Abstract: Jean Bap tistéDu Halde’s Description ? de l’em pire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise ( Paris, 1735) was a major source on China for European1 Du Halde’s work included introductions of non-Han group s in the southwest China that emphasized a tense situation between non-Han group s and the central government, stressed the contemptuous attitudes of Han toward non-Han groups, and defined the non-Han regions as colonies of the Qing government1 The colonial nature of the southwest China was clearly delineated in the attached maps. These Jesuitmaps probably influenced both eighteenth-century and modern Western scholars’understandings of the Qing government1 This essay analyses reasons for these clearly different political conceptions of southwest China between Jesuits and Chinese, and suggests that Western scholars’colonial perspective may offer some valuable lessons for Chinese scholars’studying the formation of China as a nation.

摘要： 作为18世纪欧洲人中国知识重要来源的《中华帝国全志》一书,在介绍中国西南几个少数民族之际,事实上是将其所在地区定位为清朝的殖民地,并突出其与中央政府的紧张关系,强调汉人的轻蔑之心。耶稣会士的这种认识更通过地图的绘制而直接影响了18世纪一些欧洲制图家,甚至可能影响到当代西方学者对清朝国家性质的定位。本文分析了耶稣会士与中国人对西南地区政治属性认识差异产生的原因,认为西方学者的殖民地研究视角对于研究中国国家形成的历史有一定借鉴意义。