Since the Opium War of 1840, the Qing Dynasty has been forced to open its doors to the outside world. In order to better handle negotiations with Western powers, the Qing Dynasty began to appear a group of professional diplomats in the true sense. The figure we are going to talk about today is a very famous diplomat in the late Qing Dynasty, whose name is Zeng Jize.
Zeng Jize
Compared with many big figures in history, Zeng Jize's fame is not too big. However, his father's name is almost unknown in China, that is, Zeng Guofan, who is known as the head of the "Four Famous Ministers of Late Qing Dynasty Zhongxing".
Zeng Jize was the second son of Zeng Guofan, and because his eldest brother died early, he actually held the position of eldest son in the family. Zeng Guofan has high requirements for his family, so Zeng Jize received a strict education from an early age. He was proficient in scripture and arithmetic, and later under the influence of his father, he began to study Western science and culture.
In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), Zeng Jize was appointed as a foreign minister of the household department, officially beginning his career. Two years later, Zeng Guofan died, and Zeng Jize returned to his hometown to keep the system (after the death of the ancient direct elders, the eldest son was required to return home to guard filial piety for 27 months). During this period, he began to teach himself English using Western books such as the Bible and the English Dialect. Due to the limitations of the objective conditions at that time, Zeng Jize learned English more difficult than we imagined. Even so, he mastered a large number of English alphabet spellings through several years of hard study.
Zeng Jize English Study Notes
In the third year of Guangxu (1877), Zeng Jize, who had completed his period of observance for his parents, returned to Beijing to resume his duties and inherited the title of Marquis of Yiyong of the First Class by his father Zeng Guofan. At that time, Zeng Jize's official position was only a household member wailang from Wupin, and the official uniforms of his peers were all white birds, but his official uniform pattern was a four-clawed python, which was higher than the level of the crane pattern on the official clothes of the university scholar of Zheng Yipin and the Hubu Shangshu official uniform of Yipin.
After Zeng Jize entered Beijing, he met many Western diplomats, and he also got the opportunity to practice spoken English. Before that, he only knew words but couldn't pronounce them. Chaster Holcombe, the first counselor of the U.S. Legation in China at the time, described Zeng Jize as an outstanding and tireless scholar.
In the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), Zeng Jize sent an envoy to Britain and France as an emissary of the Qing Dynasty. During his mission, he deeply understood the history and national conditions of various countries, studied public international law, and examined the industrial, commercial and social conditions of Western European countries. At the same time, he was strict with himself, saved public expenses, and advocated a clean and honest style. Zeng's actions gave Westerners a new perspective on Chinese officials, and he won the respect of Westerners.
Zeng Fu Sanjie
At the beginning of the fourth year of Guangxu (1878), the Qing army successfully suppressed the Agubai forces that invaded Xinjiang and recovered all of Xinjiang, only the Ili region was still occupied by Tsarist Russia and needed to be recovered through diplomatic channels. The Qing Dynasty sent an official named Chonghou to Russia to negotiate, but he did not expect that the faint and incompetent Chonghou had hastily signed the Treaty of Livadia with Russia without any preparation. According to the terms of the treaty, the Qing Dynasty nominally recovered Ili, but about seven-tenths of the territory of the surrounding area was ceded to Russia, including the strategically important Turks River Valley and the Muzati Pass. In addition, the treaty also agreed that Russia would set up consulates at seven important locations of the Qing Dynasty and pay Russia five million rubles (equivalent to two million and eight hundred thousand taels of silver) as compensation for its "relinquishment" of Ili.
When the news of the signing of the treaty reached China, there was an uproar in the government and the public. The Manchu Dynasty demanded severe punishment and refused to recognize the Treaty of Livadia, and qing prime minister Yamen also told the Russian side that the treaty must be revised. Because Russia took advantage of the Treaty of Livadia, it initially strongly refused to renegotiate, and later sent 23 warships to China to threaten it by force.
After some difficult negotiations, Russia finally agreed to amend the treaty. In the sixth year of Guangxu (1880), the imperial court sent Zeng Jize as a minister of Chincha to Russia to re-negotiate the Ili issue.
Knowing the great difficulty of this task, Zeng Jize elaborated his negotiation strategy before he left for Russia, and he believed that the negotiations must be divided into three steps: first, they will not give in on the border issue; second, bargain on the issue of opening consulates; and third, make more compromises on the issue of reparations.
After Zeng Jize arrived in Russia, the negotiations did not go well at first. The Russians, on the pretext of their enormous superiority, expressed their unwillingness to compromise. Finally, after half a year of negotiations, Zeng Jize's efforts finally paid off, Russia agreed to make major concessions, and the two sides signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty (also known as the Sino-Russian Revised Treaty and the Treaty of St. Petersburg), which stipulated that Russia would return most of the area of Ili (including the strategic Turks River Valley and the Muzati Pass) to China, but the westernmost villages were ceded to the Russian side because they had accepted refugees who refused to return to China. The number of new Russian consulates in China has been reduced from seven to two. The cost of indemnity was increased from five million rubles to nine million rubles (equivalent to five million taels of silver).
Objectively speaking, although the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty is still premised on the damage to China's interests, under the historical conditions at that time, it was already a very rare and valuable thing to minimize losses through diplomatic efforts. As soon as the treaty was promulgated, it immediately caused a sensation at home and abroad. Western authoritative newspapers commented: "China's genius diplomat Zeng Jize created a miracle in the history of diplomacy, he forced the Great Russian Empire to spit out the land that had been swallowed up in its mouth." This is something that has not happened since the founding of Russia. ”
After this diplomatic negotiation, Zeng Jize became famous and was also highly praised in the international diplomatic circle. Later generations referred to him, along with his father Zeng Guofan and his ninth uncle Zeng Guoquan, as the "Three Masters of Zengfu".