5月4日李约瑟研究所讲座—英国汉学的知识转移:书籍、印刷出版史及伦敦国王学院第二任中文教授佐麻须

Abstract

James Summers occupied the professorship of Chinese for two decades at King’s College London from 1853-1873. He was also the 3rd ever Professor of Chinese in England. Also worth mentioning is that his pioneering effort in promoting the study of Japanese culture in Victorian Britain, before Japanese studies was even instituted as an academic subject here. However, this marvelous record does not help rescue him from oblivion. Hitherto, only two biographical portraits mark Summers’ historical significance. There seems to be reason explaining that: neither British Sinologists or Japanologists consider him a peer. His scholarships were also berated despite having published the first Chinese textbook in England at the Oxford University Press.

Adopting the approaches from print culture and book history, this paper will reassess the contribution of this controversial figure in early British Sinology. We will also see the print machine he used and the newspaper that are claimed to be the earliest Japanese and Chinese newspapers printed overseas. James Summers set up his own press to disseminate knowledge of East Asia to a broader readership. He believed printed media was the most effective medium to transform British perceptions of Asia, which in turn would help support Britain’s foreign political, commercial and missionary enterprise. He also orchestrated the printing of catalogues and journals in his capacity as the library assistant to the British Museum and the India Office Library. We will also examine what did the institutional entity “library” mean to him if we reorient his role as a printer, editor, and cataloguer of producing Sinosphere knowledge.

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