中國民歌〈茉莉花〉的西傳與東歸

The Journey of a Chinese folk song Moli Hua（Jasmine Flower）

〈茉莉花〉現已成為舉世認同的中國民歌代表，然因其在各地方的變調頗多，導致海峽兩岸各自最風行的此曲詞譜竟然不同，本文即嘗試追索兩者的傳遞過程，由於乾隆朝英使馬戛爾尼（George Macartney, 1737-1806）來華時，曾將此曲以五線譜錄出西傳，惟因其詞譜兩不相合，故筆者也力圖釐清當時傳譯歌詞音義所發生的一些訛誤。馬戛爾尼使團中人所攜回的〈茉莉花〉旋律，後並透過普契尼（Giacomo Puccini, 1858-1924）的知名歌劇《杜蘭朵（Turandot）》而傳開至世界各地，故文末亦將透過該劇裡的中國意象，略抒對異文明之間交流與會通的感想。

Moli Hua is the most renowned Chinese folk song. However, through the process of transmission by word of mouth, this song has developed many variants. In fact, the most popular version of Moli Hua sang by people in mainland China is different from that in Taiwan. An attempt is made in this article to compare the two dissimilar versions and track their course of evolution.
When the British ambassador George Macartney (1737-1806) visited Qing China during the reign of Qianlong, a member of the embassy wrote down the melody and lyrics of Moli Hua on western musical staff. This version of Moli Hua is later spread throughout the world because the melody is featured in Puccini (1858-1924)'s famous opera Turandot. Nevertheless, inaccuracies have occurred during music notation and lyric transliteration, for research is also done to understand the possible mistakes.
In the last part of this paper, the author also takes the Chinese image in Turandot as an example, and discusses the misinterpretation that often occurs during the interaction between different civilizations.