摘要：书藏古今，港通天下。宁波是一座向海而生，因港而兴的城市。为了向世界讲好宁波故事，宁波发布推出“双语宁波”栏目，将围绕历史、地理、人文、经济等多个方面聚焦“世界的宁波，宁波的世界”。
书藏古今，港通天下。宁波是一座向海而生，因港而兴的城市。为了向世界讲好宁波故事，宁波发布推出“双语宁波”栏目，将围绕历史、地理、人文、经济等多个方面聚焦“世界的宁波，宁波的世界”。
作为海上丝绸之路的起点城市之一，宁波自古就和世界各地往来密切。我们跟着宁波晚报“外国档案里的宁波”栏目，带大家换个视角，看看外国档案里的宁波是什么样子？
100多年前，老外为什么把天封塔叫“宁波斜塔”？
Why did foreigners call Tianfeng Pagoda "the Leaning Tower of Ningpo" over 100 years ago?
杜德维相册里的天封塔。
The portrait of Tianfeng Pagoda in Edward Bangs Drew's photo album.
要说在早期西方文献中，提及次数最多、面貌最清晰的一个宁波“景点”，非天封塔莫属。
In early Western literature, no Ningbo landmark is mentioned more frequently or described in greater detail than Tianfeng Pagoda.
1844年宁波开埠后，一批又一批外国人，对天封塔展开了360度无死角拍摄。
Following Ningbo’s opening as a treaty port in 1844, waves of foreign visitors documented this pagoda from every conceivable angle.
没有照相机时，他们用素描写生；后来有了照相机，有从塔下拍的，有从塔院门口拍的，有从塔顶拍老城的……天封塔在“石塔”时期的沧桑感，宁波老城星罗棋布的街巷格局，被镜头封存起来，酿成珍贵回忆。
Earlier, in the absence of visual recording tools, they captured it through life sketches; later, with the availability of the camera, photographs were taken from various perspectives–some from the pagoda’s base, others from the entrance to its courtyard, and still others from its summit, offering panoramic views of Ningbo’s old city with its scattered network of streets and alleys. Through these comprehensive lenses, the stone pagoda’s weathered appearance and Ningbo’s vintage layout were preserved, becoming treasured memories.
其中又以在大沙泥街自东向西拍天封塔视角最为“经典”。巍巍塔影倒映在水巷，不知有多少人拿它制作成了明信片。
One of the most iconic views was taken from Dashani Street, looking east to west, where the pagoda’s towering reflection could be seen in the canal. This perspective was so widely admired that it became a classic for postcards.
天封塔有一些向东北方向倾斜，西方人用“宁波斜塔”形容它，使之更有记忆点，也为它吸引了更多的“游客”。
Due to its slight northeast tilt, Western admirers dubbed it “The Leaning Tower of Ningpo,” a memorable designation that enhanced its distinctiveness and attracted further attention from name-seeking visitors.
上世纪80年代，宁波天封塔落架重修，结束了它作为“斜塔”的历史。
In the 1980s, Tianfeng Pagoda underwent a comprehensive restoration, and ended its era as a “leaning tower.”
“宁波斜塔”的得名
Coiner of “The Leaning Tower of Ningbo”
第一个用“宁波斜塔”称呼天封塔的人，是英国传教士美魏茶。他是1842年鸦片战争后，第一批来到宁波的西方传教士之一。
The term “The Leaning Tower of Ningbo” was first used by the British missionary William C. Milne. He was among the first Western missionaries to arrive in Ningbo after 1842.
美魏茶像。
Portrait of William C. Milne
从1842年12月到1843年7月，美魏茶在宁波停留了7个月时间，用日记形式将这段生活经历记录下来，汇编成洋洋洒洒的《宁波七月记》，连续刊登于在华出版的西文刊物《中国丛报》上。1857年，美魏茶出版英文著作《在华生活》，介绍宁波见闻时，用的也是《宁波七月记》里的内容。
From December 1842 to July 1843, Milne stayed in Ningbo for seven months and recorded his experiences in a diary, which was compiled into Seven Months’ Residence at Ningpoand published serially in the Western publication The Chinese Repository. This early work also served as a source for his more comprehensive publication in 1857, Life in China, where he recounted his experiences in Ningbo in the part ‘Real Chinese Life in Ningpo’.
