William Woodville Rockhill (May 1, 1854 — December 8, 1914) was a United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China and as the first American to learn to speak Tibetan and therefore as the father of modern U.S. Tibetan Studies.
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William Woodville Rockhill was born in Philadelphia on May 1, 1854, the son of Thomas Cadwalader Rockhill and Dorothea Anne Woodville (1823–1913).[1] His father died when he was 13 years old and his mother relocated the family to France.[2] While in his teens, Rockhill read Abbé Huc's account of his 1844-46 voyage to Lhasa, which sparked young Rockhill's interest in Tibet.[3] Rockhill sought out the celebrated Orientalist Léon Feer of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, who guided Rockhill's learning about the Far East.[4] Rockhill attended the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr, where he studied Tibetan.[5] After graduation, Rockhill joined the French Foreign Legion, serving as an officer in Algiers.[6]
In 1876, Rockhill returned to the United States, and on December 14, 1876, he married Caroline Tyson, daughter of J. Washington Tyson and Marie Louise (Hewling) Tyson of Philadelphia.[7] The couple purchased a cattle ranch in New Mexico, but Rockhill concluded that ranching was not to his liking.[8] By 1880, he had completed a French language translation of the Tibetan version of the Udanavarga, which was published in 1881.[9]
Finding ranching not to his liking, Rockhill sold his ranch in 1881 and moved to Switzerland.[10] He spent the next three years in Europe studying Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese.[11] During this period, he co-authored a biography of the Buddha with Nanjo Bunyu and Ernst Leumann, and completed a French language translation of the Pratimoksha sūtra, published in 1884 under the title Prâtimoksha sutra; ou, Le traité d'émancipation selon la version tibétaine: avec notes et extraits du Dulva (Vinaya).[12]
In 1883, Rockhill's wife came into a $70,000 inheritance on the death of a cousin, allowing Rockhill to take an unpaid position with the American Legation in Peking.[13] After perfecting his language skills, he was upgraded to a paid position.[14] In the 1880s, he made two extended expeditions into western China, Mongolia and Tibet.[15] He sent an account of his travels to the Smithsonian Institute for publication (as The Land of the Lamas (1891)), and in 1893, he was awarded the Gold Patron's Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.[16]
During the administration of President of the United States Grover Cleveland, Rockhill served as Third Assistant Secretary of State from April 17, 1894 until February 13, 1896.[17] He then served as United States Assistant Secretary of State under United States Secretary of State Richard Olney from February 14, 1896 until May 10, 1897.[18]
In 1897, President William McKinley named Rockhill U.S. Minister to Greece, a position he held from September 25, 1897 to April 27, 1899.[19] He concurrently served as Minister to Serbia from May 7, 1898 to April 27, 1899, and as Minister to Romania from May 18, 1898 to April 27, 1899.[20]
With the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, who knew little of the Far East, turned to Rockhill for guidance.[21] As such, Rockhill drafted a memorandum that spelled out the famous Open Door Policy towards China; this memorandum was circulated to Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and Italy and in March 1900, Secretary Hay announced that all the Great Powers had signed off on the Open Door Policy.[22] Rockhill was then despatched as President McKinley's special envoy, where he represented the U.S. in the Conference of Ministers that followed the ending of the Boxer Rebellion. During the negotiations surrounding the Boxer Protocol, Rockhill argued against full war reparations, instead encouraging the Great Powers to settle for a lump sum of $333 million in reparations to be divided amongst the Powers in proportion to their expenses incurred in intervening in China.[23] At Rockhill's urging, the U.S.'s share of war reparations was used to fund student exchanges between China and the U.S.[24]
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Rockhill U.S. Minister to China, a position he held from June 17, 1905 until June 1, 1909.[25] This appointment came in the wake of the British Expedition to Tibet (1903–1904) that had forced Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama into isolation.[26] Learning that Rockhill spoke Tibetan, the Dalai Lama entered into a correspondence that was to last until Rockhill's death.[27] In June 1908, Rockhill made a five-day on-foot trek to Mount Wutai to meet the Dalai Lama and successfully convinced the Dalai Lama to seek peace with China and Britain.[28]
In 1909, President William Howard Taft named Rockhill Minister to Russia and Rockhill held this post from January 11, 1910 until June 17, 1911.[29] President Taft then named him Minister to Turkey, and he held this post from August 28, 1911 until November 20, 1913.[30]
Rockhill died in Honolulu on December 8, 1914, and is buried in the East Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut.[31]