Chonghou (, ), of the

Wanyan The Wanyan (; Manchu: ''Wanggiyan''; Jurchen script: ) clan was among the clans of the Heishui Mohe tribe living in the drainage region of the Heilong River during the time of the Khitan-led Liao dynasty. Of the Heishui Mohe, the clan was coun ...

clan, was a

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

official and diplomat.

Early life and career

He was the second son of Lin-ching of the Jurchen Wanyan clan, and is thus said to have been a lineal descendant of the Imperial House of Jin of the 12th and 13th centuries. Graduating as ''

juren ''Juren'' (; 'recommended man') was a rank achieved by people who passed the ''xiangshi'' () exam in the imperial examination system of imperial China. The ''xiangshi'' is also known, in English, as the provincial examination. It was a rank high ...

'' in 1849, he became a department magistrate in

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...

province in 1851. His brother Chongshi contributed 10,000

tael Tael (),"Tael" entry
at the

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province. In 1853, the

Xianfeng Emperor The Xianfeng Emperor (17 July 1831 – 22 August 1861), or by temple name Emperor Wenzong of Qing (), given name Yizhu (), was the eighth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the seventh Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigned from 1850 t ...

appointed him to the army to aid in suppressing the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It lasted fr ...

. Following that, he served in various posts in

Zhili Zhili, alternately romanized as Chihli, was a northern administrative region of China since the 14th-century that lasted through the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty until 1911, when the region was dissolved, converted to a province, and renamed ...

for several years, including as a

Taotai A circuit ( or ) was a historical political division of China and is a historical and modern administrative unit in Japan. The primary level of administrative division of Korea under the Joseon and in modern North and South Korea employs the sam ...

in 1858. He assisted

Prince Gong Yixin (11January 1833– 29May 1898), better known in English as PrinceKung or Gong, was an imperial prince of the Aisin Gioro clan and an important statesman of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty in China. He was a regent of the empire from 1861 to 18 ...

during the negotiations of the

Convention of Peking The Convention of Peking or First Convention of Peking is an agreement comprising three distinct treaties concluded between the Qing dynasty of China and Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire in 1860. In China, they are regarded as amon ...

(1860), and the prince made him Superintendent of Trade in 1861 for the three northern

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

s of

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

(where he was stationed),

Yantai Yantai, Postal Map Romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of ...

, and

Yingkou Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

. During this time, Chonghou negotiated with Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Austria.

Tianjin Massacre

He was occupying this post when the

Tianjin Massacre The Tientsin Massacre (), was an attack on Christian missionaries and converts in the late 19th century during the late Qing dynasty. 60 people died in attacks on French Catholic priests and nuns. There was intense belligerence from French diploma ...

occurred on 21 June 1870. Several Chinese people were arrested for kidnapping children and selling them to Catholic orphanages. There were rumors that the orphanages were extracting the children's hearts and eyes for magical purposes, and anti-Catholic elements rioted against the missionaries. The French consul, Henri-Victor Fontanier, was to meet with Chonghou to discuss options, but Fontanier lost his temper and killed a Chinese official. Fontanier and his assistant were then killed by a mob. After the riot was quelled, Chonghou was sent to France with a letter of apology, which he was to be given to

Adolphe Thiers Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...

, making him the first Chinese official to visit the West since those who accompanied

Anson Burlingame Anson Burlingame (November 14, 1820 – February 23, 1870) was an American lawyer, Republican/American Party legislator, diplomat, and abolitionist. As diplomat, he served as the U.S. minister to China (1862–1867) and then as China's envoy to t ...

to the United States in 1868. Thiers, however was preoccupied with the Franco-Prussian War and was unable to meet with him. He then spent time in London and New York, before returning to France to finally deliver the apology in November 1871. On his return in 1872 he was appointed Vice President of the Board of War and made a member of the

Zongli Yamen The ''Zongli Yamen'' (), short for Office for the General Management of Affairs Concerning the Various Countries (), also known as Prime Minister's Office, Office of General Management, was the government body in charge of foreign policy in imp ...

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs). In 1874 he was Vice President of the Board of Revenue, and in 1876 he was sent as acting General of Shengyang, replacing his brother, who had died that year. In 1878 he proceeded as Ambassador to Russia, and sent to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

to negotiate a treaty after the

Qing reconquest of Xinjiang The Qing reconquest of Xinjiang () was the event when the Qing dynasty in China reconquered Xinjiang after the Dungan Revolt (1862–77), Dungan Revolt in the late 19th century. After a century of Xinjiang under Qing rule, Qing rule, the Uzbek pe ...