美魏茶说他离开天一阁前往天封塔的一段，出自《在华生活》。
The passage where William Charles Milne describes his departure from Tianyi Pavilion for Tianfeng Pagoda is from Life in China.
抵达宁波后不久，美魏茶就把城中知名景点“一网打尽”，包括但不限于鼓楼、延庆寺、天一阁、天封塔。《在华生活》中有一张地图，《宁波及其郊区》，标注有天封塔、天一阁等点位。
Shortly after his arrival in Ningbo, Milne conducted an extensive exploration of the city’s most notable landmarks, including, but not limited to, the Drum Tower, Yanqing Temple, Tianyi Pavilion (aka. Tianyige Library), and Tianfeng Pagoda. In Life in China, there is a map titled Ningpo and its Suburbs, which highlights key locations such as Tianfeng Pagoda and Tianyi Pavilion.
彩色地图《宁波及其郊区》，大家可以自己在图上找天封塔、天一阁等。
Colored map Ningpo and Its Suburbs, where you can locate Tianfeng Pagoda, Tianyi Pavilion, etc. on the map.
“天封塔，被外国人称为‘宁波塔’或‘宁波方尖塔’。当你从镇海溯江而上，至宁波城五英里处，这座塔便是最引人注目的标志，对来访的外国人来说非常有吸引力。当他们进入甬城东门，再朝西南方向走，在数不清的街巷中穿行。突然间，一座160英尺高的宝塔映入眼帘。
“... T’ien-fung t’ah, named by foreigners of the ‘Tower of Ningpo,’ the ‘Pagoda of Ningpo,’ or the ‘Ningpo Obelisk.’ As you ascend the river from Chinhai [now Zhenhai District] and come within five miles of Ningpo, this is the most prominent object that arrests the eye; and, to foreigners who visit the city, it is a point of no little attraction. As soon as they enter the east gate of the city, they make for it, and wend their course through numberless streets, it abruptly bursts upon their view, rising 160 feet over their heads, and towering high above the surrounding houses.”
“这座塔是六角形的，七层高，共有二十八扇窗。每扇窗上都挂有一盏灯笼，当夜幕降临，灯笼燃起，方尖塔被照亮之时，景色极为华丽。”不过此景并不常见，只在特别重要的节日点亮。美魏茶说：“此景在我居甬期间，也仅得见一次。”
In describing a rare night spectacle typically observed during festivals, he noted that “This pyramid is hexagonal, and counts seven stories and above twenty-eight windows. At every window there is a lantern hung up; and when the obelisk is illuminated, which I have seen only once during my stay, the scene is very gay.”
1865年左右从民居缝隙中拍天封塔，拍摄者不详。
A photo of Tianfeng Pagoda taken through the gaps of residential houses around 1865, with the photographer unknown.
美魏茶观察到“这座建筑急需整修，因为它正日益变得破旧衰败，而且塔身已经有相当的倾斜，差不多可以称为‘宁波斜塔’……沿着塔内狭窄的木梯螺旋上升，我到达了顶层，从此处可以俯瞰到最好的风景——宁波全城及周边地区，山谷、村庄、群山、溪流及江河四周环绕。远处是连绵的远山，另一边是大海和岛屿。”
Milne elaborated that: “On my visit, the building was in much need of repair, as it was daily becoming more dilapidated, and had already deviated considerably from the perpendicular, so that it might not inappropriately be called ‘the Leaning Tower of Ningpo.’ .... By ascending a flight of narrow wooden steps that ran up in a spiral course through the interior of the column, I reached the uppermost story, from which one of the finest views one could desire opened: — the entire city and suburbs beneath; the valley of Ningpo, with its hamlets, villages, hills, mountain rivulets, and rivers all around; and, away in the distances, bounding the horizon, chains of mountains on the one hand, the sea with its islands on the other.”
