首译《红楼梦》的外国人留下宁波老照片

陈瀚

1966年，擅长撰写外国人在华经历的英国历史学家查尔斯·德雷格（Charles H·Drage）出版了一部传记《龙廷洋大臣》（Servants of the Dragon Throne），这部传记的主人名叫包腊（Edward Charles Bowra）。4月初，这部书的中文版终由广西师范大学推出。通读这本书籍，不禁发现包腊和宁波竟有一段如此深厚的缘分。

包腊是谁，怎么会在宁波生活

1863年，当时已被外国人控制的清海关在英国招聘雇员。此时的包腊不过22岁，作为伦敦海关的雇员，刚刚作为意大利独立战争英国远征军的一员归国。或许是在意大利的经历，让包腊不满足于手头繁琐的工作。这一年，他在一场宴会上偶遇了大清海关的招聘官，机缘巧合之下，他决定应征，去中国这个神秘国度看一看。

抵達中国后的包腊，第一站是天津，不久就调到了上海。1866年，包腊又远调广州粤海关，在任上，他被任命为中国首次访欧使团斌椿使团的秘书，实际负责使团的日常生活和常规工作。这个使团在欧洲民间受到了空前的争议，也领略了不少新鲜事物，包腊都一一在他的日记中予以记录。相比于斌椿等人的日记，包腊或许为我们提供了一个新的视角。

1867年，包腊接到了清海关总负责人赫德的调令，被派往宁波，出任浙海关宁波税务司的头等供事。在宁波，包腊待了四年，直至1871年才被调回广州，出任粤海关的负责人，并于1874年回英国休养时去世，终年33岁。

1867年的宁波，用包腊的话说可谓“风平浪静”。当时的宁波已开埠23年之久，是“五口通商”中的一个通商口岸，英国人对宁波寄予厚望，故而在江北岸形成了外国人居留地，并在此设立了领馆，不远处就是浙海关。但事实出乎预料，上海港迅速崛起，宁波港的货物贸易量只能用平淡二字形容，江北岸相比于上海的租界，也是逊色得多。

在抵达宁波时，赫德为包腊提供了每月325两饷银的酬劳，并再三叮嘱包腊要牢记“你是中国官员，而不是外国官员”，“你的职责是在你服务的口岸内，与各级官员维持亲密友好的关系”，同时还要“尽你所能，为商业发展提供各种便利，助合法经营者一臂之力”。赫德的考虑不无道理，包腊的前任林纳（J·K·Leonard）并没有很好地履行这一职责，在宁波的工作不尽如人意。

初到宁波的包腊心情并不好，在宁波的第一年，他没有被选为蒲安臣使团的成员（清政府1868年向海外派遣了中国近代第一个正式外交使团，可是这个使团却是由一个外国人——前美国驻华公使蒲安臣率领的，故称作蒲安臣使团），这让他感到忿忿不平。这种情绪一直到他的第一个孩子艾赛尔（Ethel Bowra）出生，才烟消云散。

在宁波的几年，对包腊的家庭生活来说是极其重要的。因为他的孩子艾赛尔和塞西尔（Cecil Bowra）相继出生，这让包腊欣喜不已，他还在给赫德的信函中提到了这些事情。1869年，清廷嘉奖包腊，勉励其在清海关的工作岗位上兢兢业业。包腊的工作得到了“雇佣方”的最高肯定。至于他的儿子塞西尔，在日后的中国海关史上，有个更为人所知的名字叫做包罗，在赫德的提携下，包罗在北京见证了自日俄战争直至袁世凯称帝的历史，从而成为清海关、民国海关最为重要的官员之一。

将《红楼梦》作为文学作品进行翻译

包腊在宁波的工作并不繁重，因而有不少的闲暇功夫。包腊把精力都花在了读书和摄影上。在宁波的头两年，包腊在江北岸参加了当地的小型读书会，在德雷格的传记中提到包腊主讲了两次，一次是主讲“与加里波第并肩战斗”的故事，另一次的主题则是谈论耶稣会的创始人依纳爵·罗耀拉（Ignatius Loyola）。

