谣言与外交--华盛顿会议前“鲁案直接交涉”初探

Rumor and Diplomacy:A Preliminary Exploration of the Rumor of "Direct Negotiation between China and Japan on the Shandong Issue" before the Washington Conference

1921年华盛顿会议开幕前,中日两国间兴起一股有关"鲁案直接交涉"的外交谣言,它暗示了北京政府试图直接交涉的想法。两国政府起初所进行的私人沟通,既成为直接交涉谣言的缘起,又成为北京政府能够成功辟谣的事实根据。北京政府辟谣的过程,也是政府外交的现实主义和国民外交的理想主义发生冲突的过程。外交总长颜惠庆运用公开外交原则以及他与社会舆论精英的"私交网络"对公众舆论进行了较为成功的疏导,既缓解了北京政府因直接交涉问题所陷入的被动局面,又巧妙运用民意作为政府外交后盾,摆脱了日本强烈要求中日两国政府直接交涉的纠缠,使山东问题得以提交华盛顿会议讨论。

On the eve of the 1921 Washington Conference (formally known as the International Conference on Naval Limitation), there were rumors about 'direct negotiation between China and Japan on the Shandong issue,' implying that Beijing intended to negotiate directly with Japan. The fact that the Chinese and Japanese governments had initially entered into communication via private intermediaries served both as the source of the rumor and as a piece of evidence for Beijing's successful refutation of the rumor. The process of refutation involved a clash between the pragmatism of government diplomacy and the idealism of citizen diplomacy. Using the principle of open diplomacy and his 'personal network' of elite public opinion, the foreign minister Yan Huiqing successfully guided public opinion. In so doing, he saved the Beijing government from the passive state it had fallen into as a result of the issue of direct negotiation, and made skilful use of public opinion as a support for official diplomacy. He was thus able to throw off Japan's strong demands for direct negotiation and to pass the issue to the Washington Conference for discussion.