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ABSTRACT
In the Qing dynasty, the diary-form for intelligence gathering was perfected by Tulišen, whose travelogue to Central Asia allowed the Kangxi emperor’s “imperial eyes” to assume vicarious witness to that heroic journey. Prior to China’s stationing of resident ministers abroad in 1876, envoy journals similar to Tulišen’s were commonly used for information gathering. In the next three decades, the genre of envoy communication became a fertile field for trials and experimentations, as Qing diplomats adjusted their method of communication to the changing needs of the state and the prevalent media and information technology. When the Qing dynasty established China’s first bureau of foreign affairs (Waiwubu) in 1901, the modern-style “foreign office” required radically new genres for diplomatic communication, which prioritized systemization, standardization, and a complete elimination of subjective experience. These diplomatic reports, akin to Western-style bluebooks, were separated from classified information and thus designed for domestic circulation. Tracing the evolution in diplomatic communications from late imperial China to the turn of the twentieth century, this paper seeks to unpack how new views of the foreign were shaped by new genres, new media, and new diplomatic institutions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Glossary
bang 邦
baoxie shi 报谢使
bianyi 辨异
bu 不
buzhi 不知
canyi 参议
chai 差
chaogong 朝贡
Chen Ding 陈鼎
cheng 丞
chushi riji 出使日记
dati 大体
Da Qing xin faling 大清新法令
da xingren 大行人
Daoguang 道光
diaowei shi 吊慰使
Honglu si 鸿胪寺
Hongwu 洪武
huanghua 皇华
huidian 会典
gaoai shi 告哀使
gaohe shi 告贺使
guoxin si 国信司
Gu Yanwu 顾炎武
Guangxu 光绪
Guo Songtao 郭嵩焘
Fan Chengda 范成大
Fang Xiangying 方象瑛
feng 奉
fengsu shizhe 风俗使者
fushi 副使
fuxin 符信
jicheng 纪程
jishi 纪事
jiwen 纪闻
jiyou 纪游
Jiaqing 嘉庆
jie 节
jinshi 进士
Jingshi bao 《经世报》
Kanenaga Shinno 懐良親王
Kangxi 康熙
kaoguan 考官
Lifanyuan 理藩院
lijin 厘金
Lin Zexu 林则徐
manmo zhibang 蛮貊之邦
Meng Chaoran 孟超然
neiwai huyong 内外互用
Qianlong 乾隆
qianshi 遣使
Qian Xun 钱恂
qinming zhengfu shi 钦命正副使
qiqing shi 祈请使
que 缺
riji 日记
rizhi 日志
Rizhilu 《日知录》
shang 尚
shangshu 上书
shengchen shi 生辰使
shi 使
shilao 室老
Shuyu zhouzi lu 《殊域周咨录》
Siku quanshu 《四库全书》
Sima Qian 司马迁
sizheng 司正
sifu 司副
suibi 随笔
Suiyao biji sizhong 《随轺笔记四种》
Tongwenguan 同文馆
tujing 图经
Tulišen 图理琛
Waiwubu 外务部
wu yi dui 无以对
Wu Zonglian 吴宗濂
xiao xingren 小行人
xingji 行纪
xingren 行人
xingren si 行人司
xingshi 星使
xingyao 星轺
Xiongnu 匈奴
Xifang yaoji 《西方要记》
Xiyao rizhilu 《西轺日知录》
Xu Jiyu 徐继畬
Xu Kangzong 许亢宗
Xu Xiake 徐霞客
Xue Fucheng 薛福成
Yan Congjian 严从简
Yang Kai 杨楷
yao 轺
yi 夷
Yiyulu 《异域录》
Yinghuan zhilüe 《瀛寰志略》
Yongle 永乐
you 游
yulu 语录
Zeng Jize 曾纪泽
Zhang Binglin 章炳麟
Zhang Qian 张骞
Zhao Yuanyi 赵元益
Zhao Zhi 赵秩
Zhengde 正德
Zheng He 郑和
zhengse 正色
zhengshi 正使
Zhigang 志刚
Zhifang waiji 《职方外纪》
Zongli yamen 总理衙门
Notes
1 For a few representative works, see Chen, Chinese Law in Imperial Eyes; Liu, The Clash of Empires; Harrison, Perils of Interpreting; and Mosca, From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy.
2 For a notable intervention to this narrative, see Ren, “The Conférencier in the Purple Robe”; Po, The Blue Frontier; and Day, Qing Travelers to the Far West.
3 See, for example, Hostetler, The Qing Colonial Enterprise; Tian, Visionary Journeys; and Teng, Imagined Geography.
4 This approach is exemplified in Peter Perdue’s China Marches West and Matthew Mosca’s From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy.
5 See Chen Zuogao’s surveys in Lidai riji congtan and Gudai riji xuanzhu. Incidentally, the non-travel related use of the diary as a private record of personal thoughts, activities, and events was also first adopted by court historians in the Tang, but the number of titles associated with this type of sedentary diary keeping was far smaller than travel or envoy journeys.
