丁日昌与陈兰彬

Ding Ri-chang and Chen Lan-bin

丁日昌是晚清洋务运动的骨干、同光时期名臣,陈兰彬是晚清官派留美学生的监督、中国首任驻美公使,两人都是晚清洋务运动时期从广东走出的蜚声海内外的政坛人物,相互之间曾有过相当密切的交往与共事关系。据考证和分析,他们相互结识是在同治二年(1863)五至八月间,地点是在广东的高州。此后,两人一直保持着不同寻常的友谊。丁日昌曾多次向曾国藩举荐陈兰彬,尤其是在同治九年(1870)办理天津教案期间,他力荐陈兰彬担任官派留美学生监督,带领学生出洋,从而使陈兰彬迈出了人生旅程上新的步伐,并为其日后担任中国首任驻美国、西班牙、秘鲁公使奠定了基础。丁、陈二人友谊关系的基础,主要是他们在思想上有着强烈的共鸣,包括对于当时整个时局的认识,对于如何学习西方之所长以治国图强,对于整顿吏治、开展留学教育和派遣驻外使节、保护华侨等,他们都有不少的共识。正是基于这些共识,他们曾共同开创了派遣留学生出洋、保护海外华工和华侨利益等晚清史上一些开风气的壮举,为后人所称道。当然,作为尚未脱离封建主义思想羁绊的清朝官员,他们也都存在着维护封建统治秩序和儒家纲常伦理的历史局限性。事实说明:丁、陈两人在政治上同属晚清时期具有一定进步倾向的洋务派官员,而在思想文化上则同为中体西用论者。

Ding Ri-chang was the backbone of the Westernization Movement in the Late Qing Dynasty and a famous official of Tongguang Period. Chen Lan-bin was the supervisor of Chinese students officially sent to the United States in the Late Qing Dynasty, and China＇s first minister in the United States. Both were Guangdong politicians with high reputation during the Westernization Movement in the Late Qing Dynasty. They had close contacts and working relationship. According to textual research and analysis of this article, they got to know each other in May - August of the Tongzhi year （ 1863 ） ; the location was Gaozhou in Guangdong. Since then, the two had maintained an unusual friendship. Ding Ri - chang had repeatedly recommended Chen Lan-bin to Zeng Guo-fan, especially during the ninth year of Tongzhi （1870） when dealing with Tianjin Church and Missioners cases. He recommended Chen Lan - bin as supervisor of Chinese students to U. S. to lead the students abroad, so that Chen made a new life journey pace, and laid foundation to his future as the first Chinese minister to the United States, Spain and Peru. This article showed that the friendship between Ding and Chen was based on their common ideology. They had a lot of consensus, including in understanding the current situation at that time, in how to learn from the strong points of the West in order to govern the country and make it strong, in rectifying officials, in conducting overseas study, in sending diplomatic envoys, and in protecting overseas Chinese. It was based on these consensus that they had jointly created a number of pioneering events worth being praised in the late Qing Dynasty, such as sending students abroad, protecting the interests of overseas Chinese laborers and overseas Chinese. Of course, as Qing Dynasty officials with feudal ideology, they also had their historical hmitations, in maintaining the feudal goveming order and Confucian rules and ethics. The facts show that politically Ding and Chen were both Westernization Group officials with progress tendency of late Qing Dynasty, ideologically and ctdturally, they were both holding the opinion of keeping the Chinese tradition as main stream while taking use of Western theories as tools.