This article examines Yan Fu’s experiences during his period at the Northern Naval College in Tianjin (1880-1900) to see how, as he became increasingly frustrated with politics, he turned to a new career in translation. The article is divided into three main sections:

     First, Yan Fu’s career at the Northern Naval College. This author uses The Complete Collection of the Resumes of Qing Officials and other sources to explore the progress of Yan’s career at the College. These records indicate that Yan started his teaching job as a superintendent for Western learning. In 1884 he was awarded by the emperor for effectively running the Northern Naval College. In 1889 he was promoted to be vice president, and in 1893 he became president of the College.

     Second, Yan Fu’s experiences with the civil service examinations and their influence on his career trajectory. During Yan’s Tianjin period, he spent more than a decade preparing for the civil service examinations. He took the examinations four times, failing each time. This highly frustrating experience helped him understand China’s institutional shortcomings while also giving him an opportunity to read the traditional classics and thereby obtain a good command of the classical language. Later he was able to use elegant Chinese to translate Western works, which brought him fame as a translator.

     Third, Yan Fu’s friendship with Lu Zengxiang and Wu Rulun. Yan, Lu, and Wu all belonged to the Li Hongzhang group, and the contribution of Lu and Wu to The Theory of Natural Evolution (Tianyan lun, a translation of Huxley’s Evolution and Ethics) was indispensable. Lu was Yan’s good friend, and Yan’s son was married to Lu’s daughter. Wu, a master of the Tongcheng School, was highly respected by Yan, and he corresponded with Yan closely between 1896 and 1903 on various issues. Lu and Wu proofread Yan’s translation of Evolution and Ethics. Therefore, the success of The Theory of Natural Evolution was achieved not by Yan alone but by a group of people. Wu in particular gave Yan numerous suggestions, wrote a preface, and produced an abridged version to spread the book’s ideas to school students.

     This article argues that for Yan, doing translation was only his second choice. His preferred career trajectory would have been official service: he wanted to be trusted by the emperor and to help govern the country. Thus, Yan’s turn to translation should be seen less as a departure from politics and a turn toward scholarship, and more as a form of political participation through translation.

　　Previous discussions on changes in the leadership of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce often simply assumed that leadership positions merely symbolized power, and examined leadership changes in terms of patriotism versus non-patriotism, new factions versus old factions, or the Zhejiang group (or Ningbo group) versus the non-Zhejiang group. This article reexamines the factors that influenced leadership changes in the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce from 1902 to 1926 in light of the generally ignored issues such as the Chamber’s formal institutional system and businessmen’s willingness to serve. It thus throws new light on the significance of leading the Chamber, showing that though leadership was an honor, the duties incurred were more burdensome than the power conferred. For nearly two decades after the formation of the Chamber, businessmen concentrated on the management of their own enterprises and felt no desire to be diverted by public service. They also felt scared by the difficulties of dealing with Chamber affairs during a time of radical political instability, which left them reluctant to take up leadership positions. The struggles for leadership that erupted in 1924 and in 1926 did not represent an ongoing competition for power between different commercial groups. Rather, they stemmed from the intertwining of external political power with internal clique conflicts. When it became involved in political entanglements, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce soon fell under outside control.

　　This paper uses the case of the Wing On Company to discuss how business culture was shaped and transformed in Republican Shanghai. Scholars of Chinese business enterprises have often emphasized cultural effects on business operations. Despite their different assessments, these scholars seem to suggest a time-honored pattern of articulating cultural traits, without noting how cultural impacts could change. By comparing how two generations of Wing On managers maintained, manipulated, and expanded social networks; how they recruited, trained, and managed employees; and how they perceived their roles in the Wing On Conglomerate, this article shows that cultural elements in fact meant different things to these entrepreneurs. Social networks, for instance, might mean indispensable resources in creating the enterprise for the first generation, while they could be burdens that weakened authority of the second generation. Thus the issue is not simply the existence of cultural traits in Chinese business, but exactly in what ways and to what extent they were articulated and manipulated.