6 The most commonly used phrases for envoy journals include jicheng [record of a journey], huanghua [imperial envoy], xingyao [envoy’s chariots], xingji [travelogue]. In comparison, travelogues for private journeys generally employed the character you [wandering] or suibi [jotting].
7 Liji, “Quli shang.”
8 Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 246.
9 Zhouli, “Qiu guan.”
10 Tamara Chin, “Defamiliarizing the Foreigner,” 316.
11 Franke, “Sung Embassies,” 124.
12 Zhang, Transformative Journeys, 62-68.
13 It should be noted that seafaring envoy’s accounts are not free of descriptions of danger. See Ta-Tuan Ch’en, “Investiture of Liu-Ch’iu Kings,” 141-143. However, these statements of difficulties and danger were not meant as complaints, but testimonials to the authors’ courage and loyalty to the throne.
14 Franke, “The Story of Chang K’ién,” 95.
15 Franke, “Sung Embassies,” 123.
16 See the description of xingren si in Mingshi, juan 73, zhi 50, zhiguan 3. The Mingshi and Ming shillu record brilliant diplomatic victories scored by envoys, showing that the merit of the envoys was significant in attracting tributary states or at least convincing foreign rulers that hostile relationship with China did not benefit their interest.
17 Taizu Gao huangdi shilu, juan 68, Hongwu 4/10/14.
18 Esherick, “China and the World,” 23.
19 As Ta-Tuan Ch’en has noted in the context of Chinese investiture missions to Ryukyu, the embassies were constituted in a similar way as a magistrate’s private secretary, and the envoys received the same transportation and accommodation treatment officials sent to the provinces on special duty. Ta-Tuan Ch’en, “Investiture of Liu-Ch’iu Kings,” 139.
20 Yu, “Handai xunli yu wenhua chuanbo,” 135-136.
21 Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles, 298.
22 For an overview on the types of Song envoys and their journals, see Zhao Yongchun, “Songren chushi Liao Jin yulu yanjiu,” 47-54.
23 Nie, “Song Liao jiaopin kao,” 289.
24 Tackett, The Origin of the Chinese Nation, 33-36.
25 De Weerdt, “What did Su Che See in the North?,” 467.
26 Da Ming huidian, juan 117, “Xingren si.”
27 Lu, Shu yuan zaji, 72.
28 Guo, “Mingdai xingren yu waijiao tizhi,” 326.
29 Ruan Mingdao, “Youguan Qingdai xingrensi de kaocha,” 4.
30 Fang, Shishu riji, 372.
31 Qinding Da Qing huidian, Kangxi chao, juan 160.
32 Perdue, China Marches West, 141-142, 214-220.
33 Luo, Luojingshan Taiwan haifang bing kaishan riji.
34 Hsü, China’s Entrance into the Family of Nations, 111.
35 Though the Fairbankian “tributary relations” has been shown as inadequate and grossly simplifying as a framework for studying Chinese foreign relations, his students who delved into the discrepancies between rhetoric and reality have demonstrated that scholars who penned dynastic histories have rightly pointed out a persistency in upholding a kind of historical determinism with regards to external affairs. See, for example, Wang, “Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia.”
36 Howland, Borders of Chinese Civilization, 105.
37 Imperial travel writing was of course not the only genre of texts providing intelligence about distant regions. By the eighteenth century, many private travelers wrote accounts which did not bear a strong imprint of the imperial gaze. Geographical and ethnographical information was also routinely collected by local officials, with the understanding that these accounts were often based on interviews and hearsays and therefore carried less credence.
38 Rossabi, China Among Equals, 1–13.
39 Wang Hao, “Songdai waijiao xingji yu yulu yanjiu,” 65.
40 Zhao, “Songren chushi Liao Jin yulu yanjiu,” 47-48.
41 Fan, Fan Shihu ji, 158.
42 Wang Hao cites an example where an envoy was impeached by a censor for composing poems for the Khitan ruler. The Emperor himself was indifferent to this infraction (probably because he was used to them), but asked several times about a literary reference made in that poem. See Wang Hao, “Songdai waijiao xingji yu yulu yanjiu.”
43 Zhao, “Songren chushi Liao Jin yulu yanjiu,” 54.
44 Wang, “Songdai waijiao xingji yu yulu yanjiu,” 179-183.
45 Anonymous, “Xuanhe yisi fengshi Jin guo xingcheng lu.” The authorship of this account has been long debated. The present study follows the conventional view that Xu Kangzong, envoy of the mission, wrote the account.
46 Anonymous, “Xuanhe yisi fengshi Jin guo xingcheng lu,” 5.
47 Ibid., 8.
48 Ibid., 12.
49 Ibid., 13.
50 Basu, “Chinese Xenology and the Opium War.”
51 Day, Qing Travelers to the Far West, 72.
52 Ibid., chapter 2.
53 Xu, Xingren si chongke shumu, 4b-5a.
54 To save space, the office only kept one copy of each title and required that all envoys must check with the existing catalog before purchasing new books. Xu, Xingren si chongke shumu, 4a.