而影响最为深远的则是《红楼梦》的翻译。《红楼梦》现在被认为是中国古典小说的巅峰，可在清末，《红楼梦》才刚刚“解禁”并流行开来，很多在华的外国人把《红楼梦》的文字视为很好的汉语学习教材，于是出现了不少译本，但这些译本的宗旨是帮助学习汉语，因此翻译水平并不高。包腊则不同，他决心将这部小说作为文学作品进行翻译。在宁波他翻译了前八回，并在1868年发表于《中国杂志》（The China magazine）之上，这也是《红楼梦》第一个较为完整的文学性质的英文选译本。近几年来，国内外红学界、文学界、翻译学界都开始重视包腊译本，像任显楷、王鹏飞等学者就发表文章，称包腊翻译的《红楼梦》（包腊译本作《The Dream of the Red Chamber， Hung Low Meng， a Chinese Novel Literally Transla-ted by E.C.Bowra》）在一些文字翻译上极合韵脚，翻译水准很高。

留下201张关于宁波的老照片

而对于宁波地域文化研究来说，宁波是中国最早的开埠口岸之一，外国传教士和在甬外国人留下了大量照片，包腊也不例外。现在留下的包腊相册共有两本，早先存放于英国的一些公藏机构，近年来被拍卖，流于私人之手。好在这批照片有一部分收录于哲夫编的《宁波旧影》之中，英国、法国的两所高校也都在数年前完成了这两批相册的数字化工作，才让我们一睹包腊所拍摄的宁波风情。这些照片总共有201张，其中有136张明确注明或被证明摄自宁波，另有12张疑似摄于宁波。以上“身份的证明”要归功于外国高校的一些学者和宁波本土图像研究爱好者的共同努力。

包腊所拍摄的照片大致分为三类。最多的就是纯景观式照片，包腊的取景地相对比较集中，拍摄的是宁波老城、镇海、鄞县（集中于天童、育王、鄞江桥）一带的城乡景观。当时宁波老城中诸如城门、天封塔、天后宫、佑圣观等一些地标建筑和名胜古迹均在其中，这其中如佑圣观、天后宫等早已因各种原因而不复存在，宁波老城的面貌也是今非昔比。

在老城的照片中有一张孩儿塔的照片。孩儿塔也叫宁波义塔，其实就是处理死去的孩子的尸体的“公共建筑”，宁波籍诗人白莽（他的另一个笔名殷夫更为人所知）的名诗《孩儿塔》就是以此为意象。这帧照片珍贵之处在于它清晰地反映了孩儿塔实体建筑的外观，从而为近代宁波慈善史、卫生史研究提供了帮助。

鎮海的照片大多集中于招宝山，鄞县的照片则将鄞江桥周边、天童育王周边的景色反映得一览无余。当然一百五十多年前的鄞江桥、招宝山、阿育王塔和现在比是大不一样的。

第二类是江北居留地的照片。这一类的照片主要以人物和建筑为主。建筑主要反映了浙海关以及整个江北岸沿岸的风景。在包腊的镜头下，那些具有浓郁西方风格的建筑、江北岸的帆轮都一一呈现在我们的眼前。宁波港虽说“风平浪静”，但也别有一番近代城市的景象，这和对岸的宁波老城截然不同。当然包腊的照片中还有不少江北岸普通外国人、传教士及其随眷的肖像，或因年代久远，已不可详考了。

最后是场景和人物特写的照片。这类相片的数量非常少，不过寥寥几张，大多是包腊在旅途中偶然所拍，譬如阿育王寺所照的香客和在招宝山寺院中所拍的当地乡民。值得注意的是在鄞江一带的相片中，包腊拍摄了几张采石场工人工作和休息的场景。鄞江一带素以产石闻名，所产梅园石等石料颇具盛名，至今在鄞江还有石宕旧迹。不过百余年前的人是如何采石的，大多只有文字的记叙，不过片鳞半爪，这几张照片为我们留下了相当珍贵的记录。

包腊在调离宁波后，似乎对这个港口还念念不忘。1870年维也纳世博会，包腊奉命为中国馆组织展品，他想到了宁波。不过德雷格的传记中是这么写的：“唯有曾经任职的宁波港让他感到意外，在那里收集到的展品很糟糕，且没有代表性。他自作主张，增加了选送物品种类，如家具、珠宝、银器、瓷秞器皿和漆器，还有帽盒、宁波塔（义塔）模型……”或许在包腊的眼中，这座城市有许多值得回忆的地方吧。

In 1966， Charles H. Drage published ， which describes foreigners who served as Chinese government employees in the Qing Dynasty （1644-19111）. The lead heroes in the story related by the modern UK historian specialized in the studies of foreigners in China is Edward Charles Bowra （1841-1874） and his son Cecil Bowra （1869–1947）. The Chinese version of this book was published in early April 2018 by Guangxi Normal University Press.

