这是在摄影技术出现之前的清乾隆时期，英国人画笔下的大清影像；

这些历史水彩画记录了没有相机前的世界；

这本画册第一次为英国人乃至欧洲人呈现了相对真实的中国形象；

让英国人乃至欧洲人看到了这一遥远国度古老而神秘的世态风情。

它是中西方交流史上一页鲜活的见证，也堪称富于人类学意蕴的一套民族志图集。

▲书贩-《中国人的服饰和习俗图鉴》（1814年）

英文备注译文：

在中国这样一个专横的政府中，很难想象新闻自由；也就是说，每一个选择的人都可以在没有任何以前的许可证的情况下从事印刷或书商的职业，或者不将他可以印刷的作品提交给政府指定的任何检查员，或将其公开出售；但是，他必须抓住机会，亲自承受公务员对工作倾向的印象可能造成的一切后果，中国人在文学方面没有取得任何重大进展，更不用说在科学方面了：他们在自己国家的历史、道德和实践法学方面最为出色。他们的戏剧作品与希腊人的戏剧作品一样，他们的小说和道德故事更好：但最受尊敬的作品是四本应该由孔子编写的经典书籍。它们的印刷不是像我们这样用活字印刷，而是用一页大小的木块印刷；而这种模式似乎早在基督教地区之前就已经使用了。

英文原文：

IN so arbitrary a government as that of China , it would scarcely be supposed that the press should be free ; that is to say , that every one who chooses may follow the profession of a printer or a bookseller without any previous licence , or without submitting the works he may print or expose for sale to any censor appointed by government ;but then he must take his chance to suffer in his person all the consequences that may result from the impression that may be made on the minds of the civil officers as to the tendency of the work . A libel against the government , an immoral or indecent book , would subject both printer and publisher to certain punishment both in his person and purse . The Chinese have not made any great progress in literature , and still less in the sciences :they most excel in the history of their own country , inmorality , and in practical jurisprudence . Their dramatic works are constructed on the same model as those of the Greeks , to which it is hardly necessary to add they are infinitely inferior . Their novels and moral tales are better : but the works in most esteem are the four classical books supposed to be written or compiled by Confucus . Their printing is not performed by moveabletypes , like ours , but by wooden blocks the size of the page ; and this mode appears to have been in use long before the Christian aera.

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