“天风”：一种顺理成章的误读
A Reasonable Misreading of the Appellation ‘Tianfeng’
1843年，美魏茶离开宁波不久，一位叫罗伯特·福琼的英国植物学家与他错身而过，于当年秋天来到宁波。
In 1843, shortly after Milne left Ningbo, the British botanist Robert Fortune arrived in Ningbo that autumn.
罗伯特·福琼。
Robert Fortune.
在罗伯特·福琼眼中，宁波是个大城市，防卫坚固，四周有长达5英里的高高的城墙和壁垒。“城内有座‘天风塔’，从塔内的楼梯爬到130英尺高的塔顶上，你可以将整个城市以及周边的农村尽收眼底。”
To Fortune, Ningbo appeared to be a large, well-fortified city with high walls and ramparts extending about five miles. He noted, “The city itself is strongly fortified with high walls and ramparts about five miles round”. “A good view of the city and the surrounding country, as far as the eye can reach, is obtained from the top of a pagoda about one hundred and thirty feet high, having a staircase inside by which the top can be reached. This pagoda is named ‘Tien-foong-tah’.”
罗伯特·福琼并不是故意写错字，而是他打心底里认为，这座塔的名字就是“天边吹来的风”的意思。
The original characters “封 (bestowment)” and “风 (wind)” are both pronounced as ‘feng’, but Fortune did not confuse this couple of heterographs or make a spelling error; rather, he genuinely believed that the pagoda’s name meant “Temple of the Heavenly Winds”, instead of “Temple of the Heavenly Bestowment”.
在他的著作《两访中国茶乡》（1853年版）中，有一张天封塔的速写。巧合的是，这张绘画也同样出现在哥伯播义《市井图景里的中国人》（1860年版）一书中，可见这些早期来甬的英籍人士存在“共用图库”的情况。
In his book Two Visits to the Tea Countries of China (1853), there is a sketch of Tianfeng Pagoda, which also appears in George Cobbold’s Pictures of the Chinese (1860), suggesting that these early British visitors may have shared visual resources.
同一张速写，同时出现在左边的《两访中国茶乡》和右边的《市井图景里的中国人》中。
The same sketch appears in Two Visits to the Tea Countries of Chinaon the left and Pictures of the Chineseon the right.
罗伯特·福琼的误读不是孤例。1845年来到宁波的英国传教士、牛津大学文学硕士施美夫，在1847年出版的《五口通商城市游记》中，也将天封塔称为“天风塔”，认为它的意思是“天上的风”。
Fortune’s misinterpretation was not an isolated case. The British missionary George Smith, who arrived in Ningbo in 1845, also referred to Tianfeng Pagoda as “Tien-foong-tah” in his 1847 publication A Narrative of An Exploratory Visit to Each of the Consular Cities of China, interpreting it as “The Tower of Celestial Wind.”
施美夫。
Smith.
施美夫于1845年7月23日晚登临此塔，写下一段非常优美的文字。“拾阶而上，窗外景色一层比一层更为壮观、宏伟。脚下平展着一座繁华城池，芸芸众生正在辛勤劳作着。形形色色的物体、大大小小的尺寸、缤纷的色彩，增强了新奇的效应，给眼前万物平添了一种罗曼蒂克的情愫。极目远眺，林林总总的庙宇寺院、设计新颖的楼房、怪诞的建筑风格、雕塑奇特的牌楼、市政机构形形色色的徽章、公共建筑的不规则排列，凡此种种，构成了斑驳杂乱而绵延不断的一个群体。
Smith visited the pagoda on the evening of July 23, 1845, and wrote a remarkably vivid deion: “And as he gradually ascends, the view from the windows of each story is increasingly grand and magnificent. Beneath his feet lie the living masses of a populous city, teeming with busy toil. Every variety of form, size, and colour helps to heighten the novel effect, and imparts a feeling of romance to the objects before him. The numerous temples reared by native superstition, the curiously-devised buildings, the grotesque style of architecture, the elaborately-formed roofs, the strangely-sculptured arches, the various emblems of civic authority, and the irregular range of public buildings, form one successive group of motley objects, as far as the eye extends.”
