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The Failure of Hung Jen-k‘an’s Foreign Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Yuan Chung Teng
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Extract

It is a well known fact that the friendly foreign policy of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1860 was a failure. It is also known that this failure was largely due to the non-cooperation of the British and French authorities in China. However, it is not so well known how the policy was introduced, how anxiously the Taipings were seeking the friendship of Western powers at one time, how the failure of this friendly foreign policy took place, and how it affected the leadership of the Taiping regime.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , November 1968 , pp. 125 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

1 See Kwan-wai, So and Boardman, E. P., “Hung Jen-kan, Taiping Prime Minister, 1859–1864,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, XX-2 (June 1957)Google Scholar, and Gregory, John S., “British Attitudes and Policy towards the Taiping Rebellion in China,” Dissertation of London University (1957), pp. 107–30.Google Scholar

2 For a good account of the life of Hung Jen-kʻan see Teng Ssu-yü's article on Hung in Hummel, Arthur W., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (Washington, 1943), I, 367.Google Scholar

3 Rau, Oscar, “Une Visite au Tʻae-pʻing ou Révoltes Chinoises, Souvenirs de la vie Missionaire,” La Famille, Journal Pour Tous, (Lausanne, 1868), p. 271.Google Scholar

4 He arrived at Nanking on April 22, 1859, was given the title of Commander-in-chief on May 8 and promoted to the position of Prime Minister on May 11. See Kuo T'ing-i, Tʻai-pʻing T'ien-kuo Shih-shih Jih-chih [Daily record of the historical events of the Taiping kingdom] (Taipei, reprint, 1963), pp. 615 and 619.

5 So Kwan-wai and Boardman's article, p. 273.

6 Jen-kʻan, Hung, “Tzu-cheng Hsin-pʻien” Tai-pʻing Tien-kuo ed. by Ta, Hsiang and others, (Shanghai, new edition, 1957), II, 528–30 and 538Google Scholar.

7 This attitude toward the Taipings was maintained by the United States government as early as 1855. See “Marcy to Parker, October 5, 1855” U.S. National Archives, State Department, China, I, 3.

8 For a translation of these Taiping documents see U.S. National Archives, State Department, Legation Archives, Vol. XIX, Part 1, “McLane” 1854, Despatch 6, no. 6, exhibit D.

9 This is seen in “Tʻien wang chao hsi-yang fan-ti [The Tʻien wang's manifesto to the foreign brothers],” Tai-pʻing Tien-kuo Shih-liao [Historical Sources on the Taiping Kingdom] ed. by Yü-fu, Chin and others, (Peking, 1955), p. 93.Google Scholar

10 Edkins, Jane R., Chinese Scenes and People (London, 1863), pp. 288–89.Google Scholar

11 Teng, Y.C., “Reverend Issachar Jacox Roberts and the Taiping Rebellion,” Journal of Asian Studies, XXIII, 1 (November 1963), p. 63.Google Scholar

12 “Letter from G. John, April 22, 1861,” Archives, London Missionary Society, Central China Letters, D32.

13 “Self-statement of Hung Jen-kʻan,” Tʻai-pʻing Tien-kuo, ed. by Ta, Hsiang and others, (Shanghai, new edition, 1957), II, 852.Google Scholar

14 The three missionaries were the first group to visit the Taipings in that year. They were J. B. Hartwell, J. L. Holmes, and T. P. Crawford of Southern Baptist Convention. Their accounts of the trip are found in “Holmes' letter, Shanghai, June 29, 1860,” The Commissioner, V-5 (November 1860), pp. 143 ff.; “Hartwell's letter,” North China Herald, June 30, 1860; and Foster, L.S., Fifty Years in China, an Eventful Memoir of Tarleton Perry Crawford, D.D. (Nashville, 1909), pp.110 ff.Google Scholar

15 Edkins, J. and John, G., “A Visit to the Insurgent Chief at Soochow,” North China Herald, July 7, 1860.Google Scholar

16 Rau's, Oscar article, La Famille, Journal pour Tous (1868), pp. 193–99Google Scholar; 217–122; 241–47; and 265–71; and “G. John's letter, August 16, 1860,” quoted from Thompson, R. W., Griffith John, the Story of Fifty Years in China (New York, 1901), pp. 140–42.Google Scholar

17 Account of Holmes' trip in North China Herald, September I, 1860.

18 Teng's article, pp. 62–64.

19 “Crawford to Taylor, Shanghai, December 6, 1860,” File of Crawford, Archives, Southern Baptist Convention, Richmond, Virginia.

20 “Letter from G. John, December 6, 1860,” Archives, London Missionary Society, Central China Letters, B32.

21 “Letter from Y. J. Allen, Shanghai, May 30, 1861,” quoted from Candler, Warren A., Young J. Allen, the Man who Seeded China (Nashville, 1931), p. 75.Google Scholar

22 Spirit of Missions XXVI (May 1861), p. 156.Google Scholar

23 Young J. Allen's letter to his parents, Shanghai, January 6, 1861, Young J. Allen Papers, Emory University Library, Atlanta, Georgia.

