苏报案前的《苏报》及相关史事考

The History of Su Bao Prior to the“Su Bao Case”

关于早期《苏报》及其相关史事,在晚清至民国时期的各种相关记述中,或语焉不详,或言之不确。加之早期《苏报》以及相关史料有很长时间未得到研究者开发利用,因此早期《苏报》的真实面目始终模糊不清。依据早期《苏报》和盛宣怀档案等第一手资料,考证出《苏报》由日商背景的胡铁梅、生驹悦夫妇于1895年底在上海集资创办。1898年10月,转让给陈范。无论是胡铁梅夫妇主持时期,还是陈范接办之后,《苏报》有两个特色十分凸显:其一,大量转载中国香港、中国澳门以及日本、新加坡等地的中文报刊,成为国内与前述海外报刊进行新闻信息交流的通道;其二是对中国政治表现出高度的敏感性,对戊戌政变、己亥建储以及清末新政等均有跟踪报道,并表现出明确的支持变法维新的立场。尤其是清末新政期间,由关注教育问题进而关注学潮,设“学界风潮”栏目,并日趋激进。《苏报》的表现固然是由于受到晚清时期上海崇尚新事物风气的影响,但是陈范以及汪文溥趋新、趋变的思想也是促成《苏报》言论日趋激进的关键性因素。

Various accounts on the early history of Su Bao-its history prior to the Su Bao Case(1903)-during the late Qing and early Republican era have been either extremely vague or largely inaccurate.The documents on the early history of Su Bao have not been made available for scholars for a very long time.Therefore,there have been very few indepth research on its early history.Our current understanding of its early history has been by and large the same as that during the Republican era.However,with the increasing availability and accessibility of myriad historical materials(especially the construction of databases on modern newspapers and periodicals),many historical documents related to the early history of Su Bao have been located,which has laid a solid foundation for a deep analysis of its history.Drawing on the early editions of Su Bao and Sheng Xuanhuai Documents,as well as other primary sources,this article uncovers the history of the creation and transference of Su Bao,while demonstrating the historical changes of political opinions and positions of Su Bao during its early days by combing through its"Public Opinion Sections".Finally,this article adopts an innovative research approach by partially reproducing a piece of newspaper that is no longer extant through big data reconstruction.