欧美同学会成立时间考

On the Foundation Date of Western Returned Scholars' Association

欧美同学会是民初由顾维钧、周诒春等欧美归国留学生发起成立的留学生联谊团体,在其存续的百年之间,其会员以知识精英的身份在政治、社会、文化舞台上扮演着重要的角色。但长期以来,对于欧美同学会的成立时间,却有1911年、1912年、1913年、1915年四种不同的说法。通过梳理欧美同学会原始会史档案,细考发起人之回忆和当时新闻界之报道,对该会认同的欧美同学会成立于1913年之说,作了详细的分析和推定。

Western Returned Scholars＆#39;Association refers to the organization founded by western returned students like Gu Weij un and Zhou Yichun in the early years of the Republic of China.As intellectual elites,the members of the organiza-tion have played important roles in political,social and cultural activities in the period of a hundred years.Concerning the foundation date of the association,however,scholars today can hardly agree with each other about four possible founda-tion dates coexisted,namely in the year of 1911,1912,1913 and 1915 respectively.Although it is officially acknowledged that the association was founded in the year of 1913,we still lack persuasive evidence to verify it.By analyzing the origi-nal archives,examining the remarks of the founders and reviewing the news reports of that time,this paper aims to verify the foundation date of the Western Returned Scholars＆#39;Association.