24 Edkins' article, North China Herald, July 7, i860.

25 For an account of the British agreement see Kuo Tʻing-i, pp. 746–59 and Gregory's dissertation, pp. 151 ff. For a report of the American agreement see “Stribling to Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy, May 28, 1861,” U.S. National Archives, Navy Department, East India Squadron, “Flag Officers C. K. Stribling and F. Engle, May 1859 to December 1861.”

26 “J. B. Hartwell's letter,” North China Herald, June 30, 1860.

27 Kuo T'ing-i, p. 689.

28 “Letter from Shanghai, July 31, 1860,” Southern Episcopalian, VII-8 (November 1860), 444.

29 For a description of the contents of Edkins' letter see Southern Episcopalian, VII-8 (November 1860), 447.

30 Chien Yu-wen, Tʻai-pʻing Tʻien-Kuo ch'üan-shih (The Whole History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) (Hong Kong, 1962), II, 1807–8.

31 For the letters see Tʻai-p'ing Tien-Kuo, II, 727–28.

32 “Relations with China,” Hansard's Parliamentary Debate, Third Series (London, 1861), CLXI, p. 1844.Google Scholar

33 Yu-wen, Chien, Ch'üan Shih, III, p. 1811.Google Scholar

34 “Griffith John's letter, August 16, 1860,” from Thompson, loc. cit., pp. 140–42.

35 Li Hsiu-ch'eng ch'in-Kung shou ch'i (Personal deposition of Li Hsiu-cheng [the Loyal King] in handwriting) (Taipei, 1962).

36 The letter to Foreign Ministers at Shanghai, dated Taiping 9th day, 7th month, 10th year (August 18, 1860) is translated in Lindley, Augustus F., Ti-ping-tien-Kwoh, the History of the Ti-ping Revolution (London, 1866), pp. 273–74.Google Scholar

37 Southern Episcopalian, VII-9 (December 1860), 502–3.

38 North China Herald, September 1, 1860.

39 Kuo Tʻing-i, p. 700.

40 “Roberts' letter, Tan-yang, October 8, 1860,” North China Herald, November 17, 1860.

41 Tʻai-pʻing Tien-kuo, II 851.

42 Yu-wen, Chien, Ch'üan shih, III, 1841–42.Google Scholar

43 See above footnotes 19 and 20.

44 Kuo Tʻing-i, p. 723.

45 Teng's article, p. 63.

46 Kuo Tʻing-i, pp. 723–25.

47 See above footnote 23.

48 The young king's edict reads partially as, “henceforth all memorials from within and without shall not be affixed with Uncle Kan's golden seal….” quoted from Michael, p. 158 and Kuo T'ing-i, p. 741.

49 Kuo T'ing-i, p. 744.

50 For an account of this interview see “R. I. Fearon to A. F. Heard, February 24, 1861,” Heard Papers, Vol. HM-42, Baker Library.

51 This declaration of the Heavenly King was translated and appeared in North China Herald, June 22, 1861.

52 This was what Captain Ward told Fearson about the visit of Parkes. See “Fearson to A. F. Heard, March 9, 1861,” Heard Papers, Vol. HM-42, Baker Library.

53 Kuo T'ing-i, pp. 746–59 and Gregory's dissertation, pp. 151 ff.

54 Those missionaries were Carpenter, Scherschewsky, Crawford, and Edkins.

55 Edkins, Joseph, “Narrative of a visit to Nanking,” in Jane R. Edkins, Chinese Scenes and People (London, 1863), p. 245.Google Scholar

56 Griffith John on his trip to Nanking in November 1860 wrote a letter and an essay, asking to have them presented to the Heavenly King. The latter did not answer them until April 1861.

57 For a description of the debate see “Letter from G. John, Shanghai, April 22, 1861,” Archives, London Missionary Society, Central China Letters, D32; and J. R. Edkins, Chinese Scenes and People, pp. 272 ff.

58 It was in the name of Tsan wang, It., for instance, that a memorial was presented to the Heavenly King asking the acceptance of the British demands. See Kuo Tʻing-i, p. 758.

59 For the account of the trip of Stribling see “Stribling to Gideon Wells, May 28, 1861,” National Archives, East India Squadron, “C. K. Stribling and F. Engle, May 1859 to December 1861.”

60 Kuo Tʻing-i, pp. 802 and 809–10.

61 Ibid., p. 787.

62 Ibid., pp. 797 and 803.

63 Yu-wen, Chien, Tai-pʻing Tien-kuo tien-chih Tung-k'ao (Studies on the institutions of the Taiping Kingdom) (Hong Kong, 1962), II, 974–78.Google Scholar

64 “Burlingame to Seward, November 30, 1861,” National Archives, State Department, China, XX, 4.Google Scholar

65 “Burlingame to Seward, January 9, 1862,” ibid., 7.

66 “Letter of Albert F. Heard, Shanghai, January 8, 1862,” Heard Papers, Vol. HL-19.

67 For the Taiping answer see Lindley, pp. 418–23.

68 Quoted from Gregory's dissertation, p. 332.

69 Brine, L., The Taiping Rebellion in China (London, 1862), p. 299.Google Scholar

70 Gregory's dissertation, p. 165. The French had decided to oppose the Taipings ever since 1854.