Qiying

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Qiying (zh: 耆英; b. 1790; forced suicide 29 June 1858) Manchu statesman during the Qing dynasty. Qiying was a member of the imperial house of Aisin-Gioro and belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner in the Eight Banners. Qiying held several prominent posts in the Qing government, but was also demoted several times because of corruption in office.

In 1842, he was given authority to concluded a peace treaty with the British following the First Opium War and he was resposinbile for negotiating and signing the Treaty of Nanking with the British on August 29, 1842. This was the first of the group of treaties which are known as the "Unequal Treaties" in China. In 1858, he participated in negotiating the Treaty of Tianjin with Lord Elgin's, but he was forced to leave his post after the interpreter Horatio Nelson Lay had exposed the extent of his hostility to the British. The disgraced Qiying committed suicide soon after.

[edit] References

  • Fairbank, John King. "The Manchu Appeasement Policy of 1843." Journal of the American Oriental Society 59, no. 4 (1939): 469-84.
  • Hummel, Arthur William, ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.
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