Modern Asian Studies 40,3(2006)pp.631-662.2006 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0026749X06002058 Printed in the United Kingdom Robert Hart and Gustav Detring during the boxer Rebellion HANS VAN DE VEN University of Cambridge This article focuses on Robert Hart during the Boxer Rebellion.My reconstruction of his activities is based on a recently discovered file in the archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service held at the Second Historical Archives in Nanjing.While it has long been known that Hart corresponded with Qing officials during the Siege itself and while a few letters have been published,2 the file contains more than one hundred exchanges between Hart and Qing officials written after the end of the Siege of the Legations.I have further relied on a box of documents dealing with the Boxer Rebellion in the Hart Manuscript Collection at the Queen's University of Belfast,including Hart's notes on his meetings with Qing officials.3 These materials provide insight into the way Hart was able to persuade the Qing and foreign countries to begin negotiations and illustrate the critical role he played in fashioning the Boxer Protocol signed on 7 September 1901. Robert Hart was perhaps right that he was in a unique position to mediate.Just after the end of the Siege,he wrote James Duncan Campbell (1833-1907),the Non-Resident Secretary in charge of the London Office of the Customs Service,I am horribly hurt by all that has occurred,but there it is,and we can only try to make the best of it!I hold on to be of use to the Service,to China,and to the general interest.I think I can be of use,and only I in all three directions, I'Qu Han'(Out Letters),Maritime Customs Service Archives,Second Historical Archives of China,679(7)/112.Hereafter Out Letters. 2 Circular 961 (5 October 1goo),in Stanley Wright,ed.,Documents Illustrative of the Origin,Development,and Activities of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (Shanghai, Statistical Department of the Inspector General of Customs,1938),Vol.II,238-54. This collection includes letters from the Zongli Yamen to Hart. 3 Papers Relating to the Boxer Disturbances',Hart Manuscript Collection, Queen's University Belfast,MS 15/4.Hereafter Boxer Disturbances. 0026-749X/o6/s7-50+$0.10 631
Modern Asian Studies 40, 3 (2006) pp. 631–662. C 2006 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0026749X06002058 Printed in the United Kingdom Robert Hart and Gustav Detring during the Boxer Rebellion HANS VAN DE VEN University of Cambridge This article focuses on Robert Hart during the Boxer Rebellion. My reconstruction of his activities is based on a recently discovered file in the archives of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service held at the Second Historical Archives in Nanjing.1 While it has long been known that Hart corresponded with Qing officials during the Siege itself and while a few letters have been published,2 the file contains more than one hundred exchanges between Hart and Qing officials written after the end of the Siege of the Legations. I have further relied on a box of documents dealing with the Boxer Rebellion in the Hart Manuscript Collection at the Queen’s University of Belfast, including Hart’s notes on his meetings with Qing officials.3 These materials provide insight into the way Hart was able to persuade the Qing and foreign countries to begin negotiations and illustrate the critical role he played in fashioning the Boxer Protocol signed on 7 September 1901. Robert Hart was perhaps right that he was in a unique position to mediate. Just after the end of the Siege, he wrote James Duncan Campbell (1833–1907), the Non-Resident Secretary in charge of the London Office of the Customs Service, ‘I am horribly hurt by all that has occurred, but there it is, and we can only try to make the best of it! I hold on to be of use to the Service, to China, and to the general interest. I think I can be of use, and only I in all three directions, 1 ‘Qu Han’ (Out Letters), Maritime Customs Service Archives, Second Historical Archives of China, 679(7)/112. Hereafter Out Letters. 2 Circular 961 (5 October 1900), in Stanley Wright, ed., Documents Illustrative of the Origin, Development, and Activities of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service (Shanghai, Statistical Department of the Inspector General of Customs, 1938), Vol. II, 238–54. This collection includes letters from the Zongli Yamen to Hart. 3 ‘Papers Relating to the Boxer Disturbances’, Hart Manuscript Collection, Queen’s University Belfast, MS 15/4. Hereafter Boxer Disturbances. 0026–749X/06/$7.50+$0.10 631
632 HANS VAN DE VEN at this juncture'.It was not at all predictable that the Qing would survive the crisis of the Boxer Rebellion.If Britain favoured concerted international action in support of the Qing,not all other countries thought similarly.Russia was eager to absorb north China as the Siberian railroad is completed',while Japan,which had already seized Korea,was determined to resist Russian influence and extend its own in northern China.France was interested in securing regions in south China neighbouring Tongking,while Germany too sought to acquire a base in China.A collapse of the Qing,the partition of China,or even an Allied imposition of a new monarchical ruler were all real possibilities in the tense weeks that followed the Allied occupation of Beijing and the Qing court's flight first to Taiyuan in Shanxi Province and then to Xi'an in Shaanxi.Hart's determined efforts helped prevent these outcomes. In this examination of Robert Hart's role during the Boxer crisis,I seek to illustrate his significance as a man in the middle.It is limiting, I believe,to portray him as ultimately either a servant of British or general foreign interest in China,or as someone who represented the West at its best.Chinese historians such as Chen Hansheng, Fan Wenlan,and He Jiajun argued in the 195os that the Customs Service was a tool of imperialism that did great harm to China.6 More recently,Chen Shiqi,the author of the most exhaustive history of the Chinese Maritime Customs to date,'as well as Chen Xiafei and Han Rongfang,the editors of the correspondence between Hart and James Duncan Campbell,3 were less one-sided.They expressed admiration for the financial and personnel systems of the Customs Quoted in Stanley Wright,Hart and the Chinese Customs(Belfast:Wm.Mullan and Son,195o),737: 5 The China Problem',National Archives of the United Kingdom (formerly the Public Record Office),Kew,CAB $7/53/65. 