Abstract: After the Opium Wars, China was troubled by interior and exterior risks. To get rid of this situation, the Chinese government of the Qing Dynasty carried out the Self-Strengthening Movement by way of learning advanced technology from Europeans. However, lacking in foreign language training in traditional education system, few could take the responsibility of developing industries. So, inspired by Japan, advocates of the Self-Strengthening Movement established foreign language training schools and sent children to America simultaneously to foster talents for foreign language teaching and foreign affairs. Among these foreign language training schools, the School of Combined Learning is the first exemplary official one which only Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau can put itself in the same league during the same period. Among the students that studied in America, many of them took the career of developing industries, but few were devoted or related to translation, and they basically held office in the embassy or consulate, responsible for internal connection and external affairs between the Chinese government of the Qing Dynasty and foreign countries. In a word, the two approaches not only represented the prelude of sending students to study abroad and establishing foreign languages training schools by the government, and accelerated the formation of foreign language education mode in the period of Westernization Movement, as well as marked the inception of the foreign language education in modern China.

Keywords: Opium War; Self-Strengthening Movement; foreign language training; foreign languages school

摘要： 鸦片战争结束以降，为摆脱内忧外患的困境，清政府掀起了一场“师夷长技以自强” 的洋务运动。然而，由于传统中学外语教育的缺失，能够担负实业发展之重任者屈指可数。为此，洋务派通过创设外语学堂和选派幼童留美双管齐下，以培养外语教育和外交外事人才。在该时期创设的外语学堂中，作为官办第一所外语人才培养机构，京师同文馆率先垂范，同时期可与之比肩者恐非江南制造局莫属，而在官派留美幼童中，相比于归国投身实业者的张袂成帷，专门从事翻译或与翻译事业相关者不过区区之众，他们大多供职于清政府驻外使领馆，负责对内联络与对外交涉。要而言之，两条途径的铺展不仅加速了洋务运动时期外语教育模式的形成，而且由此掀开了中国近代外语教育的序幕。

关键词: 鸦片战争, 洋务运动, 外语教育, 外语学堂