明清来华西方人对妈祖文化的早期认知

明清时代来华的西方人对妈祖文化有所认知。最早把妈祖文化的信息和图像带回西方的是明代后期来华的西班牙人和葡萄牙人。最为全面地以近代文化眼光认知妈祖信仰的是清代后期来华的英美传教士。这两次西方人对妈祖文化的认知,由于其时代背景不同、进入中国文化考察的深度不同、来华西方人文化认知的手段和目的不同,其前后认知差异值得关注。

The Early Westerners View about Mazu culture during Ming and Qing Dynasties

The Westerners in China during Ming and Qing Dynasties already noticed Mazu Culture. It was the Spanish and Portuguese in late Ming Dynasty who brought the Mazu information and images back to the West. In late Qing Dynasty, the missionaries from Great Britain and America concluded the most comprehensive view about Mazu belief from contemporary cultural perspective. But these two perceptions concluded about Mazu culture are very different from each other because of their differences of historical background, investigation depth, cognition method and purpose, which deserve our concern.