【作者】 黄树生；

【导师】 马亚中；

【作者基本信息】 苏州大学 ， 中国古代文学， 2005， 博士

【摘要】 近代中国,是一个风雷激荡的变局时代,不但阶级矛盾和民族矛盾异常尖锐,更充满着新知与旧学的激烈冲突。薛福成活跃于晚清中国政治界、思想界、外交界和文学界,呼吁变法,倡导西学,自强救国,为祖国的前途和民族的命运而不避艰险地探索、呐喊、奋斗,是杰出的爱国志士之一。 薛福成(1838～1894年)字叔耘,号庸盦,江苏无锡人。他是鸦片战争之后成长起来的新一代知识分子,早年怀抱“匡时济世”的雄心,以文章和见识崭露头角,为“曾门四弟子”之一;旋又应邀进入北洋戎幕,追随李鸿章办理洋务有年,以通达“时务”、力主变法称名朝野;中法战争期间出任浙江宁绍台道,因筹防抗敌政绩卓著,被擢为湖南按察使。清光绪十五年(1889年),以通晓“洋务”著名的薛福成,钦命出任英、法、意、比四国公使。他在对西欧各国的政俗民情进行悉心考察的过程中,还致力于“收利权于西国,念流寓于南洋”,为维护国家主权和海外侨胞的利益进行了不懈的努力。 难能可贵的是,薛福成不仅是一位忠于职守、兴利除弊、政声卓著的能员干吏,而且还是个敢于直面丧权辱国之痛、积极进取,以自己的智慧和心血苦苦探索民族复兴的改革思想家。他几乎全程亲历了洋务运动,在为之出谋划策、身体力行的同时,既承继了林则徐、魏源等前辈“师夷长技以制夷”的向西方学习的思想,并将其开拓得更为深广,又将曾国藩、李鸿章的“经济”思想总结得更加周全、更加深湛,实现了“源于洋务派,又高于洋务派”的转变;特别是出使以后,出于对西方政经体制的体认,又萌生了宪政改革的意识,使之成为一个在政治、经济、外交、军事、文化等方面均有很多建树的独步一时、善于政论的资产阶级改良主义思想家。 薛福成在政治上提倡政治体制改革,推进近代化进程,赞赏英国式的君主立宪制的政体模式,主张民主选举,以民为本;在经济上主张振兴工商业,大力发展民族经济,提高综合国力,寓强于富;在外交上建议利用列强之间的矛盾,对不平等的中外约章进行“补偏救弊”,建立新的睦邻国际关系,保护海外侨胞的利益;在文化上呼吁废止科举,兴办新学,采纳西方先进技术,中体西用,改进封建教育方式,培养人才;在军事上,建议创办新式海军,全面更新武器装备,作“可战之势”相威慑,力求和平发展的局面。 薛福成还是一位思想敏锐、勤于笔耕、著述丰赡、名垂青史的散文家。他以继承传统、善于创新和搏击浪潮的勇气,突破了“桐城派”的义法范畴,并有与时俱进的创新。他认为:“文者,道德之钥,经济之舆”。他追求经世创辟,从现实中发现题材,在典籍中寻找文思;叙论时要求做到演迆平易,声畅色楙;文辞上主张汲骈入散,既讲究博雅工丽,更兼雄壮刚健的气势,神韵超迈。 薛福成的文学造诣是多方面的,曾以酣畅的笔调,深辟的见地,创作了大量脍炙人口的警世文字。这些作品几乎涉及到了中国古体散文的各种体裁,与社会现实密切关联,立论高、更多还原