55 Xu, Xingren si chongke shumu, 3b.
56 Ibid., 2b.
57 Yan, Shuyu zhouzi lu, 3.
58 Guo, “Mingdai xingren yu waijiao tizhi,” 328-343.
59 Yuming He, Home and the World, 202-244.
60 Ibid., 228-229.
61 Brook, Confusions of Pleasure, 174-182.
62 Meng, Shi shu riji.
63 Lin, Dian yao jicheng.
64 Teng, Taiwan’s Imagined Geography, 62-65.
65 Hu, “Lüyou, lieqi yu kaogu,” 73.
66 Poo, Enemies of Civilization, 151.
67 There were exceptions in the form of a small number of travelogues written by Buddhist monks and Jesuit missionaries, and the occasional Chinese traveler who took to the sea, but they were small in number compared to imperial writing and not widely read prior to the late-nineteenth century.
68 Zhao, Qingshi gao, liezhuan 70, “Tulichen,” 4a-6b.
69 For the historical background of Tulišen’s mission, see Perdue, China Marches West, 214-220.
70 For discrepancies between the Manchu and the Han editions, see Zhuang, Man Han Yiyulu jiaozhu, 206-212.
71 As Zhuang Jifa has pointed out, many editions of the Chinese Yiyulu was published in the Qing, including copies in private collections and the Siku quanshu, but their differences mostly lie in the use of different characters for transliterated foreign sounds. In this paper, references to Yiyulu will be given to the Siku quanshu edition.
72 Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, 1550.
73 Tulišen, Yiyulu, juan shang, 3b-6b.
74 Two accounts kept by Chinese members the mission vividly describe the travails of the journey, which was partly due to Kangxi’s poor planning. See Zhang, Fengshi Eluosi riji and Qian Liangze’s Chusai jilüe.
75 Tulišen, Yiyulu, juan shang, 30b.
76 Ibid., 45a.
77 Ibid., 39a-b.
78 Ibid., 42a-b.
79 Tulišen, Yiyulu, juan xia, 37a-b.
80 Ibid., 13a-14b.
81 Ibid., 14a.
82 Perdue, China Marches West, 220.
83 Emperor Kangxi used information in the Yiyilu as his own witnessed experience, using words such as “qinjian” (personally witnessed) he told his officials about mammoths. See He, Shuofang beisheng, 31-32.
84 See, for example, Wang, “Early Ming Relations with Southeast Asia”; Fletcher, “China and Central Asia, 1368-1884”; Wills, “Functional, Not Fossilized;” Baldanza, “Perspectives on the 1540 Mac Surrender”; and Perdue, “The Tenacious Tributary System.”
85 Tulišen, Yiyulu, juan xia, 43.
86 Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, 1550.
87 Mosca, From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy, 103-114.
88 Jami, “Imperial Control and Western Learning,” 44.
89 Mosca, From Frontier Policy to Foreign Policy, 116.
90 Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao, 1546.
91 Ibid., 1665.
92 Zou, Wan Qing xifang dilixue zai Zhongguo.
93 Sela, “Prescribing the Boundaries of Knowledge,” 84.
94 Mosca, “Empire and the Circulation of Frontier Intelligence,” 183.
95 Jia, Qingdai xibei shidi xue yanjiu, 82-86.
96 It is important to observe that this form of communication also state secrets vulnerable to espionage and interception, as the Qing would learn painfully from the outcome of the first Sino-Japanese War.
97 Day, Qing Travelers to the Far West, 156, 191-192.
98 Ibid., 199.
99 Peterson, “The Life of Ku Yen-wu (1613-1682),” 206-213.
100 Xue, Yong’an wen bieji, 226-227.
101 Xue, Chushi Ying Fa Yi Bi siguo riji, 63.
102 Wu, “Waijiao shilu yu guwen xinbian,” 99–101.
103 Xue, “Chushi riji xuke fanli.”
104 Jingshi bao, huibian 1 (1897), 161–182, 219–227.
105 Zou, “Xue Fucheng yu Yinghuan zhilüe xubian,” 271-290. It is worth mentioning that while abroad, the two had worked together on translating geographical accounts in Xue’s legation, as part of the minister’s effort to expand on Xu Jiyu’s Yinghuan zhilüe.
106 Wu, Suiyao biji sizhong.
107 Zeng, Jin yao choubi, 2.
108 Qian, Zhongwai jiaoshe leiyao biao, 197.
109 Qian, Zhongwai jiaoshe leiyao biao, Table of Contents.
110 Li, Zhongguo jindai waijiaoguan qunti, chapters 7-8.
111 Da Qing xin faling, vol. 6, 12-17.
112 Lingguan baogao, vol. 1 (1917).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jenny Huangfu DAY
Jenny Huangfu DAY is an associate professor of history at Skidmore College, specializing in the diplomatic history, intellectual history, and international relations of late Qing and modern China. She is the author of Qing Travelers to the Far West: Diplomacy and the Information Order of Late Imperial China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018) and the editor of Archives from Chinese Legation in Britain in the Late Qing (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2020). Her articles have appeared in journals such Late Imperial China, Modern Asian Studies, and Law and History Review.