東亞知識是如何在十九世紀時的大英帝國產生的呢？這看似是一個極廣泛的議題而難以入手。然而，只要我們從政經帶動文化嬗變的角度思考，並以實際外交事件作為歷史線索，旋即得出比較確實的歷史圖像。鴉片戰爭後英國利用不平等條約《南京條約》在華獲得龐大利益，不單擾亂了東亞的政治秩序，瓦解了過去以中國為首的漢字圈文化權力，更驚醒了列強，急趕加入瓜分中國及周邊東亞地區的需要，以此制衡英國在遠東的勢力。為了箝制法國於安南（越南）日益擴張的勢力，並遏止美國於江戶開港後的利益，英國先後於這些東亞國家簽訂不同的條約，逐步派遣譯員及領事駐守這些地區，處理外交及商務工作。 然而，英國在過去並無累積深厚東亞知識，十九世紀中葉才剛剛步履蹣跚地建立漢學講席，目的就是要成立譯員課程，協助處理中英外交實務，那麼，在同一時間又如何突然應付日益繁重的東亞情報及外交工作，特別是處理東亞發揮著極大影響力的日本呢？本文以多項學界首次出土的原始歷史文獻（包括外交部檔案（ Foreign Office records）、大英博物館檔案（ British museum archive）、牛津大學檔案（ Oxford University archive）及國王學院校史檔 (King’s College University archive)、倫敦印度辦公室圖書館檔案（ India Office Library archive）等，倫敦印度辦公室圖書館檔案（ India Office Library archive）、英國的傳道會檔朚 (Church Missionary Society)等等，旨在發掘英國倫敦大學國王學院第二任漢學教授佐麻須（ James Summers; 1828―91）的事蹟，並以他的生平作為經緯，反映大英帝國在功利目的主宰下，如何利用學府培養外交譯員，建構出譯員晉升帝國官僚的機制，並同時展現漢學教授熱心參與其中，競逐爭相成為帝國官員的過程。本文以佐麻須作為案例，展現英國如何在急需大量東亞譯員過程中，產生錯誤東亞知識，然後又因為大英帝國本身政界、文化界、出版界等多種雄厚權力協力交織下，逐步矯正誤識，在英國漸漸建構出富有學術意義的東亞研究。

How did knowledge about the East Asia come into beingin the 19th century? The topic seems too broad tobe tractable, unless we realize that cultural production about East Asian was tightly connected with the contact and conflict between the BritishEmpire and the East Asia countries. Ever since China had been defeated by the British inthe opium War, the power structure in East Asia was severely upset. Formerly, China was the powerhouse ofEastAsia. Its defeat by the Britishalarmed other Western countries so that France andthe US immediately tightened their military and diplomatic grip of Edo andAnnam respectively. To protect their commercial interest and to keep watch of other western players in the EastAsia, the British tried to extend the Chinese student interpreter trainingprogram and include other East Asian languages, such as Japanese,Vietnamese, Siamese and Korean. The plan was idealistic and ambitious, but did the British have the intellectual and material resources to execute suchplan? The paper will discuss indetailsthe production of Chinese and Japanese knowledge in Victorian Britain. Our discussion will be focused on James Summers, the second Chinese professor at King’s College London, who used various academic institutions, includingthe BritishMuseum and the IndianOffice Library, as platform to produce knowledge about East Asia and disseminate it through print media. In order to understand how knowledge about East Asia was produced in the historical context, we shall also discuss James Summers’ interaction and competition with other sinologists at the time, such as Thomas Francis Wade, who also aimed to anbe imperial interpreter and the leader ofthe program. The paper will use anextensive original archival material extracted from the archives Foreign Office, British museum, Oxford University, ChurchMissionarySociety to aid the discussion.