“宁波城三面溪流环绕……城东，甬江横流，江上帆影重重。城墙以外，一马平川，土壤肥沃，物产丰富。三五十里外，山岭轮廓分明，远远浮在天际，使得眼前景致完美无缺。”
“On three sides the city is surrounded by streams .... To the east lies the river, with an assemblage of native junks on its waters. Beyond the walls an extended plain stretches forward amid a fertile and productive county, till, at the distance of ten or twenty miles, the bold line of hills, rising in the sky, gives a completeness to the scene.”
站在天封塔上往东侧看，拍摄者不详。
View looking east from Tianfeng Pagoda, photographer unknown.
施美夫感叹：“此时此地，游人啊，望着这感人的人生全景，你是否会理解一个置身于新世界之人的感受？”
He wrote with deep emotion: “Here, if anywhere, will the traveller, as he views the moving panorama of life, realize the feeling, that he is in a new world of men and things.”
元人董洵曾写过一首天封塔诗：“拾级登危塔，天高手可攀。千寻环晓郭，几朵压春山。鸟伫栏边稳，云生脚底闲。十年今一上，临眺始开颜。”与施美夫的感受异曲同工。
A poem about Tianfeng Tower by Yuan dynasty (1206-1368) poet Dong Xun (whose birth and death dates are unknown) resonates similarly with Smith’s sentiments: “Step by step, I ascend the precarious tower, reaching towards the heavens. // Encircled by a thousand leagues of cityscape, clusters press upon spring mountains. // Birds perch steadily on the rail, clouds leisurely gather below. // After ten years, standing at this vantage, I finally smile at the view.”
天封塔的重修
The Reconstruction of Tianfeng Pagoda
和美魏茶一样，施美夫也注意到天封塔的破败：“天灾人祸，使得宝塔受损严重，宝塔外表显示着岁月的痕迹，看上去有种摇摇欲坠的感觉。”
Like William C. Milne, George Smith also noticed the dilapidation of Tianfeng Pagoda: “It has suffered a larger than average proportion of disasters from casualties and the ravages of the elements. Its exterior bears the mark of age in the half-tottering appearance of the whole edifice.”
天封塔在1840年左右的修缮记录在中文史料未见，施美夫的记载反而对这段历史做出了补充。
Tianfeng Pagoda’s restoration around 1840 is not documented in Chinese historical sources, instead, George Smith’s account provides additional insight into this period.
宁波日湖城墙上拍，远处可见天封塔，20世纪初美国摄影师詹姆斯·里卡尔顿摄。
Taken from the city wall near what is now known as Sun Lake in Ningbo, this early 20th-century photograph by American photographer James Ricalton features Tianfeng Pagoda in the distance.
除了英国人，天封塔也留下了法国外贸部官吏奥古斯特·奥斯曼的足迹。他于1843年至1844年间到中国考察，回国后于1847年至1848年出版了3卷本的《中国、印度和马来西亚游记》。在叫作《中国出口贸易实地考察》的一章中，他提到了天封塔——
In addition to English recordings, a French official working for the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Auguste Haussmann, also left his mark on the Tianfeng Pagoda. He traveled to China between 1843 and 1844, and published his three-volume book Travels in China, India, and Malaysia(Voyages en Chine,Cochinchine, Inde et Malaisie)in 1847-1848 after he returned home. In a chapter called Field Trip to the Chinese Export Trade, he mentions the Tianfeng Pagoda -
“宁波具有大量的历史古迹。其中最引人注目者可能是一座七层塔……塔呈六边形，高约50米。该塔的每一层都有6扇窗户。整座建筑物的墙壁都遭严重损坏，到处都可以看到很深的缝隙，甚至还从中长出了嫩草，完全是一副残垣断壁。
“Ningbo boasts a large number of historical monuments. Perhaps the most striking of these is a seven-story pagoda .... The pagoda is in the shape of a hexagon and is about 50 meters high. Each floor of the pagoda has six windows. The walls of the entire building have been severely damaged, with deep cracks seen everywhere, from which tufts of grass emerge, making it a complete wreck.”
