本研究的主旨是探究「鐵路」在晚清中國時期的概念變遷。有別於過去以政治史、經濟史的角度看「鐵路」對中國社會的改變及影響，本文試圖以「概念史」的角度，體現「鐵路」從海外進入到中國的過程中，經由「脈絡性轉換」的途徑，以達到符合與適用在中國脈絡的「鐵路」。「鐵路」在19世紀作為一項「西學」知識出現於中國後，經歷數十載的時間，從最初的被介紹，再到被接納，最終被認可用於國家的發展，此一歷程可謂極其複雜且艱辛。只是當「鐵路」被建造出來後，晚清中國的政府官員、知識分子、甚至是一般平民百姓，因個人、群體的知識背景、地域差異，以及所面臨到境遇有別，產生出對「鐵路」不同的想像與憧憬，這也間接導致「鐵路」在中國的形塑，難以有一個整體的共識。畢竟晚清中國所面臨到是重大的歷史轉折期，是故此刻「鐵路」所呈現出來的歷史圖像，諸如商貿的運輸、國防的需求、對西方列強的抵抗，甚至是對國家再造的希冀，映顯當時中國「鐵路」概念是富有能動而非僵固的時代特質。
This research examines the exchange of concept about ‘railway’ in the late Qing period. Different from the conventional perspective to perceive the ‘railway’ impact on changes and influences of China in the political and economic ways, this study attempts to reflect that the idea of ‘railway’ was created in certain process: first being introduced from the west countries to China in the practical use, and transformed by the approach of ‘Contextual Turn’ that steadily made it to reach accordance with Chinese society. It proves to be a complicated and difficult task for Chinese to adapt the ‘railway’ when it was first accessed to China as the knowledge of ‘western learning’ in the late 19th century, and Chinese arguably accepted and recognized it as a great tool to develop their country in the following decades. However, when ‘railway’ was genuinely built, government officials, intellectuals and ordinary people also had various imagination and longing, respectively. Therefore, it inevitably leads to the diverse acknowledge of ‘railways’ in China given that the way of ‘railway’ perception encountered transformation of historical images such as the transportation of commerce, the need for national defense, the resistance to western powers and even the hope of state-building. It demonstrates that the awareness of ‘railway’ in China was flexible and multiple-dimensional.