Edward Charles Bowra and Ningbo

In 1863， Bowra was employed at age 22 in England. Back then， he had come back from an expedition he fought for the independence of Italy and was working as an employee for London Customs. He happened to run into a Qing Government official at a banquet in London. The Chinese official was recruiting foreigners for the Chinese Maritime Customs. Bowra decided to get employed and take a look at the mysterious country in the east.

Bowra worked in Tianjin for a while before he was transferred to Shanghai. In 1866， he was transferred to Guangzhou. He organized the 1866 tour for the Chinese Secretary of Customs Pin Chun. This group of Chinese officials in Europe caused some controversies and saw some fresh things. Bowra jotted down what he experienced with the Chinese delegation. In comparison with the European travelogues written by Pin Chun and other officials， Bowras diary about this overseas visit may provide a different perspective.

In 1867， he was appointed by the Inspector-General Sir Robert Hart to a key position in the customs service in Ningbo. Bowra considered Ningbo as a backwater place. Back then， Ningbo had been operating as an international trade port for 23 years and there was a foreign community in the city and a UK consulate. But Shanghai boomed exponentially as a trade port whereas Ningbo saw mediocre trade transactions. He was very unhappy as he wasnt chosen when the Chinese government appointed Burlingame envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to head a Chinese diplomatic mission to the United States and the principal European nations.

But the births of his daughter Ethel Bowra and his son Cecil Bowra in Ningbo brought immense happiness to the father. He mentioned his happiness in letters to Inspector-General Sir Robert Hart. In 1869 the Chinese Government commended Bowra for his outstanding work at his position in the customs service.

In the first two years of his stay in Ningbo， Bowra had a lot of time. He enjoyed reading and taking photographs. He translated ， a classical novel of the Qing Dynasty. It was in Ningbo that he translated the first eight chapters， which was published in The China Magazine in 1868. In recent years， Bowras translation of this novel has been receiving new interest of Chinese scholars.

In the history of Chinese Maritime Customs Service that started operation as of 1854 in China and was staffed mostly by foreigners， Bowra is considered a noteworthy sinologist and linguist. His son Cecil Bowra grew up to be a key official of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service in the years of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China （1911-1949）.

Old Photos of Ningbo

Ningbo was one of Chinas earliest ports open to international trade in the 19th century. Foreign missionaries and other foreigners in Ningbo took a lot of photographs， leaving a rich visual record of Ningbo in these years. Edward Charles Bowra left 201 photos in two albums. The photos were originally in collections of some public institutions in UK， but they are now in private collections through auctions in recent years. Some of the Bowra photos are reprinted in  compiled by Zhe Fu. A few years ago， the 201 photos were digitalized by a university in UK and a university in France， and the digital photos have been made available to the world.

Of the 201， 136 were definitely taken in Ningbo： some have captions that specify they were taken in Ningbo and some were identified and proven to have been taken in Ningbo. Experts are not 100 percent sure about 12 photos but they have reason to assume that they were taken in Ningbo. The identifications of these 136 photos are attributed to the scholars in foreign universities as well as researchers in Ningbo specialized in old time photos and images.

The Bowra photos can be roughly classified into three groups. The biggest section features landscapes of what is known as the old-town of Ningbo， Zhenhai and Yinxian County. Some objects in the photos are landmarks of the old-time Ningbo. Many landmark buildings seen in the photos are long gone.

The second group records the scenes of the foreign settlement in whats known today as Jiangbei District. In these photos one can see the office building of the Zhejiang Customs， some buildings in foreign architectural styles， and some foreigners， missionaries and their family members.

The third group is the smallest： no more than ten in this group. Bowra took these photos while traveling around. In the photos are some pilgrims at Ashoka Temple in Ningbo and some local rural residents at a Zhaobaoshan Temple. A few photos were taken at a stone quarry in Yinjiang. Historically， stone quarries in Yinjiang produced fine quality stone materials as building blocks. Historical records about the stone quarries in Ningbo are largely in texts. Thats why the few photos taken by Bowra are very valuable.