Zongli Yamen (Tsungli Yamen)

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Zongli Yamen (Tsungli Yamen)

The Zongli Yamen (Office of General Management) was established by the Qing state to deal with the foreign presence in China. Although the Qing state preferred the traditional tribute system that had long regulated China's relations with foreign countries, China's weakness in the face of Western military might, combined with the demands of the Western powers for diplomatic relations on an equal basis, made it impossible for China to maintain its traditional model of foreign relations with its assumption of Chinese supremacy and Western barbarity. A new institution was called for to formally manage relations with the Western countries.

In 1861 the conservative Qing court reluctantly agreed to the creation of the Zongli Yamen, which it emphasized was to be a temporary measure to manage relations with the Western countries until they could be removed from China. The Qing court refused to grant the Zongli Yamen complete institutional autonomy, making it instead accountable to the Grand Council and appointing five high-ranking officials to serve as a powerful advisory board. Among the five, the most important was Prince Gong (1833–1898), the uncle of the Tongzhi emperor.

Under the leadership of the reform-minded Prince Gong (Kung) and his capable right-hand man, Wenxiang (1818–1876), the Zongli Yamen played a vital role in the Tongzhi Restoration, the chief aim of which was to strengthen China's hand in the game against Western imperialism. To this end, in 1862 the Zongli Yamen authorized American missionary W. A. P. Martin's translation of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law, published in 1836. Widely accepted in diplomatic circles in the West, Wheaton's work was required reading for those in the foreign service; ignorance of its contents placed Chinese ambassadors at a serious disadvantage.

Besides publishing a translation of Wheaton's text, the Zongli Yamen also launched a movement to create foreign language schools. Beginning with the opening of a small school in Beijing in 1862, the Zongli Yamen in short order set up similar language institutes in Shanghai, Canton (Guangzhou), and Fuzhou. Despite staunch opposition from the conservative members of the Qing court, Prince Gong and Wenxiang converted the Beijing school to a college; expanded the curriculum beyond foreign languages to include subjects in math, the sciences, and law; and invited foreign teachers to lead instruction. By sponsoring translations of Western texts and financing language schools, the Zongli Yamen sought to provide Chinese diplomats with the training and knowledge they needed to deal with the West.

Less successful was the Zongli Yamen's project to build a navy. In 1862 the Zongli Yamen purchased from Britain a fleet of ships. Problems arose when the fleet arrived a year later, and Captain Sherard Osborn (1822–1875) of the Royal Navy, having been promised in writing full command of the fleet, refused to hand over control to his Chinese counterpart. Seeing no other alternative, the Zongli Yamen abandoned its plans for a modern navy. Overall, however, the greater cooperation between China and the West in the late 1860s attests to the relative success of the Zongli Yamen in negotiating relations with the West until its replacement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as mandated by the Boxer Protocol of 1901.