William Frederick Mayers:Contributions To The Cultural Communications Between China And The West

William Frederick Mayers(1831-1878), the Chinese Secretary to Her Majesty’s Legation at Peking during the reign of Tongzhi, came into China in1859. And he had a close relationship with Zeng Jize. During the20years staying in China, on one hand, he took an active part in the diplomtic affairs, such as the Margary Affair and the Negotiations on Woosung Railway. On the other hand, he dedicated himself to the promotion of the communications between China and the West. He not only introduced the West to China through issuing such papers as Research on the Westerners Entering into China, which turned him to be among the early introducers of Marco Polo to China, but also wrote various papers on China to the Western world on such journals as Notes and Queries On China and Japan, The China Review. The Record of Marvels; or Tales of the Genii issued on the former journal made him the third westerner following K. F. A. Gtzlaff and Samuel Wells Williams to translate Liao Chai Chih Yi. As more and more westerners entering into China after Opium War I, with a watchful eye on the public demands, William Frederick Mayers compiled such books as the Treaty Ports of China and Japan, the Chinese Reader s Manul, Treaties between the Empire of China and Foreign Powers, the Chinese Government, and the Bibliography of the Chinese Imperial Collection of Literature etc. Mayers made a clear panorama of China’s politics, history and culture through introduing Chinese treaty ports, diplomatic affairs in Qing dynasties, government fabric, historical and cultural words and expressions, the history of literature compilation, thus promoting communications between China and the West. Then the author attempts to make some explorations with three chapters into the Mayers’s contributions to the cultural communications between China and the West through comprehensively introducing his activites and works.