【Abstract】 This dissertation is a study of the non-fictional prose written by Xue Fu-cheng (Hsueh Fu-ch’eng), a great writer living in the late Qing Dynasty, as well as a famous capitalistic reformist thinker and an outstanding diplomat, with a focus on socio-historical interpretations. It is an attempt to trace the origins and development of Xue’s literature, by analyzing the causes of success from both his prose styles and their works, with the historical setting of the late 19th century, to discuss the broader social implications and cultural context, and to examine the diversity of styles and subject matter which made up the literacy scene of the Chinese classical prose during that period.Xue Fu-cheng was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province on April 12th, 1838, whose byname was Shu-yun and Yong-an as his pen name. As a new intellectual growing up after the Opium War (1840-1842), he lived in a changing era with thinking storms raging in all their furies, when the class and national contradictions were extremely acute, the cultural conflicts between the fresh knowledge from the west and the traditional one were surprisingly sharp in the meantime.Xue Fu-cheng was an activist in the realm of politics, ideology, diplomacy and literature in modern China, by means of appealing for political and economic reforms, proposing western learning and national self-strengthening by modernization. He was one of the prominent patriotic figures who explored fearlessly, shouted loudly, and struggled dauntlessly for the prospects of motherland and destiny of the state. At the end of June 1865, Xue Fu-cheng joined Zeng Guo-fan’s (Tseng Kuo-fan’s) Private Bureaucracy with the great ambition of "serving the country, serving the society". Soon he made himself conspicuous for his rich experience and colorful articles due to Zeng’s advice, then noted as one of "Zeng’s Four Great Followers" in the world. In the mid of 1870s, Xue entered the Northern Military Bureaucracy at Li Hong-zhang’s invitation as an important secretary because of his early masterpiece Views Stated to the Imperial Edict. And he was soon perfectly familiar with the current affairs. After several years of handling with foreign affairs in China’s Self-strengthening Movement led by Li Hong-zhang, he gradually became quite well known in the court as a resolute advocate of reform. During the Sino-French War (1884-1885), Xue Fu-cheng was Governor of Ningshao, Zhejiang Province. Soon after he was promoted to Anchashi of Hunan Province in the autumn 1888 for remarkable achievements in his official career and resistance to French aggression.Eager to serve the country and her people with all his wisdom and energies, Xue Fu-cheng was also a great reform thinker in addition to a good official in high repute who was faithful in the discharge of his duties. His life went through the whole course of China’s Self-strengthening Movement, and in the meanwhile he frequently proposed his ideas for the movement and earnestlyput them in practice as much as possible. In reality, he not only accepted the views of Lin Ze-xu’s and Wei Yuan’s about "learning from the West and contending with them" with an open mind and expanded them, but also summed up the thoughts of Zeng Guo-fan’s and Li Hong-zhang’s about "managing the society" and broadened and/or deepened them to varying degrees, which made himself transform from "from the Industrialist Group" to "beyond the Industrialist Group". Xue Fu-cheng advertised the reforms of the political and economic systems in late nineteenth century, in order to speed up the modernization process in China, especially after having acquired some knowledge of western political and economic systems in early 1890s in Europe, started to consider the way of making the reform in the democratic political system following the English constitutional monarchy.When concerning Chinese economy, he urged China to strengthen the state’s power by promoting national industrialization, so as to enrich the country and benefit the people. While about China’s foreign policies, he suggested that the Qing Imperial Government utilize the contradictions between/among the powers, seize some chances to revise irrational items in the unequal treaties and rules signed before, and to establish new Friendly-neighbor Relations with other countries. In the fields of education and culture, he called on the abolishment of the Imperial Examinations and initiation of new educational system. Also he proposed the adoption of advanced western technologies. He wished to improve the feudal teaching methods and train excellent talents based on Chinese traditional culture contents and simultaneously using foreign substances as subsidiary utensils. In the field of military, Xue submitted a plan that China should set a new navy with up-to-date features to replace the outmoded weaponries and equipments thoroughly, and to pretend to take a fighting stance towards the enemy as a deterrence policy, to open up a new prospect of a peaceful development in the true sense.On May 15th, Xue Fu-cheng was appointed to be a Chinese imperial ambassador to the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Belgium. During his stay in West Europe, he made an observation and research into the government administration and people’s conditions there, devoted himself to regaining state sovereignty and economic rights from the West, and made unremitting efforts for vindicating China’s territorial sovereignty and oversea Chinese’s rights.Xue Fu-cheng was not only a hardworking official, but also a diligent writer with great attainments and courage, who got crowned with eternal glory for his works. He carried forward the good traditions of prose writing, broke through the writing regulations of Tong-cheng Style and brought forth new ideas in his literary creative working. In his opinion, literature was the wheel of society management, the key to social morality. Under the influence of Zeng Guo-fan’s thoughts, Xue Fu-cheng went with the developing tendency of the day. At the same time, the important currents and cultural conflicts from the West, and the thematic concerns such as political matters, national economy and the people’s livelihood from other relative statesman and/or authors, affected him, which enriched his knowledge and widened his outlook to a great extent. For this reason he called on people to find writing subjects from real life and look for inspirations from ancient books.Therefore, with an elegant style, Xue Fu-cheng set foot in almost every type of prose and wrote hundreds of wonderful works beyond universal praise, which appealed to both the more and less cultured. All Xue’s writings, with exquisite colors and tremendous momentums, read fluidly and lively. For instance, his argumentative writings got to the essence of the actual social life of his time and convinced readers by reasoning. The memorials to the throne which he handed in copiously quoted the classics and made the past serve the present. The brief biography and epitaph he wrote were fulfilled with pure love for the dead, the fables and supernatural stories were pregnant with meaning which threw a sprat to catch a whale, his notes and epigraphs short and pithy as well. The travel notes fascinated and tempered with force and with mercy. The uppermost important of all, in his oversea diaries, Xue Fu-cheng did his utmost to introduce the western new and practical technologies to modern China, as well as the democratic political systems.As a milestone in history, Xue’s literary theory and creation have made profound influence on the literature development up till now. His works, together with Feng Gui-fen’s, Wang Tao’s and etc, helped the people with lofty ideals in the Reform (Wuxu) Movement of 1898 such Liang Qi-chao to cast off all the yoke of Tongchengist out-of-date writing regulations and create the vivid and vigorous "New People Style" after the Jiawu Anti-Japanese War (1894). Xue’s writings are the representative works in the literary history developing from the orthodox Tong-cheng Style, then typical Xiang-xiang Style to New People Style. In this dynamic changing process Xue acted as a non-fungible bridge that inherited the past and ushered in the future in the developing history of literature.Studying the works by Xue Fu-cheng allows us to understand and appreciate in depth an important part of the Chinese cultural heritage of classical literature. As his writing reflected both the social matters and his personal experiences, which were different from those of his descendants today, it helps us see more clearly the progress and problems of the Chinese prose writing over the past one hundred years.This dissertation consists of three parts, including Xue Fu-cheng’s literature achievements, his thoughts in different fields, and his life chronicle. In Part I, the author makes (a) literary criticism in details according to the style of his writings. In Part II, the author studies varieties of Xue Fu-cheng’s thoughts in different fields such as politics, economy, industries, military, foreign affairs, educations, and so on. Xue’s life brief chronicle and family tree are in Part III. In addition, there is a list of Xue’s literary works and other references in the Appendix.更多还原