生平

徐繼畬于清乾隆六十年（1795年）出生在山西五台縣東冶鎮。其父徐潤第是進士出身，徐繼畬從小便受到較為良好的家庭教育，並且曾經師從高鶚等名人。

道光六年（1826年），徐繼畬考中進士，以朝考第一（朝元）被選為庶吉士，四年後成為翰林院編修，之後不久又成為陝西道監察御史。期間上疏彈劾忻州知州史夢鮫以及保德知州林樹雲等人，並且上疏提議實行簡政，深合道光帝意見，因此道光帝召徐繼畬入朝覲見，向他詢問各種時事，徐繼畬都對答如流，深得皇帝欣賞。

道光十六年（1836年）十月，他開始擔任廣西潯州府知府。之後又歷任福建延建邵道，署理汀漳龍道。道光二十年（1840年），當時時值鴉片戰爭爆發，英國軍艦聚集廈門，與漳州近一水之隔。當地百姓都大為驚恐，徐繼畬督兵勇晝夜防守漳州，誓與城門共存亡，百姓因此得以安定下來。因此，徐繼畬得到了較好口碑。

道光二十二年（1842年），徐繼畬任兩廣鹽運使，隨即升任廣東按察使。次年，遷福建布政使。道光二十六年（1846年），升任廣西巡撫，然而還未上任，就被改授福建巡撫。當時正值閩浙總督劉韻珂因病乞假，徐繼畬便代理閩浙總督，和外國人交往加密，了解到很多國外的各種情報，為此後編著《瀛寰志略》打下基礎。

道光三十年（1850年），因為在福州發生的神光寺事件中處理事件的方法與當時在福州養病的林則徐以及其他一些官僚的意見不合，多次被言官彈劾。咸豐元年（1851年），徐繼畬因為「身膺疆寄，撫馭之道，豈竟毫無主見，任令滋擾」的理由被革職並召回北京，接受咸豐帝的當面問詢。與咸豐帝對答完畢後，咸豐帝評價他為樸實，但終因言官彈劾勢重，被降職為太僕寺少卿。

次年（1852年），吏部追查徐繼畬在巡撫任內逮捕罪犯延遲一事，徐繼畬因此被徹底罷官，回到故里。

當時正逢捻軍之亂以及同治回亂，徐繼畬協助官府率領團練協防遼州、上黨、陽城等要地。深受當時兼任山西巡撫的沈桂芬的好評。咸豐六年（1856年）他被平遙超山書院聘為書院山長。同治四年（1865年），徐繼畬被重新起用，任總理各國事務衙門行走並管理同文館。之後又任太僕寺卿，授二品頂戴。同治八年（1869年）告老辭官，並于同治十二年（1873年）在家中去世。《清史稿》有傳。

著作

• 《瀛寰志略》十卷

《瀛寰志略》成書于道光二十九年（1849年），是由徐繼畬根據自己在福建兩廣地區做地方官時通過與西方人的交往中獲取到的知識，書籍而加以整理，從而編纂出的一本介紹世界各地風土人情的地理書。全書共十卷約14萬字，按照亞洲、歐洲、非洲以及美洲的順序介紹了世界各國的概況。

徐繼畬在本書中不僅僅滿足于對于風土人情的介紹，對于西方各國的政治體制也進行了深入的介紹，從而含蓄地指出西方強于東方並不僅僅是因為兵器或科技的先進，更重要的則在于政治體制的優越性。由于本書的敘述客觀真實，突破了以往中國士大夫對于中國以外地區的偏見，因此本書對後世的洋務運動以及戊戌變法都產生了巨大影響，對于日本的明治維新也產生了一定影響。

美國首都華盛頓紀念碑底座的牆壁上有一塊由大清於1853年贈送給美國的紀念石。石上刻有摘自《瀛寰志略》關于華盛頓的文字：

其他著作有：

• 《兩漢志沿邊十郡考略》

• 《兩漢幽并涼三州今地考略》

• 《退密齋詩文集》

• 《松龕詩文集》

家族

與中華人民共和國元帥徐向前同出自山西望族五台徐氏。據1934年徐永信等續修鉛印的《五台徐氏宗譜》，徐繼畬系第二股第十五世，徐向前系第三股第十九世。二人是同族同譜，前者是後者的族高祖。曾擔任過台灣製鹽總廠（今臺鹽實業股份有限公司）工務處長的徐世柄亦出自五台徐氏。

