刘铭传是特定历史时期———19世纪中期战乱之际,通过非常规仕途进入上层政权的极具代表性的地方精英。从刘铭传的入仕,可透视晚清基层社会与上层政权发生的深刻变化、晚清统治危机的特殊性、中国传统社会发展趋势的深层基础等。 Liu Ming Chuan was a representative local elite who entered the upper regime through unconventional career paths during a specific historical period - the mid-19th-century war. From Liu Mingchuan’s career, we can see the profound changes that took place in the grassroots society and the upper government in the late Qing Dynasty, the peculiarities of the late Qing rule crisis, and the deep foundation of the development trend of traditional Chinese society.