FGS, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2026, pp.56-63.
Print ISSN: 3106-5503; Online ISSN: 3106-5511
Journal homepage: https://www.fgsjournal.com
DOI：https://doi.org/10.64058/fgs260106tccrp
刘玉宇（Liu Yuyu）
摘要：本文结合两次中西“礼仪之争”的历史语境，对霍米·巴巴在《作为奇迹的符号》一文中提出的殖民话语之双重性与权威性观点进行批判性探讨。文章通过考察明清时期西方传教士与中国政权之间的接触与碰撞，以及由此引发的霸权更迭现象，同时重新审视现代帝国主义兴起前后“东方主义”话语结构的转换。文中指出，在十七至十八世纪的中国，以利玛窦“易服”“儒化”策略为典型的文化适应政策，推动了宗教传播与文化交融，但尚未形成完整的殖民统治体系。张星曜《天儒同异考》提出的融合框架，则为文化杂糅与同化开辟了可能性。然而随着帝国主义全球扩张，西方秩序凭借技术与军事优势逐渐取得话语霸权，马戛尔尼使华事件遂成为两种世界秩序冲突的象征。文章认为，第一次礼仪之争期间中西交往仍保持着相对对等状态，而第二次争议则标志着全球性帝国秩序的确立。
关键词：礼仪之争；文化适应；东方主义；话语霸权
作者简介：刘玉宇，中山大学外国语学院英语系副教授，研究方向：英美文学、西方文论、海外汉学研究，电邮：flslyy@mail.sysu.edu.cn。
Title: Two Controversies over Chinese Rituals—From the Practice of Acculturation to the Formation of Western Discursive Hegemony
Abstract: This article undertakes a critique of Homi K. Bhabha’s idea of the ambivalence and authority of colonial discourse in his article “Signs Taken for Wonders” in relation to the historical context of two Sino-Western controversies over rituals. It examines the encounters and tensions between Western missionaries and Chinese regimes in Ming and Qing Dynasty, and the hegemonic alternation hence resulted, while at the same time reassessing the shifting configurations of Orientalism before and after the emergence of modern imperialism. The article argues that in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century China, Western missionaries advanced religious transmission and cultural exchange through strategies of acculturation, exemplified by Matteo Ricci’s adoption of Chinese attire and his Confucianizing approach. These practices enabled a degree of cultural integration without producing a fully articulated regime of colonial domination. Zhang Xingyao’s Tianru Tongyi Kao (An Examination of the Similarities and Differences between Christianity and Confucianism) proposed a syncretic framework that opened up possibilities for cultural hybridity and assimilation. However, with the rise of global imperialism, Western systems of order increasingly secured discursive hegemony through technological and military superiority. The Macartney Embassy to China came to symbolize the clash between two incompatible world orders. The article concludes that during the first controversy, Sino-Western interactions still retained a relative condition of parity, whereas the second controversy reflects the consolidation of a global imperial order.
Keywords: controversy over rituals; acculturation; Orientalism; discursive hegemony
Author Biography: Liu Yuyu, associate professor of the English Department, School of Foreign Languages at Sun Yat-Sen University. Her research interests include British and American literature, critical theory, and China Studies overseas. E-mail: flslyy@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
Received: 06 Oct 2025 / Revised: 29 Apr 2026 / Accepted: 30 Apr 2026 / Published online: 30 Apr 2026 / Print published: 30 May 2026.
