晚清驻美参赞群体地域分布和出身结构探析

An Analysis on the Regional Distribution and Origin Structure of Counselors in the USA inthe Late Qing Dynasty

驻外参赞是晚清外交官群体的重要组成部分。晚清驻美参赞多分布于东南沿海的闽粤和苏皖浙地区,实与闽粤的侨邦环境和苏皖浙的人才地理优势息息有关。且这一群体多来自异途出身的候补捐纳官员,出身较低。一则国内壅滞的官场处境导致大量候补官员无缺可补;一则出使海外即获劳绩保奖,吸引候补官员为寻找仕途出路愿赴海外。1901年外务部成立以前,参赞多由公使私人选派,使该群体普遍来自公使的亲属同乡,同时也阻碍晚清职业外交官的发展道路。

Counselors abroad are an important part of the late Qing diplomats. Counselors in the United States in the late Qing Dynasty mainly came from southeast coastal Fujian and Guangdong and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui whose overseas Chinese environment and talent geographical advantage was closely related, and many of these counselors born low and alternate officials from the donation. One reason was due to stagnation of the domestic bureaucrats, no one could be assigned abroad, the other one was that some alternate officials were attracted by handsome award by working overseas. Before the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1901, the counselors were chosen by the minister, so that the many counselors came from the minister＇ s hometown, which hindered the development of professional diplomats in the late Qing Dynasty.