註釋

Early life

Xu came from a scholarly family in Shanxi province; his father Xu Rundi had obtained the highest degree in the imperial examinations and served as a secretary in the Grand Secretariat. The young Xu was fond of studying and joined his father in Beijing, where he met a number of prominent scholars of the day. Xu studied under the direction of his father and became an adherent of the Wang Yangming school of thought.

Bureaucratic career

Having obtained the intermediary degree in the imperial exams in 1813, Xu Jiyu was initially unsuccessful in advancing in the exam system. In 1826, Xu Jiyu was finally awarded the highest degree in the imperial examinations and four years later he was appointed to a position in the prestigious Hanlin Academy. In the academy, he worked under the direction of the chancellor, Mujangga, with whom he would work closely during following years. In 1836, he became prefect of Xunzhou in Guangxi province. During his tenure as a prefect Xu Jiyu submitted a number of official memorials on domestic reform, which impressed the Daoguang Emperor and further helped Xu to rapidly rise through the ranks of the Qing civil service. Following the outbreak of the First Opium War, Xu was appointed circuit intendant of a coastal prefecture in Fujian province, where he witnessed the war with his own eyes, an experience that convinced him that China needed to learn more about the West.

After the Opium War, Xu Jiyu was closely associated with grand councilor Mujangga's "appeasement" faction in the imperial court and he was responsible for carrying out Mujangga's policies in the south. In 1846, Xu was appointed governor of Fujian Province, where he took charge of managing the opening of two ports that had been opened as a consequence of the Treaty of Nanjing. In Fuzhou, Xu Jiyu frequently met with foreign residents, who provided him with information on the world outside China.

The ascension of the Xianfeng Emperor in 1850 and the subsequent ousting of the Mujangga faction from the government would reverse the fortunes of Xu Jiyu. In 1851, he was dismissed from his post on account of his mishandling the case of Shen-kuang-szu Incident and he was forced to retire to his home province, where he stayed for almost a decade and a half. Xu's fortunes again changed after Empress Dowager's Cixi's coup d'état in 1861 and afour years later, Xu was brought back into service, first working in the newly established foreign office, the Zongli Yamen, and later being put in charge of the language school Tongwenguan. In 1869 Xu retired to his home province, where he died four years later.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Xu's tomb was reportedly smashed and the clothes on his corpse stripped off, according to a 2015 report in state-controlled media.

Scholarly work

During his tenure in Fujian province, Xu Jiyu had the opportunity to interact with a number of Westerners who had just arrived in the province, such as the American missionary David Abeel, and the British consular officials, Rutherford Alcock and George Tradescant Lay, father of Horatio Nelson Lay. Xu collected information on the West both from missionary literature in Chinese and from his direct contact with Westerners in his official business. This information was the basis of his A Short Account of the Maritime Circuit (Yinghuan zhilüe, 瀛環志略) in 1849. Although this work is lesser known than the Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms published in 1843 by his contemporary Wei Yuan, A Short Account was more systematic in its description of Western geography. These works by Xu and Wei, ironically, were initially more influential in Japan than in their own country, where Wei's book went out of print, and Xu's was reprinted in 1866 and was also republished in Japan. Eventually these books changed the Sinocentric view of the geographical world.

In 1853, an excerpt about George Washington from A Short Account was inscribed on the stone donated to the Washington Monument by a group of Chinese Christians. The stone and the inscription can be seen at the base of the Washington Monument today, a fact that was mentioned by President Clinton's 1998 speech in China.

Sources

• Drake, Fred W. "A Mid-Nineteenth-Century Discovery of the Non-Chinese World." Modern Asian Studies 6, no. 2 (1972): 205-24.

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• Baidu Baike Article on Xu Jiyu (in Chinese)

• Studies of Xujiyu (in Chinese)