天津教案与晚清外交

The Tianjin Jiao'an(Religious Incident)and Chinese Diplomacy during the Late Qing Dynasty

天津教案起于民教冲突,影响及于遣使、觐见等近代中西关系史上的重大问题。1870年10月,清政府就该案作出惩凶和赔款决定,由于法国政府对处理结果不满意,中法在此之后还有后续交涉。在交涉中,清政府不但拒绝了法方处死地方官的要求,同时亦拒绝将重新谈判天津教案、解决觐见问题作为递交国书的条件,最终迫使法方让步。清政府派遣崇厚赴法,虽然只是为了向法国道歉,遣使带有临时性质,但如果从中国走向世界、融入国际大家庭的视野来考察的话,崇厚出使法国具有积极意义和影响。为防止类似事件的重演,总理衙门拟定八条传教章程,希望以此约束传教士,防止民教冲突,但终因外国列强的反对和阻挠而失败。法国和其他列强对在华传教士的袒护导致19世纪下半叶教案连绵不断、愈演愈烈,最终爆发1900年的义和团运动。

The Tianjin Jiao'an(religious incident),starting from a conflict between Western missionaries and the local Chinese,had an impact on major issues in the history of modern Sino-Western relations,such as the dispatch of Chinese envoys and the right of Western diplomats to have an audience with the Chinese emperor.In October 1870,the Qing government decided to punish those culprits responsible for the incident and pay an indemnity,but since the French government was not satisfied with the outcome,there were subsequent negotiations between China and France.During the negotiations,the Qing government not only refused the French demand for the execution of local officials,but also refused to renegotiate the Tianjin Jiao'an or ensure that Western diplomats had an audience with the Chinese emperor as a condition of presenting their credentials.This eventually forced the French to make concessions.Although the Qing government sent Chonghou to France on an ad hoc mission to convey its apology,his dispatch had a positive significance and impact if viewed from the perspective of China's"go-global"integration into the global community.In order to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents,the Zongli Yamen(predecessor of the Foreign Office)drew up eight statutes on missionary activities in the hope of restraining the missionaries and preventing conflicts between them and local people,but it failed due to the opposition and obstruction of foreign powers.France and other powers'unprincipled protection of the missionaries in China led to a series of increasingly violent incidents in the second half of the 19th century,culminating in the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.