英国汉学家詹姆斯·萨默斯(James Summers)教授于1863年出版了《汉语手册》,从学术史来看,该书能够站在普通语言学与比较语言学的角度,相对全面地考察了汉语的语言现象,许多观点非常精到,得出的一些关于汉语的研究结论,都已达到当时语言学界的前沿水平,值得重视。本刊2011年第1期曾刊发该书的《前言》部分译文,为了进一步引起对外汉语学界对詹姆斯·萨默斯这部重要著作的关注,本刊特地约请翻译并刊发该书的《绪论》部分,标题系本刊编辑部所加。 The English sinologist Professor James Summers published the Handbook of Chinese in 1863. From the perspective of academic history, the book can stand in the perspective of general linguistics and comparative linguistics and relatively comprehensively examine Chinese Many of the views are very precise. Some conclusions reached about the study of Chinese language have reached the forefront of linguistics, which deserves attention. In order to further arouse the concern of the Chinese scholars of Chinese as a foreign language to the important work of James Summers, this magazine specially requested to translate and publish the book’s “ Introduction ”section, the title department editorial department added.