本文简要考察了美国的中国形象知识来源,指出商人、传教士和外交官(军人)群体构成了美国对华直接观察认知的源头。这其中,在长达一个世纪的时间里,传教士通过著书立说,发行报刊,回国后巡回演讲,在对华关键问题上游说美国决策高层甚至总统本人等多种形式向美国各个阶层传递中国形象,成为影响美国中国观的重要的知识和舆论来源。 This article briefly examines the sources of China’s imagery knowledge in the United States and points out that the groups of businessmen, missionaries and diplomats (military) constitute the source of the United States’ direct observation and understanding of China. Among these, for more than a century, missionaries, through books and journals, issued newspapers and journals and returned to China to give speeches on lectures. They persuaded key U.S. officials and even presidents of the United States in many forms to pass on to all sectors of the United States China’s image has become an important source of knowledge and public opinion that affects the concept of the United States in China.