Treaty of Livadia

The resulting

Treaty of Livadia The Treaty of Livadia () was an unequal treaty between the Russian Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty signed in Livadiya, Crimea, on 2 October 1879, wherein Russia agreed to return a portion of the lands it had occupied in Xinjiang during the D ...

turned out to be very unfavorable to China: a large portion of

Ili Ili, ILI, Illi may refer to: Abbreviations * Irish Life International, part of Irish Life and Permanent * Intuitive Logical Introvert, a personality type in socionics * Influenza-like illness * Iran Language Institute, a state-owned, non-profit ...

was to be ceded to Russia, Russia would have unprecedented access to trade routes in the interior of China, and China would pay an

indemnity In contract law, an indemnity is a contractual obligation of one party (the ''indemnitor'') to compensate the loss incurred by another party (the ''indemnitee'') due to the relevant acts of the indemnitor or any other party. The duty to indemni ...

of five million rubles. When the terms became known among Chinese government officials, there was an uproar and Chonghou was branded as a traitor. Upon his return to China, he was arrested, stripped of his rank, and sentenced to death. He was denounced by

Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang, Marquess Suyi ( zh, t=李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823 – 7 November 1901) was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important ...

and

Zuo Zongtang Zuo Zongtang, Marquis Kejing ( also spelled Tso Tsung-t'ang; ; November 10, 1812 – September 5, 1885), sometimes referred to as General Tso, was a Chinese statesman and military leader of the late Qing dynasty. Born in Xiangyin County ...

, nominally for returning without authorization; and also by the then Censor

Zhang Zhidong Zhang Zhidong () (4 September 18375 October 1909) was a Chinese politician who lived during the late Qing dynasty. Along with Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang, Zhang Zhidong was one of the four most famous officials of the late Qing ...

for having exceeded his powers. He was characterized variously as naive, too eager to return home, acting on his own, incompetent, and ignorant. Chonghou himself described his reasoning as such:

Only because our military forces were exhausted, our treasury was short of money, our border defenses were also inadequate to rely on, and because I wanted to safeguard our national interests, I had no choice but to agree under pressure.

Zeng Jize Zeng (, ) is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is Tsang; In Wade-Giles, such as those in Taiwan, Tseng or Tzeng; in Malaysia and Singapore, Chen or Cheng; in the Philippines, Chan; in Indonesia, Tjan; in Vietnam, Tăng. The surname Zeng is ...

replaced Chonghou, but Russia refused to renegotiate the treaty unless Chonghou was pardoned. After months of tension and appeals by foreign ambassadors and leaders, including

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

, and Zeng as well, the Qing government relented, and commuted his death sentence, but Chonghou still had to make a contribution of 300,000 taels to purchase his freedom. Zeng eventually negotiated the Treaty of Saint Petersburg, and Chonghou retired to private life. In 1885, he was allowed to present

Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu people, Manchu Nara (clan)#Yehe Nara, Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese nob ...

greetings on her 50th birthday, and restored to a rank two levels lower than his original rank. He died in obscurity in 1893.

Historical reputation

Historian S. C. M. Paine believes that given his prior experience in France and in negotiating trade agreements in Tianjin, it is very unlikely that Chonghou would have agreed to the terms of the treaty on his own. Instead, it is more likely that he was poorly advised by the Zongli Yamen. Russia had been in communication with the Qing government during its occupation of Xinjiang, so Russian demands should have been well-known long before Chonghou left for Saint Petersburg. During his voyage, he was also in frequent contact with the Zongli Yamen via mail and telegraph. Back in China,

, who was the head of the ministry and who had years of experience dealing with foreigners, was involved in a power struggle with Cixi regarding who would replace the

Tongzhi Emperor The Tongzhi Emperor (27 April 1856 – 12 January 1875), born Zaichun of the Aisin Gioro clan, was the ninth List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the eighth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign, from 1 ...

: her nephew or the prince's son. Another experienced diplomat,

Wenxiang Wenxiang (, ; born October 16, 1818, in Liaoyang, died May 26, 1876) was an ethnic Manchu statesman of the Qing dynasty of China. Wenxiang hailed from the Gūwalgiya clan and belonged to the Plain Red Banner in the Eight Banners in Mukden. In 1 ...

, had died a few years previously. Furthermore, the Zongli Yamen was only one of several agencies involved in international relations, and even within itself there was an ideological split between those who were open to foreigners and those who were more xenophobic. The power struggle meant the bureaucrats were unsure of which faction would be in charge and thus unwilling to do any more than their immediate responsibilities. In short, he was made into a scapegoat to cover for the shortcomings of the Zongli Yamen. Paine acknowledges that much of that argument is speculation, as Chonghou was made into a

nonperson A nonperson is a citizen or a member of a group who lacks, loses, or is forcibly denied social or legal status, especially basic human rights, or who effectively ceases to have a record of their existence within a society (''damnatio memoriae''), ...

. He was expunged from government records and his letters were not published posthumously, as was the custom for Chinese court officials. Furthermore, neither the Chinese nor Russian governments retained any documents from the negotiations, thus making it difficult to determine how China ended up with an unequal treaty despite being in the better negotiating position (the Russian army in Xinjiang was outnumbered and the Russian treasury was drained due to the

Russo-Turkish War The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...

). But evidence remains in the writings of others such as Zuo that points to that explanation.

Notes

References

{{authority control Qing dynasty diplomats Manchu politicians Qing dynasty politicians Viceroys of Zhili 1826 births 1893 deaths Ministers of Zongli Yamen