晚清国书与中西国家间信息传递方式的变迁

Diplomatic Credentials and Communication in the Late Qing Dynasty and the Change of Information Transmission Between China and Western Countries

西方公使在觐见清朝皇帝呈递国书时的礼仪问题,向来被视为清朝君臣固守传统的表现,实际上鸦片战争后清政府对英美等国的观感已开始发生转变,从而使国书重新出现,并成为中美交往伊始的信息传递载体。而国书内容与性质的变化,不仅是英美等有约国对华传递信息方式变迁的表现,还与清政府应用西方常驻使节制度的过程联系在一起,促使晚清时期清廷对西方国家的信息传递出现双重路径。深入分析晚清时期中国对西方国家传递信息方式的变迁历程,可以发现它是中西方多种因素共同参与、互相调适的过程,充分表明了清代中国外交转型的复杂性。

The question of the protocol for Western ministerial audiences with the Qing emperors has always been regarded as a manifestation of the stubbornness of Chinese emperors and officials. In fact, the Qing government’s perception of Britain and America began to change after the First Opium War. Not only was this a manifestation of changes in the way that countries with treaties such as Britain and America communicated with the Qing government, but it also was related to the process of the application of the Western resident envoy system. These changes produced the two paths for the transmission of information from China to western countries in late Qing period. A deeper analysis of the changes in the way China conveyed information to the West during the late Qing dynasty reveals that it was a process in which multiple factors affected how China and the West participated and adapted to each other, fully demonstrating the complexity of China’s diplomatic transformation during the Qing dynasty.