游於藝：奕繪與天學

A Playful Mind: I-Hui and the Learning from Heaven

本文利用檔案與文集，重構道光時期的滿人親貴奕繪（1799-1838）與天學間的關係。本文用「天學」指稱傳教士所輸入的西學與西教。
奕繪以詩詞聞名，雖然人們知道他和傳教士有往來，但是並不知道他曾經被北京教友視為教會的救星。本文討論為何奕繪在北京教友的心目中會有如此重要的地位？本文認為這和奕繪從小就生長在西洋物質文化圍繞的環境中有關：他家三代都有學習西學的經驗；他本人對於西方曆算和器物構造有相當深入的理解；再加上他曾署理欽天監事務與傳教士交好。他對西洋事物的看法頗異於當時漢人士大夫所主張的「西學中源」之主流觀點。北京的教友因而認為他是在嘉、道時期，傳教士人數減少，傳教事業青黃不接的時代，能為教會振衰起敝的天選之人。雖然奕繪有著以滿人為主體，用清語整合各種不同知識的視野，但是其他的材料則顯示，早慧的他對天學的興趣主要出於好奇，以之增添生活情趣。他對傳教士的幫助，則是因友誼和職務之故。除了遊心於玄，又因太早過世，奕繪終不免讓北京教友的殷殷期盼落空。

This paper studies how a Manchu noble, I-hui (1799-1838), was once seen by the Christian community in Beijing as the savior of the Catholic Church in early nineteenth century.
After a collection of his poems was published in the late twentieth century, I-hui became renowned as an important literary figure. Scholars have also long known about his friendship with Catholic missionaries in Beijing. What we did not know, however, is that the Christians of Beijing held him in such high esteem. I made this new discovery in archives of the Italian cardinal and hyperpolyglot Giuseppe Gasparo Mezzofanti, housed at the University of Bologna.
This paper argues that the Beijing Christian community viewed I-hui as a savior because of his upright character, his familiarity with Western material culture, and his friendship with missionaries. However, the Christians may have wrongly attributed their hope. Based on archival materials and I-hui’s own writings, we recognize that I-hui had a Daoist religious orientation. He helped the missionaries because of the personal relationships he cultivated with them long before he held the position of deputy in the Astronomical Bureau. Even though he believed that Manchus should also engage in Western learning, I-hui viewed Christianity and Western material culture as a source of his daily intellectual entertainment. His knowledge of Western learning and material culture created a gulf between himself and his Han literati contemporaries who argued that Western learning had originated from China.