严复与伊藤博文“同学”说探源

严复在英国皇家海军学院留学期间,日本东乡平八郎在英国商船学校学习海军技术,其政要井上馨在英国进修财政经济,还有一些中日留学生同在法国学习造船技术。基于此,总理各国事务衙门1896年最早提出当时日本执政大臣多与福州船政学堂首批留学生"同堂肄业",陈宝琛1921年继之明言严复有"日本同学"。直到1932年,林耀华、钱基博将"日本同学"细化为伊藤博文,严、伊"同学"传闻遂告定型。严复本人并无借伊藤抬高自己的动机,更不可能从生前并不存在的传闻中受益,据伪造"严复书札"断言严复是"同学"说的始作俑者,显然不正确。

Fabrication of the Story That Yan Fu and Ito Hirobumi Were Classmates in England

When Yan Fu was a student at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich,Togo Heihachiro was learning naval technologies at a merchant ship school by the Thames,the Japanese politician Inoue Kaoru was studying finance in London.Meanwhile there were some students from both China and Japan who were learning shipbuilding technologies in France together.In view of the facts above,the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in 1896 that most Japanese Ministers at that time and the first batch of students who were sent abroad from the Naval College in Fuzhou "were classmates".Chen Baochen forwarded the statement in 1921 that Yan Fu "had Japanese classmates".It was not until 1932 when Lin Yaohua and Qian Jibo specified one of"the Japanese classmates"as Ito Hirobumi.Then the rumored classmate relationship between Yan Fu and Ito Hirobumi was completely shaped.Yan Fu had no wish to elevate himself by such personal connection and could not have benefited from the posthumous rumor when he was alive.It is obviously incorrect to allege by a pseudo-letter of Yan Fu that Yan Fu first stated that he and Ito Hirobumi were classmates in England.