清末法政学堂自修科考

Research on the Self-study Department of the Law and Politics School during the Closing Years of Qing Dynasty

清末"预备立宪,百度更新",清廷认为只有"竭力劝勉官吏,使之讲求法治之原理,以为推行之准则",新政方有制度之根。对于"未服官之人",各省法政学堂已开设正科、别科等进行西式法政知识的教育。而如何向庞大的在职官员推广西式法政知识,则是一件颇费思量的事。湖南法政官校设立自修科,让候补官员领取法政学堂校外讲义,自行研读并加以考核。宪政编查馆对这一学习模式加以变通,将适用对象推广于在职官员,并咨令各省法政学堂一体遵行。法政学堂自修科的设立,有助于清末政府官员完善知识结构,也有利于这一群体适应新颁法律的需要。

During the making of the provisional constitution at the end of Qing dynasty, many institutions of the Qing government were undergoing change. The Qing court believed that only through advising and encouraging officials to learn the new political system could they carry out the principles of the rule of law. Only if officials took these principles as their guide, then the institutional foundation could be laid for a new political system. As for official candidates, the Law and Politics School for each province established departments to implement Western law and political education. However, popularizing Western law and political knowledge among the large group of incumbent officials was a thorny issue at that time. The Law and Politics School of Hunan province created the self-study department mode, which asked the official candidates to undertake self-study through the extramural lectures provided by the Law and Politics School which gave these candidates an assessment for their performance. This self-study mode had been modified by the Institute of Constitutionalism Preparation and Investigation and applied to the incumbent officials, and moreover, the Institute of Constitutionalism Preparation and Investigation also required the Law and Politics School of each province to adopt this mode. The establishment of self- study departments in the Law and Politics Schools facilitated the change of intellectual structure and mode of thinking among Qing officials as well as the adaptation of Western laws to the Qing dynasty.