“好名立异非中庸”:文悌与晚清变局

Favoring Personal Fame,Preferring Being Different,and Deviating from the Golden Mean:Wenti and the Turbulent Politics in Late Qing

文悌出身没落的满族世家,一生历道、咸、同、光、宣五朝,见证了清王朝在内忧外患的冲击下从日薄西山到崩溃瓦解的整个历程。他暴得大名,首先缘于御史任上严劾康有为"保中国不保大清",这不但成为满汉保守派攻击"康党"的重要口实,所举各项"康党"罪状,亦成为戊戌党狱之关键证词。戊戌政变后,文悌外任河南府知府,参与筹议洛阳陪都事宜。庚子事变后,他积极运动各方权要,欲赴行在瞻觐而未果。辛丑两宫回銮,路经洛阳,文悌大肆铺张,竭力迎逢慈禧太后及其心腹,引起朝野侧目,却未能如愿升迁。文悌前后为官45载,以贵东道终仕,处处标榜满族利益,动辄挥舞"文死谏"的道德大旗。揭櫫其人其事,尤其是他在晚清一系列重大变局中的观察与因应,有助于认识满族中下层官员的政治心态与当时深刻的满汉畛域,丰富对相关人物史事的理解。

Born into a declining Manchu family,Wenti went through the rule of five emperors and witnessed the disintegration of the Qing Dynasty under the situation of internal disorder and foreign invasions.He first made a name for himself by insisting the impeachment of Kang Youwei as a royal remonstrator.He criticized Kang for his intention"to save China rather than the Qing government",providing the ammunition for the conservatives,both Manchu and Han,to oppose Kang and his camp.His allegation of the"crimes"committed by Kang Youwei and his camp became the testimony that contributed to the imprisonment of Kang’s followers.After the 1898 coup,Wenti was appointed as the Governor of Henan and deeply involved in preparing the plan of building the second capital in the city of Luoyang.After the Boxer Rebellion,he mobilized senior local officials to have an audience with the royal court which escaped from Beijing,but to no avail.The royal court made a stop in Luoyang on its way back to Beijing,providing Wenti a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to curry favor with the Empress Dowager and her loyal men.Wenti’s unscrupulous tactics caused an uproar both within the government and across the society.But he did not get the promotion he desperately expected.As a veteran official,Wenti worked for the Qing government for 45 years and ended his official career at a position in East Guizhou.He became a loyal defender of the Manchu interests and even threatened to commit suicide on a number of occasions to force the royal court to take his advice.Wenti’s perceptions and responses to the turbulent politics in late Qing shed important light both on the political orientation of the middle-and-lower rank Manchu officials and the deep divides between the Manchu and the Han,therefore enriching our understanding on that part of history in modern China.