Economy of Qing Empire

During the time the Russian envoy spent in the capital there seemed to be no end of dispute over the respective protocol. In the normal course of events, upon arrival in the capital the foreign envoy would hand over the credence letters and gifts to be presented to the relevant government office for respective translation and checking. The documents would then be submitted to the Qing emperor and the gifts to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On this occasion the Qing court altered conventional protocol by allowing Spafari to place his letter of credence on top of a yellow damask seal case. This and the gifts were then presented to a Grand Secretariats (Great Academicians of the Inner Hall) acting as Emperor Kangxi's representative. Another difference of opinion as to protocol was that of whether or not the Russian visitors should kowtow or, as the Russian Czar had insisted, merely bow to the emperor. As Qing officials were obdurate on this point of etiquette, the Russian emissaries had to decide between compromise or failure to complete their mission; they ultimately opted for the former option.

Problems as to the format and style of diplomatic documents further complicated relations. Qing court conventions in this regard were based on imperial edicts issued to vassal states. Letters of credence submitted by vassal states paying tribute were in complete contrast to conventional Western diplomatic intercourse, which were conducted on the basis of equality of both parties. The Russian envoy to China's mandate was that the Czar's complete name and title be written on the Qing Court letter of credence, thereby upholding the Russian ruler's dignity. If the Chinese refused to comply, the document would not be taken back to Russia. Before Spafari returned to Russia, he demanded a copy of the Qing reciprocal letter of credence in Latin, on the grounds of ensuring that it showed his full title and contained no inappropriate wording that might in any way ‘damage the Czar's dignity’. It was by the similar consideration that the Qing court demanded that Spafari submit the Czar's letter of credence to them in order that Qing officials could translate it and ensure that it did not contain any wording that might be considered disrespectful to the emperor. Spafari refused and Qing officials sternly rebutted. As both sides appeared to have reached a stalemate on this issue, the Qing court took the view that ‘talks between the two rulers have reached a conclusion’, and asked Spafari to leave Beijing for Russia as soon as possible without the reciprocal letter of credence.

By refusing to issue diplomatic credentials to Spafari, the Chinese were able to avoid further dispute. Scholar Li Yunquan points out that in taking this decision, the Qing court nominally maintained the established system of protocol. In reality, however, it had given considerable thought to whether or not the Russians would accept the high-handed, condescending tone in which the Qing letter of credence had been written. It was at this point that it began to occur to Qing officials that official documents other than imperial edicts should be written in less high-blown language. This posits the suggestion that China's knowledge of the outside world had evolved, moreover that in order to protect China's interests the court had to be prepared to compromise when dealing with more powerful counterparts.

REFERENCES

1. Chesneaux, Jean, Marianne Bastid, and Marie-Claire Bergere. China from the Opium Wars to the 1911 Revolution. Trans. Anne Destenay. New York: Pantheon, 1976.
2. "China," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2004 1997-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
3. Samuel Wells Williams (1848). The Middle kingdom: a survey of the ... Chinese empire and its inhabitants ....(1 ed.). New York: Wiley & Putnam. p. 489.
4. Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd, 2010), pp. 220-224.
5. Bartlett, Beatrice S. Monarchs and Ministers: The Grand Council in Mid-Ch'ing China, 1723–1820, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-520-06591-8.
6. Ebrey, Patricia. Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook (2nd edition), New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993. ISBN 978-0-02-908752-7.