晚清士大夫对古埃及史有着浓厚兴趣,就纪年方面,他们把古埃及年代与先秦纪年接榫,在书写过程中表达了自己的历史观,如林则徐在书写埃及史时故意不用武则天纪年。就物质层面,晚清士人对古埃及的金字塔和木乃伊特别关注。就典籍层面,晚清士人被掌握话语霸权的西方人误导,误以为承载古埃及文明的亚历山大图书馆被阿拉伯人焚烧,从而对阿拉伯人口诛笔伐。就文明层面,晚清士人在埃及文明哺育希腊罗马文明的基础上,将拉克伯里"中国人种西来说"进行改造,构建出埃及文明源于中国的说法,这样的西学中源循环说为晚清中国学习西方文明提供理论依据,唐才常、王树楠等人认为西方文明实际上最早发端于中国,我们只是"礼失求诸野"而已。

The Historical Writing of Ancient Egypt by Intellectuals in the Late Qing Dynasty

Intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty had a strong interest in the history of ancient Egypt.In terms of chronology,they matched the ancient Egyptian chronology with Pre-Qin chronology,and expressed their own historical views in the writing.For example,Lin Zexu didn’t designate years by Wu Zetian’s reign title when writing the history of Egypt.In terms of materials,the intellectuals paid special attention to the pyramids and mummies of ancient Egypt.In terms of ancient books,the scholars were misled by the westerners who had discourse power and wrongly believed that the Alexandrian Library,which was the carrier of ancient Egyptian civilization,was burned by the Arabs,so they condemned them.In terms of civilization,according the theory of Egyptian civilization nurturing Western European civilization,the scholars reformed Lackbury’s Theory of"The Western Origin of Ancient Chinese Civilization"and constructed the theory that Egyptian civilization originated from China.Such cyclic theory of Western civilization coming from China provided theoretical basis for China to learn western civilization in the late Qing Dynasty.The intellectuals,such as Tang Caichang and Wang Shu’nan,believed that Western civilization actually originated in China,and Chinese just"go to a foreign country and get back the etiquette".