6 Zhongguo Jindai Jingjishi Ziliao Congkan Bianji Weiyuanhui (Compilation Committee for Reseources for Modern Economic History of China),Diguozhuyi yu Zhongguo Haiguan(Imperialism and China's Maritime Customs)(Beijing:Zhonghua Shuju,1957-1970). 7 Chen Shiqi,Zhongguo Jindai Haiguan Shi (History of the Maritime Customs Service of Modern China)(Beijing:Renmin Chubanshe,2002). 8 Chen Xiafei and Han Rongfang,eds,The Archives of the China's Imperial Maritime Customs Service:The Confidential Correspondence between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell (Beijing:Foreign Languages Press,1990-1993).An earlier edition, providing only Hart's letters to Campbell,was John Fairbank,Katherine Bruner, Elizabeth MacLeod Matheson,eds,The I.G.in Peking:The Letters of Robert Hart,Chinese Maritime Customs of China,1868-1907(Cambridge,Mass,Harvard UP,1975).The Beijing edition also supplies the telegrams that Hart and Campbell exchanged,but
632 HANS VAN DE VEN at this juncture’.4 It was not at all predictable that the Qing would survive the crisis of the Boxer Rebellion. If Britain favoured concerted international action in support of the Qing, not all other countries thought similarly. Russia was eager to ‘absorb north China as the Siberian railroad is completed’,5 while Japan, which had already seized Korea, was determined to resist Russian influence and extend its own in northern China. France was interested in securing regions in south China neighbouring Tongking, while Germany too sought to acquire a base in China. A collapse of the Qing, the partition of China, or even an Allied imposition of a new monarchical ruler were all real possibilities in the tense weeks that followed the Allied occupation of Beijing and the Qing court’s flight first to Taiyuan in Shanxi Province and then to Xi’an in Shaanxi. Hart’s determined efforts helped prevent these outcomes. In this examination of Robert Hart’s role during the Boxer crisis, I seek to illustrate his significance as a man in the middle. It is limiting, I believe, to portray him as ultimately either a servant of British or general foreign interest in China, or as someone who represented the West at its best. Chinese historians such as Chen Hansheng, Fan Wenlan, and He Jiajun argued in the 1950s that the Customs Service was a tool of imperialism that did great harm to China.6 More recently, Chen Shiqi, the author of the most exhaustive history of the Chinese Maritime Customs to date,7 as well as Chen Xiafei and Han Rongfang, the editors of the correspondence between Hart and James Duncan Campbell,8 were less one-sided. They expressed admiration for the financial and personnel systems of the Customs 4 Quoted in Stanley Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast: Wm. Mullan and Son, 1950), 737. 5 ‘The China Problem’, National Archives of the United Kingdom (formerly the Public Record Office), Kew, CAB 37/53/65. 6 Zhongguo Jindai Jingjishi Ziliao Congkan Bianji Weiyuanhui (Compilation Committee for Reseources for Modern Economic History of China), Diguozhuyi yu Zhongguo Haiguan (Imperialism and China’s Maritime Customs) (Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1957–1970). 7 Chen Shiqi, Zhongguo Jindai Haiguan Shi(History of the Maritime Customs Service of Modern China) (Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe, 2002). 8 Chen Xiafei and Han Rongfang, eds, The Archives of the China’s Imperial Maritime Customs Service: The Confidential Correspondence between Robert Hart and James Duncan Campbell (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1990–1993). An earlier edition, providing only Hart’s letters to Campbell, was John Fairbank, Katherine Bruner, Elizabeth MacLeod Matheson, eds, The I.G. in Peking: The Letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs of China, 1868–1907 (Cambridge, Mass, Harvard UP, 1975). The Beijing edition also supplies the telegrams that Hart and Campbell exchanged, but
ROBERT HART AND GUSTAV DETRING 633 Service.But they nonetheless condemned the Customs Service as an imperialist institution and argued that Hart served British and not Chinese interests. In contrast,Stanley Wright argued that Hart was able to build the Customs Service into a cosmopolitan bureaucracy dedicated to the modernization of China.9 He emphasized that the Service frequently acted on behalf of the Qing,including during diplomatic negotiations, and dampened the effects of imperialism.John Fairbank saw Hart as a paragon of what he called synarchy,that is,the joint rule of Western and Chinese officials of China's Treaty ports with the historical task of bringing modernity to China.10 In his contribution to this collection of essays,Richard O'Leary makes clear that Hart's Irishness makes it difficult to see him as simply British and that Hart held to multiple and overlapping identities. In examining Hart's role as a man in the middle at a time least tolerant of multiple loyalties and compromise,I seek to suggest that Hart occupied a nodal point in a network of transnational elites that emerged during the nineteenth century as commercial exchange intensified and international contacts broadened.This network tied together leading diplomats,merchants,bankers,journalists,and academics.In the West,it had bases in foreign ministries,banks, stock