简论晚清驻外领事的选任

On Official Nomination of Consuls to Foreign Countries in the Late Qing Period

晚清驻外领事并非由皇帝亲自谕命,主要归所属公使直接奏调,设领晚期,外务部则屡订章程,以期将领事选用大权收归部有,但并未全然奏效。自始至终,领事选任深受中国传统官僚政治的影响,带有相当的主观性与随意性,同时,清政府不断借鉴东西洋外交官制的现成经验,以选出具有真才实学的领事。设领早期,领事选任的规制比较粗略,晚期则日趋制度化与规范化,与此相应,领事群体的职业化与专门化进程日益加快。

Consuls to foreign countries in the late Qing period were not named by the emperor personally but by ministers directly. In the later stage of establishment of consulate to foreign countries, the department of foreign af- fairs set up rules time and again with the aim of taking back the power of appointing consuls, but it did not work very well. Just so the official nomination of consuls was provided with equivalent subjectivity and arbitrariness ow- ing to be affected by Chinese traditional bureaucracy deeply. Meanwhile, the Qing government borrowed current ex- perience from western countries continuously so as to pick out the consuls to foreign countries of real learning. In the early period, the regulations were rough, while later, they were towards institutionalization and standardization gradually. Appropriately, the process of the professionalism and specialization of the group of consuls speeds up day by day.