作为创世隐喻的自鸣钟——反思明末清初时期传教士引入的钟表与机械知识  

From Self-Sounding Clocks to the Clockwork Metaphor: Re-examining Jesuit Missionaries’ Transmission of Clocks and Mechanical Knowledge in Late Ming and Early Qing China

作　　者：苏文捷 SU Wenjie(Department of Art and Archaeology,Princeton University,Princeton,08544,USA)

机构地区：[1]普林斯顿大学艺术与考古系,美国普林斯顿08544

出　　处：《自然辩证法通讯》2022年第10期14-23,共10页Journal of Dialectics of Nature

基　　金：国家社科基金重大项目“西方与近代中国沿海的图绘及地缘政治、贸易交流丛考”阶段成果(项目编号:20&ZD233)。

摘　　要：明清时期被介绍到中国的自鸣钟绝不仅是外交礼物或西洋奇器,钟表及其相关的机械知识也是传教士向中国士人学者阐释基督教宇宙观的重要媒介。天地万物有没有外在的设计者和推动力?这是早期现代中西对话中浮现出的核心宇宙观差异。在辩教著作中,寰宇的秩序被类比成精准运行的机械钟,以论证必然存在创造天地且调停万物的终极钟表匠。在十六到十七世纪欧洲机械与力学知识的发展脉络中,实证数理方法其实始终和神学理论交叉碰撞,它们作为一个有机的整体被介绍到明清中国。反观本土尤其是清宫设计的钟表,并非只限于技术接受,而是在图像学层面与西方宗教观进行了深度对话。Jesuit missionaries’ presentation of clocks to Ming-Qing China transcended mere diplomatic gifts or utilitarian exotica.This paper demonstrates how the Jesuits employed clocks and the related mechanical knowledge to address the fundamental gulf between early modern Chinese and European cosmologies:was the universe purposefully created or were the ten thousand things self-generated spontaneously?In catechism treatises targeted at Chinese literati readers,natural orders were compared to clockwork mechanisms to extrapolate Christian creationism.Clocks and mechanical knowledge transmitted to Ming-Qing China reflected the complex interconnection between science and theology in early modern Europe.At the Qing court,it was not only the technology but also the iconographic capacity of clock design appropriated to animate local religious beliefs.

关 键 词：自鸣钟 基督教创造论 机械世界观 耶稣会传教士 明清西学 

分 类 号：N09:Q94[自然科学总论—科学技术哲学]