走进耶鲁大学 第39期:容闳

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留学教育先驱容闳

Yung Wing, born at Nanping，Xiang Shan County (presently Zhuhai City) in Guangdong province, studied in Robert Morrison's missionary¹ schools as a boy. In 1847，sponsored by some American and English men then living in Hong Kong, he went to the United States. In 1850, Yung Wing passed his exams and was admitted to Yale College. In 1854, he got his bachelor degree with honors. He was the first Chinese ever to have graduated from an American university.

容闳，广东香山县南屏村（今珠海市南屏镇）人，少年时就读于罗伯特·马礼逊开办的教会学校。1847年，在香港的一些英美人士的赞助下，容闳赴美留学。1850年毕业后考入美国耶鲁大学。1854年以优良的成绩毕业，获得文学学士学位。容闳是第一个毕业于美国大学的中国留学生。

Upon graduation from Yale, Yung Wing was offered opportunities to stay in the United States but, urged by his desire to apply what he had learned to the well-being² of his motherland, he rejected the offers and returned to China. The stark³ reality set him worrying about the future of his country and his people. He realized, by the sharp contrast between China and the west, that if China ever hoped to become a powerful and prosperous country, she had to learn from the west.

刚毕业容闳就被邀请留在美国。但为了用自己的知识报效祖国，在爱国之心的驱使之下，容闳毅然拒绝了留在美国， 回到了祖国的怀抱。面对现实，他忧国忧民。对比中西社会，他认识到，要使中国富裕强盛，就必须向西方学习。

He tried to persuade the Qing Dynasty government to send young Chinese to the United States to study Western science and engineering. With the government's eventual⁴ approval, he organized what came to be known as the Chinese Educational Mission, which included 120 young Chinese students, to study in the United States beginning in 1872. The Educational Mission was disbanded in 1881 and those student abroad were called back. However, many of the students later returned to China had made significant contributions to China's civil services, engineering, and the sciences.

他努力说服清政府派遣留学生赴美学习西方科学与工程学。清政府最终采纳了他的建议，于是容闳组织了 "幼童出洋肄业局"。自1872年起，先后有120名幼童被派往美国学习。但是，1881年，清政府解散了 "幼童出洋肄业局"，并召回派出的留学生。虽然这次留学活动未能圆满成功，但这一批留学生回国后对于中国之现代化均有贡献。

Besides, Yung Wing realized that it is necessary to introduce advanced technology from the west to develop China's national industry, communications and transportation. At that time Zeng Guofan，busy recruiting people for his westernization drive, issued an invitation to Yung Wing. In September 1863, Yung Wing went to Anqing and joined Zeng in his campaign. Yung Wing suggested to Zeng Guofan that a machinery⁵ plant be established and, as his suggestion coincided with Zeng's idea of setting up a modem⁶ munitions⁷ factory in China, he authorized⁸ him with the mission of purchasing machines from abroad. In 1865， Yung Wing bought one hundred sets of machines from the United States, which constituted the bulk of the equipment for Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau.

此外，容闳意识到应该引进西方先进技术，发展本国的民族工业、通信及交通运输业。就在那时，曾国藩为了兴办洋务，广纳人才，并向容闳发出了邀请。1863年9月， 容闳应邀到达安庆，人曾国藩大营。到安庆后，容闳向曾国藩提出了建立机器工厂的建议，这个建议与曾国藩建立近代兵工厂的想法基本一致，曾国藩即授予他出洋购办机器的全权。1865年，容闳从美国订购回了100多种机器，为江南制造总局提供了主要设备。

In his late years Yung Wing settled in the United States, but his concern for the fate and future of his motherland was as intense as ever. He extended vigorous moral support to the bourgeois⁹ revolution under Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

晚年，容闳定居美国，但他对于祖国的命运与前途依然极为关注。对孙中山领导的资产阶级革命运动，他给予了极大的支持。

In 1876, Yale University awarded Yung Wing an honorary doctorate¹⁰ in law to commend him for his tremendous contribution to the cultural exchange between China and America. A public elementary school in Chinatown in New York City is named after Yung Wing.

1876年，耶鲁大学授予容闳荣誉法学博士学位，以表彰他对中美文化交流所做出的巨大贡献。位于美国纽约市唐人街的公立容闳小学也是为纪念容闳而命名的。

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