历史大视野下的汉冶萍成败论

The Success or Failure of Han Yehping in a Broad Historical Perspective

对于汉冶萍的历史,从民国至当代,"失败论"一直占据主流。即使对它的贡献有肯定,也是以"失败"为前提,其讨论则基本囿于近代钢铁工业范畴。如果转换历史视域,突破"短时段"的视域与"非成功即失败"的传统思维,把汉冶萍公司的工业实践放到近代中国社会变革的历史脉络中省视,就可以对它的历史价值有新的发现。首先,汉冶萍筚路蓝缕,开创了中国钢铁工业的新纪元,其命脉一直延续到20世纪50年代,它培养的技术人才、购置的钢铁冶炼设备、摸索积累的采矿冶炼经验和教训成为抗战时期大后方的军工建设以及中华人民共和国建国后钢铁工业的孵化器;其次,它是中国近代工业史上唯一完整经历官办、官督商办、商办三种体制的公司,每一种体制变革,都是中国钢铁工业先驱在历史空间中作出的艰苦努力,它的最后挫败,让后来者对钢铁工业建设的特殊性有了更为深入的认识,钢铁工业走国有道路渐成共识;再次,它作为"东亚第一伟业",以崭新的生产方式、生活方式与社会组织形态打开中国人的传统眼界,成为其时工业启蒙的一面旗帜,并在抵御列强、"挽利权以塞漏卮"的工战中狙击洋铁与洋煤,被西人视为"黄祸"与"中国工战第一炮弹"。历史过程错综复杂,不能以所谓"历史局限性"与最后"必然"失败的庸俗历史决定论和目的论对汉冶萍的历史命运断然作出"失败"的评判。

In the history of Han Yehping,failure theory has always occupied the mainstream since the Republic of China.Even if its contribution is affirmed,it is limited to modern steel inclustry area on the premise of failure.If we change the historical vision and break through the traditional thinking that failure is not success,in the broad view of history,novel historical value can be discovered by putting the industrial practice of Han Yehping Company into a historical context of industrial development and social change in modern China.Without experiences and local technical talents in modern China,Han Yehping painstakingly created a new era in China’s steel industry,which stayed in business until the 1950 s.With the technical talents it trained,the steel smelting equipment it purchased,and the experience and lessons it accumulated in mining and smelting,Han Yeping not only became the military construction during the antiJapanese war period,but also the iron and steel industry incubator of the People’s Republic of China.Han Yehping was the only company which went through both the company system of government-controlled,government-supervised and merchant-managed.The final defeat of this company inspired the next generation to understand that the special nature of steel industry construction more profoundly made the state-owned road of steel industry gradually become a consensus.At the same time,as the first great industry in East Asia and a banner of industrial enlightenment,Han Yehping opened the eyes of Chinese with a new mode of production,lifestyle and social organization form.In the war of the industrial war between China and the West,Han Yehping was regarded as Yellow Disaster and The First Counterattack of China in the Industrial War.Since the historical process is complicated,we can’t make a failure judgment on Han Yehping’s historical destiny based on the so-called historical limitations and the last inevitable failure of vulgar historical determinism and teleology.