The Meaning of Crisis and the Crisis of Meaning in History:An Interpretation of the Anglo-Chinese Opium War

中英鴉片戰爭的危機與意義一個歷史人類學的研究

本文是一歷史人類學的研究。人類學家很早就把理念（ideology）及行動（action）視為研究對象。但由於人類學家強調社會文化系統是一種貫時性的整體，他們往往把行動當作文化或社會架構中的要素來分析。換言之，這種研究的立場不合於事件（event）的歷史分析。相反的，歷史學家一直對事件的分析有著濃厚的興趣。他們把歷史架構當作一種整體，因而往往強調事件在時間上的連續性。基於本文是一歷史人類學之探討，筆者欲對歷史變遷之研究提出一套新的觀點來銜接上述兩學科之間的差距。具體言之，本文乃探討導致中英鴉片戰爭的事件並重新作一評估。鴉片戰爭是中國近代史上的一個轉捩點而且歷史學家們早已對之有了一套詳盡的文獻材料。理論上本文乃針對某些西方學者，尤其是費正清（John K. Fairbank），對鴉片戰爭之誤解作一批評。事實上，筆者著重於他們對導致衝突的中國朝貢貿易制度之誤解，並作一新的詮釋。透過本文，筆者不僅是想揭露導致這場危機的文化差異因素，而更重要的乃是指出目前汎行的歷史分析中所表現的以西方文化為中心之功能論及決定論觀念的偏見。

This essay is an exercise in historical anthropology. While ideology and action have long been the object of anthropological study, anthropologists have traditionally analyzed them as elements within a total cultural or societal framework. Because of their emphasis upon the sociocultural system as a synchronic whole, anthropologists have been ill-equipped to deal with the study of events, which is simply social action as viewed within a historical context. Historians on the other hand have traditionally been interested in the study of events. Their emphasis is less upon the social or cultural motivations of actors and events than it is upon how the events themselves are constituted within a total historical sequence. This essay is an attempt to bridge the gap by offering a different perspective to the study of historical change. Specifically, it is a reinterpretation of the events leading up to the Sino-British Opium War, a focal turning point in modern Chinese history. As an object of study, the Opium War has already been well documented by historians. Theoretically speaking, my thesis is a critique of certain Western interpretations of these events predominantly that of John K. Fairbank. Empirically, I focus primarily upon their misinterpretation of the Chinese tribute/trade system, which was the major source of conflict between the British and the Chinese prior to the war. Through this analysis, I not only attempt to expose the roots of cultural misunderstanding on both sides which eventually led to crisis, but more importantly, I try to point out the Eurocentrism of functionalist and determinist notions implicit in contemporary historical analysis. The present manuscript is an unrevised version of a author's master's thesis presented to the department of anthropology, University of Chicago in March, 1977. Since the writing of this thesis, the author has expanded upon the ideas here and empirical analysis presented here as part of a larger project, the results of which will not be immediately forthcoming, On December 6,1839,trade with the British will be stopped forever'(in paraphrase 0f Lin Tse-hus(H.P. Chang 1964:206)