Zongli Yamen

Yamen

A yamen is any local bureaucrat's, or mandarin's, office and residence of the Chinese Empire. The term has been widely used in China for centuries, but appeared in English during the Qing Dynasty....

was the government body in charge of foreign affairs

Foreign Affairs

Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...

 in imperial 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...

 during the late 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....

. It was established by Prince Gong in 1861, following the Convention of Peking

Convention of Peking

The Convention of Peking or the First Convention of Peking is the name used for three different unequal treaties, which were concluded between Qing China and the United Kingdom, France, and Russia.-Background:...

. It was abolished in 1901 and replaced with a Foreign Office of ministry rank.

The former site of the Zongli Yamen is now located in Dongtangzi Hutong, Dongcheng District

Dongcheng District, Beijing

Dongcheng District is an urban district in Beijing covering the eastern half of Beijing's urban core. It is 24.7 square kilometres in area and has a population of 535,558 . Dongcheng District covers several important parts of Beijing...

, 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...

. Nearly all buildings are preserved in good condition.

Meaning of name

Zongli yamen is a traditional abbreviation of the official name in Chinese, Zongli Geguo Shiwu Yamen , literally meaning "Office in charge of Affairs of All Nations". The corresponding name in Manchu

Manchu language

Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...

, the other official language of the Qing Empire, was Geren gurun i baita be uherileme icihiyara yamun. () A common misconception is that the Yamen

Yamen

A yamen is any local bureaucrat's, or mandarin's, office and residence of the Chinese Empire. The term has been widely used in China for centuries, but appeared in English during the Qing Dynasty....

's name means the "Premier

Premier of the People's Republic of China

The Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , sometimes also referred to as the "Prime Minister" informally, is the Leader of the State Council of the People's Republic of China , who is the head of government and holds the highest-ranking of the Civil service of the...

's Office". This arose because the word Zongli (总理) is now used in Chinese to refer to the Premier or Prime Minister of a country. In fact, the name Zongli Yamen is an abbreviation of its full name, which makes it the bona fide office of foreign affairs.

Function in Qing Bureaucracy

Prior to the creation of the Yamen, Qing foreign relations were conducted by several different agencies, such as the Ministry of Rites

Ministry of Rites

The Ministry of Rites was one of the Chinese Three Departments and Six Ministries which existed from the time of the Tang Dynasty until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 brought an end to Imperial China. Prior to its formation, the tasks given to the Ministry were assigned to officials such as the...

 and the Lifan Yuan

Lifan Yuan

The Lifan Yuan was an agency in the Qing government which supervised the Qing Empire's Mongolian dependencies and oversaw the appointments of Ambans in Tibet. It was first created in the 17th century. It has various translations in English, e.g...

. The Zongli Yamen was the first significant institutional innovation in the central Beijing bureaucracy that the Qing had made since Emperor Yongzheng created the nucleus of the Grand Council in 1729. The Zongli Yamen was supervised by a controlling board of five senior officials (initially all Manchus), among whom the emperor's uncle, Prince Gong, was the de facto

De facto

De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...

leader. In their discussions on establishing the new agency, Qing officials reiterated that it was only to be a temporary institution, maintained until the current foreign and domestic crisis had passed. The Zongli Yamen had a relatively low formal status in the Qing administrative hierarchy and its members served concurrently in other government agencies, which further weakened its position. Furthermore, the Zongli yamen was not the sole policy making body in foreign affairs, a prerogative which still rested in the hands of the emperor. While the Yamen remained an important body for a few decades after its foundation, its influence was soon overshadowed by influential officials such as Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan was an eminent Han Chinese official, military general, and devout Confucian scholar of the late Qing Dynasty in China....

 and Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang

Li Hongzhang or Li Hung-chang , Marquis Suyi of the First Class , GCVO, was a leading statesman of the late Qing Empire...

.

Following the Boxer rebellion

Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...

, the Qing government was forced to change its foreign service, According to article XII in the Boxer Protocol

Boxer Protocol

The Boxer Protocol was signed on September 7, 1901 between the Qing Empire of China and the Eight-Nation Alliance that had provided military forces plus Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands after China's defeat in the intervention to put down the Boxer Rebellion at the hands of the...

1901, the Zongli Yamen was replaced with a Foreign Office , which ranked above the other six boards in the government.