王修植与盛宣怀往来函札五通考释

Textual Research on Five Letters between Wang Xiuzhi and SHENG Xuanhuai

北洋大学堂(今天津大学)是中国近代史上第一所大学,1895年由津海关道盛宣怀创办于天津。因该校曾在1900年八国联军侵华战争中一度被毁,故其早期史料极为匮乏。上海图书馆藏"盛宣怀档案"中保存有北洋大学堂总办王修植与创办人盛宣怀往来函札16通,其中王修植致盛宣怀函札14通,盛宣怀致王修植函札2通,这些函札绝大多数均未公开刊行过。文章对其中5通未刊函札作了整理和考释,这些函札作于1895年至1898年之间,内容涉及王修植与盛宣怀的交往及北洋大学堂的教学、派遣留学生等史实,亦涉及戊戌政变前后的天津政情,具有重要的史料价值。

Beiyang University(now Tianjin University),the earliest university in the modern history of China,was founded in Tianjin in 1895 by Sheng Xuanhuai,Tianjin Customs Taotai.As the university was once destroyed during the Eight-power allied forces’invasion of China in 1900,its early historical materials are scarce.The"Archives of Sheng Xuanhuai"in the Shanghai Library contains 16 correspondences between Wang Xiuzhi,the President of Peiyang University and its founder Sheng Xuanhuai,including 14 letters from Wang to Sheng and 2 letters from Sheng to Wang,and most of these letters have not been published.Among them,five unpublished letters,which were written between 1895 and 1898,are collated,examined and interpreted in this paper.It is argued that these five letters are of important historical value,for they involve such historical facts as the exchanges between Wang and Sheng,the teaching of Peiyang University,the dispatch of students abroad,and most importantly,the political situation in Tianjin before and after the Coup of 1898.