最近東北亞國家留美的風潮盛熾。本人發現中韓兩國第一位畢業於美國大學的留學生都是基督徒，因此本人對這兩位產生了極濃厚的興趣；容閎(Jung Hung)是廣東香山縣貧農之子，七歲時被送到英教士古特拉富的夫人所辦的書塾讀書，之後他從耶魯大學畢業，成為中國第一位留美的大學畢業生。 徐載弼(Philip Jaisohn)出身於韓國士大夫家庭，是一位在韓國已經考上科舉的知識份子，但後來他參加甲申政變（一八八四）失敗，必須逃亡到國外，因此他輾轉自日本到美國求學，後來順利畢業於哥倫比亞大學醫學系，成為第一位畢業於美國大學的韓國人。 雖然他們兩位出身背景以及留美動機都不同，卻都以優異的成績畢業於美國名校，並且在美國富有人文素養的教育環境下，薰陶出高尚的道德風範，以及獨立堅忍的人格特色。 他們學成後都回到祖國服務鄉梓，貢獻非凡；學者吳相湘先生認為容閎的生平即是一部中國近代史。韓國歷史學家李光麟先生稱徐氏為韓國的伏爾泰（Voltaire，一六九四~一七七八）。他認為徐載弼是一位近代韓國思想家，他盡一切努力對韓國人的傳統思想能夠推進到現代化的階段，有很大的貢獻。 本人對兩位回到祖國，為國家所做的努力和報國的態度，感到十分佩服，且認為此事具有相當大的歷史意義，故盼望透過他們留下的自傳以及前輩學者專家的研究成果，把兩人留學、求學和報國的過程，尤其在傳統保守的環境中兩位現代知識份子奮鬥的過程，和其過程當中所面臨的困難，加以整理比較與分析，以供大家參考。

Lately, the trend for students from North East Asia to study abroad in America is still surging. I discovered that both first Chinese and first Korea student to study abroad in United States were Christians, thus they attracted my interest. Jung Hung was a son of poor farmer in Kuangdong, China. When he was seven, he was sent to study in private school that was founded by a British Mission. Later he graduated from Yale University and became the first Chinese student to study abroad in America. Philip Jaisohn was born in a gentry's family in Korea, and he himself was a brilliant scholar who passed the civil examination as well. However after the failure of 甲申政變 in 1884, he escaped from Korea and fled to Japan, and finally to America. He graduated from Columbia University and became the first Korea student to study abroad in America. Despite of the differences in their social background and their motivation for coming to America, both of them graduated from prestigious universities with excellent academic records. Furthermore, they also acquired high moral standards and built excellent characters under the American education. Later, they both went back to their country and had great contributions. Wu XiangXiang describes Jung Hung's life as a modern Chinese history. Korean historian Lee Kwang Lin describes Philip Jaisohn as Voltaire of Korea; he believes that Philip Jaisohn was an influential philosopher who transformed Korean traditional thoughts and brought modernization to Korea. The works they did after going back to their country were definitely admirable and had historical significant. Therefore by studying their records and the researches done previously on them, I want to provide a full comparison and analysis on different aspects of their experiences and their contributions, particular on the difficulties and challenged they encountered.