探險家與愛國者——中瑞西北科學考查團成立前後

Explorers and Patriots: The Creation of the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Northwest China

二十世紀初，西方探險家相繼進入中國進行科學考察。其在西北新疆地區之考察，特別是一九二七年斯文‧赫定(Sven Hedin, 1865-1952)與中國學術機構聯合組成的中瑞西北科學考查團之活動，尤具時代及學術意義。當時中瑞雙方所簽訂的合作辦法，被認為是在國際學術合作上中國與西方國家簽訂的第一個平等協議。然而，以往的研究或多或少都有些將之理想化；站在中方立場探究學者們在爭取本國權益方面的貢獻，而忽視外方代表斯文‧赫定等人的立場，過分強調其被動應戰、被迫接受協議內容。本文利用當事人的自述、往來信件、檔案和新聞報導等材料，梳理事件前後細節。據此微觀分析可以清楚看到斯文‧赫定在整個事件中扮演主導者角色，在一些艱困議題上他欲擒故縱，迫使對手放棄原有打算，並且最終實際上完全主導考察活動的整個學術走向和目標。以北京大學為首的中國學術團體，在特定背景下利用民意、學生運動和新聞媒體向北洋政府施壓，同時也迫使原合作單位中央地質調查所退出考查團。藉由本文的討論，冀能對中國現代學術史尤其是中外學術合作的複雜性有所深化。

At the beginning of the 20th century, numerous Western explorers conducted scientific expeditions in mainland China, especially in Xinjiang. Among them was Sven Hedin (1865–1952), who launched the Sino-Swedish Expedition to Northwest China in 1927 together with Chinese academics, achieving remarkable results in many fields of research. The agreement between China and Sweden was considered at the time to be the first equal bilateral agreement China had ever signed with a Western country on matters of scientific cooperation. Previous studies, however, have idealized the agreement to a certain extent; that is, from the position of the involved Chinese parties, related research has largely highlighted their efforts to defend China’s rights and interests, while mistakenly portraying Sven Hedin as a foreign representative forced into agreement by the Chinese.
This paper analyzes the personal statements of both parties, their correspondences, news reports and other archival materials on the events surrounding the creation of the expedition team, thereby casting new light on a chapter in the complex history of modern Chinese science and scholarship, one where Sino-Western cooperation is involved. Research findings suggest that Sven Hedin had a leading role in the entire process, sometimes playing hard with his opponents in order to persuade them to give up their original plans, and in fact, he completely dominated the objectives and trajectory of the expedition. The Chinese academic community led by Peking University, in turn, resorted to the media, student mobilization, and public opinion to put pressure on the Beiyang government to intervene, as well as forcing the original partner, the Central Geological Survey, to withdraw from the expedition.