The Lifan Yuan (; ; Mongolian: Гадаад Монголын төрийг засах явдлын яам, ''γadaγadu mongγul un törü-yi jasaqu yabudal-un yamun'') was an agency in the government of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

of China which administered the empire's Inner Asian territories such as

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and oversaw the appointments of Ambans in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. Until the 1860s, it was also responsible for the Qing's relations with the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Name

The name Lifan Yuan has various translations in English, including the ''Board for National Minority Affairs'', ''Court of Territorial Affairs'', ''Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions'', ''Office for Relations with Principalities'', ''Office of Barbarian Control'', ''Office of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs'', and ''Court of Colonial Affairs''. etc. The office was initially known as the Mongol Yamen (; , lit. the Mongol department) when it was first created in 1636. In 1639 the department was renamed and expanded to "Lifan Yuan" in Chinese and "Tulergi golo be dasara jurgan" in Manchu. The Manchu name literally means the department for the administration of outlying regions. During the period of the

late Qing reforms Late Qing reforms (), commonly known as New Policies of the late Qing dynasty (), or New Deal of the late Qing dynasty, simply referred to as New Policies, were a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, diplomatic, and political refo ...

(or "New Policies"), the name was changed again to Lifan Ministry () in 1907 and existed until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

Function

Prior to the establishment of the Zongli Yamen, the Court also supervised the empire's relation with Russia under the treaties of Nerchinsk and Kyakhta. Lifan Yuan was exclusively staffed with members from the

Eight Banners The Eight Banners (in Manchu language, Manchu: ''jakūn gūsa'', , ) were administrative and military divisions under the Later Jin (1616–1636), Later Jin and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasties of China into which all Manchu people, Manchu househol ...

. Lifan Yuan was the closest administrative office that the Qing dynasty had that would have been comparable with a foreign policy department. Guests of the Lifan Yuan were housed in the Bureau of Interpreters () in the southeast part of the

Inner City The term inner city (also called the hood) has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Soc ...

, later also known as the Russian hostel () due to the predominance of Russian visitors there. It was also called the 'south pavilion' (南館 ''nan kuan'') to distinguish it from the 'north pavilion' (北館 ''pei kuan'') where the Albazinians lived. From the Treaty of Kyakhta this residence became permanent. There was also a Russian Language Institute (), which was a school where Manchus learned to speak Russian. Founded in 1708, it was incorporated into the newly founded Tongwen Guan in 1862. The Lifan Yuan was roughly a Qing version of the Xuanzheng Yuan () or Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, instituted by the Mongol-led

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

for administering affairs in Tibet.State and Ethnicity in China's Southwest, by Xiaolin Guo, p29 It is to be distinguished from the Ministry of Rites, which was the traditional Chinese institution for dealing with all outsiders during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. The Qing used the Board of Rites to deal with its tributary states to the south and east like the

Joseon dynasty Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

of Korea, the

Nguyen dynasty Nguyễn (阮) (sometimes abbreviated as Ng̃) is the most common surname of the Vietnamese people. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as ''Nguyen''. By some estimates 30 to 39 percent of Vietnamese peopl ...

of Vietnam, the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom was a kingdom in the Ryukyu Islands from 1429 to 1879. It was ruled as a Tributary system of China, tributary state of Ming dynasty, imperial Ming China by the King of Ryukyu, Ryukyuan monarchy, who unified Okinawa Island t ...

, and the Westerners who came by sea like the Dutch and the English. The Lifan Yuan was established during the reign of Huang Taiji to deal with the empire's Mongol subjects. It later continued to be a separate institution for handling the affairs of the empire's Inner Asian territories and its foreign relations with the Russians.

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Function

See also

References

Further reading