略论严修与徐世昌的交谊

Friendship Between Yan Xiu and Xu Shichang

严修与徐世昌不仅有天津同乡、同年中举和曾经在翰林院同僚的关系,而且是脾气秉性相投,学问上互相切磋,政治上可推心置腹互相关照的密友。以往有关论著对徐世昌、严修积极投身戊戌变法维新,参加康梁阵营的种种政治活动介绍不充分,评价亦不够公允,本文有所补正。指出:严徐交谊是旧时代士人之间长期维系友朋关系的楷模,对新时代将中华民族的传统道德的精华融入新型人际关系应当有若干借鉴和启迪意义。

Yan Xiu and Xu Shichang were from the same hometown and passed the imperial examination in the same year. Both of them had been members of the Imperial Academy. Moreover, they were such congenial and close friends that learned from each other and assisted each other in political career. However, the former relevant works gave insufficient introduction and unfair judgments on their political activities such as participating in the Reform Movement of 1898 and joining in the camp of reformer. This paper just tries to make correction and improvements to this deficiency. The friendship between Yan Xiu and Xu Shichang set a good example of the scholars in old times who realized a long-term fellowship and will have enlightenment significance for us to merge the excellent moral tradition of Chinese national into a new type of relationship among people in the new age.