Qiying was a Manchu

Manchu

The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...

 statesman during the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

.

His name in Chinese means "brave man of about 60 or 70".

Background and early career

Being a descendant of Nurhaci

Nurhaci

Nurhaci was an important Jurchen chieftain who rose to prominence in the late sixteenth century in what is today Northeastern China...

's ninth son Babutai, Qiying was a member of the imperial house of Aisin-Gioro and belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner in the Eight Banners

Eight Banners

The Eight Banners were administrative divisions into which all Manchu families were placed. They provided the basic framework for the Manchu military organization...

. Qiying held several prominent posts in the Qing government and was demoted several times because of corruption in office, but managed to regain his position as a leading official in the Qing court.

Role during the Opium Wars

In 1842, the Daoguang Emperor entrusted Qiying to conclude a peace treaty with the Britain

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 following the First Opium War

First Opium War

The First Anglo-Chinese War , known popularly as the First Opium War or simply the Opium War, was fought between the United Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty of China over their conflicting viewpoints on diplomatic relations, trade, and the administration of justice...

, and he was chiefly responsible for negotiating and signing the Treaty of Nanking

Treaty of Nanking

The Treaty of Nanking was signed on 29 August 1842 to mark the end of the First Opium War between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Qing Dynasty of China...

 with the British on 29 August 1842. In the following years, Qiying also concluded the Treaty of Whampoa

Treaty of Whampoa

The Treaty of Whampoa was a commercial treaty between France and China, which was signed by Théodore de Lagrené and Qiying on October 24, 1844.-Terms:...

 with France

French colonial empire

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

, the Treaty of Wanghia

Treaty of Wanghia

The Treaty of Wanghia , is a diplomatic agreement between the Qing Dynasty of China and the United States, signed on 3 July 1844 in the Kun Iam Temple...

 with the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and the Treaty of Canton

Treaty of Canton

The Treaty of Canton in 1847 was made between representatives of Sweden-Norway and Imperial China.The treaty was negotiated in March 1847 by Carl Fredrik Liljevalch and Qiying.-Provisions:...

 with Sweden-Norway. This was the first group of treaties known as the "Unequal Treaties" in China.

In 1858, the Xianfeng Emperor ordered Qiying to negotiate a peace treaty with Britain and France in order to conclude the Second Opium War

Second Opium War

The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...

. During the negotiations, the British interpreters Horatio Nelson Lay

Horatio Nelson Lay

Horatio Nelson Lay , was a British diplomat, noted for his role in the ill-fated "Lay-Osborn Flotilla" during the Taiping Rebellion.-Early life:...

 and Thomas Francis Wade

Thomas Francis Wade

Sir Thomas Francis Wade, GCMG, KCB , was a British diplomat and Sinologist who produced a syllabary in 1859 that was later amended, extended and converted into the Wade-Giles romanization for Mandarin Chinese by Herbert Giles in 1892...

 sought to expose Qiying's duplicity by producing documents the British had captured in Guangzhou

Guangzhou

Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...

, in which Qiying expressed his contempt for the British. Humiliated, Qiying promptly left the negotiations in Tianjin for Beijing and he was later arrested for having left his post in contravention of imperial order. He was sentenced to death by the Imperial Clan Court, but was allowed to commit suicide instead.

Commemoration

The junk Keying, the first Chinese ship to sail to Britain and America, was named after Qiying.