清末における電奏・電寄諭旨制度の成立--清朝政治體制への電氣通信導入をめぐって

Abstract

The introduction of telegraphic communications revolutionized the system of transmission of political information. By the late Qing period, memorials and edicts had already been conveyed by telegraph, and a system of telegraphic memorials 電奏 and edicts 電寄諭旨 was established. The topic of this study is the question of how his system of transmitting information by telegraph was established within the Qing political system. The establishment of an overseas communications system that accompanied the first dispatch of diplomatic officials to foreign countries in the latter half of the 1870s was the initial occasion for the development of the system. With the appearance of the new circumstances of bureaucrats stationed abroad needing to communicate with the home government, the telegraph became the means of communication employed. It was actively used at the time of the negotiations over the Ili 伊犁 problem with Russia, but during the first round of negotiations in 1879 it was not possible to communicate with Chonghou 崇厚 in Russia, and this led to his concluding the treaty on his own. On the basis of this failure, in the second negotiations of 1880 a system for telegraphic transmission of directives from the home government was established. The first time a edict was sent by telegraph was one conveyed to Zeng Jize 曾紀澤 in Russia. On the other hand, this active use of the telegraph for this sort of foreign communications heightened awareness of the necessity of expediting domestic communication. The Ili problem served as the occasion for the start of the building of domestic telegraphic facilities in earnest. Subsequently, the telegraph came to be used for domestic communications, but the occasion for its regular development was the strengthening of the communications system required by the increasing urgency of the Vietnam situation. In this manner, around the time of the outbreak of the war with France, the system of telegraphic memorials and edicts was established. As a result, the relative weight in the system of transmitting information in the Qing political system shifted from the method of using documents such as routine memorials 題本 and palace memorials 奏摺 to telegraphic documents, and the role of the Zongli Yamen 總理衙門, which was responsible for sending and receiving telegrams, grew increasingly important.