斷裂與延續：嘉道時期北京天主教會的書籍刊刻

Discontinuity and Continuity: The Publishing of Chinese Books by the Beijing Catholic Churches,1790-1840

嘉道時期（1796-1840）是西學東漸史與中國天主教史研究的薄弱環節，探討嘉道時期天主教會在北京的書籍刊刻活動，既可以從文本層面溝通明末清初與晚清西學東漸的關係，又可以從跨文化視角豐富中國書籍史的研究。自利瑪竇入華以來，北京即是天主教在華書籍刊刻中心。十八、十九世紀之交，湯士選任北京主教期間，重刊及新編譯了至少15部書籍，掀起了鴉片戰爭前中國刊書傳教的最後一波小高潮。嘉慶十年（1805）嚴禁西洋人刊書傳教案爆發，北京各天主堂的書籍、書板被大量查禁，教會書籍刊刻遭受重挫。由於傳教士與中國教徒提前轉運等緣故，一些書籍與書板在歷次查禁中得以倖免，因此嘉道時期北京天主教會的書籍刊刻仍在延續。鴉片戰爭後，隨著門戶的開放與教禁的解除，部分書籍重新公開復出，明末清初與晚清西學東漸通過文本實現合流。

The Apostolate through Books functioned as an important means of disseminating Catholicism in late imperial China. This article investigates the publishing of Chinese books by the Beijing Catholic churches during the period when Christianity was banned by the central government from 1790 to 1840. As the bishop of the Beijing Diocese, Alexandre de Gouveia published and republished at least fifteen Chinese Catholic books after 1790, which constituted the final climax of the Apostolate through Books before the Opium War. In 1805, the Qing government carried out strict rules to prohibit missionaries from publishing Chinese Catholic books. However, some books and woodblocks survived this prohibition because missionaries and Chinese Catholics had transferred them in advance. After the lifting of the ban on Christianity, these books again became legal publications and were widely circulated in the late Qing. I argue that, although the 1805 imperial ban marked an abrupt discontinuation of the Apostolate, these printed books served as a medium to facilitate the continuation of the Catholics’ evangelistic effort. By examining this undercurrent of book circulation in the mid-Qing dynasty, this article bridges the two periods of Sino-Western interactions in the late Ming and the late Qing, which have often been researched separately in previous scholarship. Focusing on an understudied aspect of publishing, this article also contributes to the general study of Chinese book history from a cross-cultural perspective.