“过去在塔的每层都有一条带有弧形顶篷的走廊，但一场火灾烧毁了所有这些装饰。居住在塔后寺庙中的一个老僧掌握着整座建筑物的钥匙。只要付他几文铜钱，他就可以让外人进入其中。
“There used to be a corridor covered with arched roof on each floor of the pagoda, until a fire destroyed all these ornaments. An old monk who lives in a monastery located behind the pagoda is the custodian of the keys to the entire building where he brings in the foreigners for a few pennies.”
“我共计算出12个阶梯，共147级。这些阶梯就如同楼层与楼窗一样，随着接近塔顶，阶梯便逐渐变小。大家可以从脚下发现成千的弓形屋脊、许多寺庙、繁荣而又肥沃的辽阔平原、经过多处迂回而从视野中消逝的大浃江。
“I counted 12 stairs with a total of 147 steps. These stairs, like the floors and windows, become progressively smaller as one approaches the top of the tower, where one spots at its feet thousands of arched roofs, numerous temples, a vast plain of prosperity and fertility, and the Tahia River, which fades from view after a number of detours.”
“我在塔壁上发现了法国三帆舰‘阿尔克梅纳号’上多名海员题画的名字，该船曾于前一年访问过宁波。每逢节日时，整座建筑中会灯火通明，每扇窗户都挂一只灯笼，从而产生了一种令人赏心悦目的景观。”
“On the walls of the pagoda I read the names of several sailors of the French corvette called l’Alcmène, which had visited Ningpo the previous year. It is said that on festive days, the whole building is illuminated, with a lantern hanging from every window, thus creating a charming sight.”
天封塔，1848年英人画。
Tianfeng Pagoda, painted by British artist Frank S. Marryat in 1848.
奥古斯特·奥斯曼所提及的火灾发生在清嘉庆三年（1798）十二月初三夜。在这个夜黑风高的冬夜，点灯人逐级点燃天封塔的塔灯。未料到火星突然溅了出来，落在周围的木材板上。
The fire mentioned by Auguste took place on the third night of the 12th lunar month in 1798. On this dark and windy winter night, the lamplighter lit the lanterns of the Tianfeng Pagoda step by step. Unexpectedly, sparks suddenly splashed out and dropped onto the surrounding timber panels.
不知道在那个滴水成冰的夜晚，宁波人是如何看着天封塔一级一级被烧，是不是也有法国人看着巴黎圣母院被焚时的悲壮感。中国的地方志对此事的记载是：“新碑旧版，无一存者”。可能也就是在那之后，天封塔逐渐倾斜，成了“宁波斜塔”。
It can only be wondered how the people of Ningbo viewed the burning of the Tianfeng Pagoda level by level on that freezing night, and whether they felt the same sense of sadness as the French as they witnessed Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral being consumed by flames. The Chinese local record of this incident is: “New tablets and old inions, none survived”. Perhaps it was after that the Tianfeng Pagoda gradually tilted and became the “Leaning Tower of Ningbo”.
上世纪80年代，天封塔塔壁开裂日趋加剧，每当台风季节来临，危及周围居民。宁波人忍痛决定，对天封塔进行落架重修，于1989年重新对世人开放。
来源：江南水乡生活见闻
