当铁路于清末传入中国时,清朝官员及士人的反应是自无知、疑惧始,随之因铁路的强大功能而逐渐发生观念变革。1860～1880年代,在清廷及各省官员中发生的关于如何认识铁路、是否修建铁路的三次大讨论,其中并非只是愚昧无知与观念更新间的对垒,也有当时背景下抑制外强和捍卫国家利益的合理性思考;在民间对于铁路的认识过程中,既有无知的一面,也有民俗与利益受损后的激烈反应。对此,不应只从现代化发展的角度对之进行批评,而应从中看到近代中国社会转型进程中新旧观念、中西文化冲突融合的历史复杂性。 When the railroad was introduced to China in the late Qing Dynasty, the reaction of officials and scholars of the Qing Dynasty came from ignorance and suspicion. As a result, conceptual changes gradually took place because of the powerful functions of the railway. During the 1860s and 1880s, the three major discussions on how to understand the railway and whether or not to build the railway took place among the officials of the Qing government and other provinces. It is not only the confrontation between ignorance and renewal of ideas but also the suppression of foreign powers and the defense of national interests in that time In the process of people’s understanding of the railway, there are both ignorance and fierce reactions after the customs and interests have been damaged. In this regard, we should not criticize it only from the angle of modernization, but should see the historical complexity of the old and new concepts and the integration of Chinese and Western cultural conflicts in the process of social transformation in modern China.