清之前的傳統中國是否為一個「帝國」，是新清史研究中的一個基礎性問題，美國學者歐立德認為在歐洲論述裡，中國從「王國」躍升為「帝國」與滿清入關建立多民族聯合政體的大清國有關。本文通過對十七世紀耶穌會中國年信的量化研究、文本分析，發現歐洲人指稱中國確實存在一個從「王國」轉變為「帝國」的過程，但是，該轉變並非與明亡清興同步，轉變的原因也不是因為清帝國的建立，而是與傳教士對一脈相承的中國認知的深化有關。不可否認的是，清朝新政權給傳教士帶來了新感覺，在「統治不同民族的政體」這個維度上強化了「帝國」的觀感。耶穌會中國年信是一種重要的西文中國史料，本研究即是一個應用舉例。

Can the traditional China from before the Qing dynasty be considered an “empire? This is a fundamental problem in the scholarship of the New Qing History. According to American scholar Mark C. Elliott, the foundation of the Qing dynasty as a multi-national joint regime made European missionaries begin to designate China as an “empire.” This article, however by means of quantitative studies and textual analysis of the Jesuits’ Annual Letters from China in the seventeenth century, concludes that while there was a change in terminology from “kingdom” to “empire,” it did not correspond with the Ming-Qing dynastic transition, and neither did it stem from the establishment of the “Qing Empire.” Rather, the change was as a result of the deepening knowledge of China itself. There is no denying that the new regime of the Qing strengthened the sense of “empire” in the aspect of multinational state

傳統中國政體；帝國；王國；耶穌會年信

traditional Chinese polity; empire; kingdom; Jesuits’ Annual Letters