Lorenz Lange was a Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 engineer, diplomat

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states...

 and explorer in the 18th century.

He entered Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n service in 1712 and was sent as a special envoy of Peter the Great to China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in 1715. His mission was to promote Russian commercial interests. He travelled through Tobol'sk

Tobolsk

Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...

, Tomsk

Tomsk

Tomsk is a city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Tom River. One of the oldest towns in Siberia, Tomsk celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2004...

, Yeniseysk

Yeniseysk

Yeniseysk is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 .Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei River. It played an important role in Russian colonization of East Siberia in the 17th–18th centuries...

, Irkutsk

Irkutsk

Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...

 and the region of Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the world's oldest at 30 million years old and deepest lake with an average depth of 744.4 metres.Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia, between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, it is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the...

, and was one of the most important early Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

ans to describe the Gobi Desert

Gobi Desert

The Gobi is a large desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the...

. His journey ended in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, where he lived until returning to Russia in 1717.

His journal of his 1715-1717 travels was first published in German as part of Friedrich Christian Weber

Friedrich Christian Weber

Friedrich Christian Weber was an 18th century German diplomat and writer.He was born in Hanover and, after the succession of fellow Hanoverian George I of Great Britain to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1714, represented English interests at the Russian court of Peter the Great...

's "Das veränderte Russland", and translated into English as "Journal of Laurence Lange's Travels to China" in 1723.

The Tsar was pleased with his report and sent him back to Qing China in 1719 to oversee Russian caravan

Caravan (travellers)

A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defence against bandits as well as helped to improve economies of scale in trade.In historical times, caravans...

 traders, until a dispute over Mongol

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

 hegemony led to the Russian trade concession being cancelled. He served as secretary of the Izmailov mission on which Georg Johann Unverzagt reported (1725). When the mission returned to Russa Lange stayed in Beijing as Russian first diplomatic agent (1720-1722). During this second period in China, that lasted almost two years, Lange became probably the first Swede to meet with Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

ns, also diplomats, on whose country he produced another report. A French report of his sojourn appeared in 1726, an English translation in 1763.

Lange made other trips to China, for instance in 1727-1728 and 1736, reported on in Peter Simon Pallas

Peter Simon Pallas

Peter Simon Pallas was a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia.- Life and work :Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Simon Pallas. He studied with private tutors and took an interest in natural history, later attending the University of Halle and the University...

' "Neue Nordische Beyträge" (1781).

Lange was made vice-governor of Irkutsk (1739-1749) and met many of the famous explorers of the time, including Vitus Bering

Vitus Bering

Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...

, Johann Georg Gmelin

Johann Georg Gmelin

Johann Georg Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist and geographer.- Early life and education :Gmelin was born in Tübingen, the son of an professor at the University of Tübingen. He was a gifted child and begun attending university lectures at the age of 14. In 1727, he graduated with a medical...

 and Georg Wilhelm Steller

Georg Wilhelm Steller

Georg Wilhelm Steller was a German botanist, zoologist, physician and explorer, who worked in Russia and is considered the discoverer of Alaska and a pioneer of Alaskan natural history.-Biography:...

.

During his travels to China Lange acquired an important collection of objects, which were added to the collections of the Imperial Kunstkamera in St. Peterburg. Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer described these objects in his "Museum Sinicum" (1730).

Literature

Lange, Lorenz, Reise nach China. Mit einem Nachwort von Conrad Grau und 12 zeitgenössischen Illustrationen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag 1986. Review by Harmut Walravens, Berlin, NOAG 1989: http://www.uni-hamburg.de/Japanologie/noag/noag_1989_rez_04.pdf

Lange, Lorenz, Journal of Laurence Lange's Travels to China. In: Friedrich Christian Weber, The Present State of Russia. London: Taylor, vol. 2, 1723.

Lange, Lorenz, Journal de la residence du Sieur Lange, agent […] à la cour de la Chine. Leyde [Leiden] 1726.

Unverzagt, Georg Johann, Die Gesandtschaft Ihro Käyserl. Majest. von Groß-Rußland an den Sinesischen Käyser. Lübeck: Schmidt, 1725.

Lorenz Lange, Journal of the Residence of Mr. de Lange, Agent of his Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, Peter the Great, at the Court of Pekin, During the Years 1721 & 1722. In: John Bell, Travels from St. Petersburg in Russia to Diverse Parts of Asia. Vol. 2, 1763, pp. 169-321. Translated from the French report of 1726.

Lange, Lorenz, in Peter Simon Pallas (Hg.) Neue Nordische Beyträge 2 (1781): Tagebuch einer in den Jahren 1727 und 1728 über Kjachta nach Peking unter Anführung des Agenten Lorenz Lange gethanen Karawanenreise, pp. 83-159; Tagebuch einer im Jahr 1736 unter Anführung des Kanzleyraths Lange und des Commissars Firsof von Zuruchaitu durch die Mongoley nach Peking verrichteten Karawanenreise, pp. 160-207.

Mancall, Mark, Russia and China: Their Diplomatic Relations to 1728. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.