甲午战前清政府驻外使节回国后的命运与结局

The Fate and Endings of the Accredited Diplomatic Envoys In The Qing Dynasty Before the Jiawu Battle

甲午之前驻外使节经历了国外历练,他们成为了中国早期最具新知识、新思想的官僚群体。但回到国内,在政治上却基本上没有能发挥作用。原因一是他们普遍早逝;二是他们没能形成一个统一的政治势力;三是最根本的他们在当时的社会里是孤立的一群,是被国内正统看作为社会与文化的异己分子。正是这个特定的社会环境决定了这批早期驻外使节回国后的悲剧性命运与结局。

Being China's earliest bureaucratic group with the latest intelligence, the most up-to-date ideas and the greatest experiences abroad, the Qing Governments accredited diplomatic envoys before the Jiawu Battle should have played an influential role in Chinas politics. Yet, on the whole, they were not up to that expectation. The reasons for that could be summed up as follows: First of all, most of them died young; Second, they failed to form a united political force and third but not the least important, they were the isolated group in that specific social surroundings that decided their fates and endings after they returned home.