exchanges,periodicals,institutions of learning,and museums. In China,the Zongli Yamen (the Qing bureaucracy in charge of managing Qing relations with most foreign countries),the Customs Service itself,provincial and local governments,and Treaty Port institutions such as municipal councils were significant.But personal relations,sometimes maintained over many years and sometimes of a more ad hoc nature,were also important. What I hope to add to Fairbank's concept of synarchy,which already drew attention,in perhaps too sanguine a way,to the element of cooperation and collaboration in Sino-British relations,is first of all the suggestion that this network had a multinational character and was broadly based,even if Britain and its Foreign Office played a crucial role.Furthermore,divergent financial interests,personal animosities,and connections to home countries following radically still cannot be called definitive as it omits enclosures to the correspondence.A number of letters also appear to be missing. Wright,Hart. John Fairbank,Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast (Cambridge,Mass:Harvard University Press,1964),462-8
ROBERT HART AND GUSTAV DETRING 633 Service. But they nonetheless condemned the Customs Service as an imperialist institution and argued that Hart served British and not Chinese interests. In contrast, Stanley Wright argued that Hart was able to build the Customs Service into a cosmopolitan bureaucracy dedicated to the modernization of China.9 He emphasized that the Service frequently acted on behalf of the Qing, including during diplomatic negotiations, and dampened the effects of imperialism. John Fairbank saw Hart as a paragon of what he called synarchy, that is, the joint rule of Western and Chinese officials of China’s Treaty ports with the historical task of bringing modernity to China.10 In his contribution to this collection of essays, Richard O’Leary makes clear that Hart’s Irishness makes it difficult to see him as simply British and that Hart held to multiple and overlapping identities. In examining Hart’s role as a man in the middle at a time least tolerant of multiple loyalties and compromise, I seek to suggest that Hart occupied a nodal point in a network of transnational elites that emerged during the nineteenth century as commercial exchange intensified and international contacts broadened. This network tied together leading diplomats, merchants, bankers, journalists, and academics. In the West, it had bases in foreign ministries, banks, stock exchanges, periodicals, institutions of learning, and museums. In China, the Zongli Yamen (the Qing bureaucracy in charge of managing Qing relations with most foreign countries), the Customs Service itself, provincial and local governments, and Treaty Port institutions such as municipal councils were significant. But personal relations, sometimes maintained over many years and sometimes of a more ad hoc nature, were also important. What I hope to add to Fairbank’s concept of synarchy, which already drew attention, in perhaps too sanguine a way, to the element of cooperation and collaboration in Sino-British relations, is first of all the suggestion that this network had a multinational character and was broadly based, even if Britain and its Foreign Office played a crucial role. Furthermore, divergent financial interests, personal animosities, and connections to home countries following radically still cannot be called definitive as it omits enclosures to the correspondence. A number of letters also appear to be missing. 9 Wright, Hart. 10 John Fairbank, Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1964), 462–8
634 HANS VAN DE VEN different policies generated important divisions and rivalries within this network.It did not divide simply along Sino-Foreign lines.Finally, precisely where power was based,how it was enacted,and what effects it had are perhaps not as clear as the models of imperialism or synarchy suggested. To explore the complexity of the world of transnational elites as it operated in late Qing China,I bring into the analysis Gustav Detring (1842-1913),the German Commissioner of Customs at Tianjin.Detring had helped built the Tianjin Foreign Concession and was close to Li Hongzhang (1823-1901),one of the most powerful officials of the late Qing who followed a pro-Russian policy after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5.Even though nominally a subordinate of Robert Hart,Li Hongzhang's patronage provided Detring a great deal of autonomy.When Hart's stature declined together with the waning of British influence in China after the Sino-Japanese War, Detring attempted to use his connections with Li Hongzhang and the strengthening of German influence to become to China's railroad and mining industries what Hart was to China's sea-borne trade.Li Hongzhang himself used Detring as a counterweight to Hart in the Customs Service and to recover his own influence in China's railroad and mining administrations which he had lost after the Sino-Japanese War.Unlike Hart,whose position improved during the Boxer crisis and who was able to secure the survival of the Customs Service, Detring would lose all.To examine closely the activities of Robert Hart and Gustav Detring during the Boxer Rebellion therefore is useful to illustrate in a concrete way the structures,connections,concerns,and modes of operation characteristic of the world of transnational elites at the turn of the twentieth century in China. I.Robert Hart Hart had deep roots in both Britain and China.He grew up in County Armagh,attended first a preparatory school at Taunton in England and then Wesley College in Dublin,and completed his education at Queen's University Belfast.While maintaining contact with family and boyhood friends throughout his life,as O'Leary makes clear, Hart also developed close connections with leading British diplomats, bankers,journalists,scientists,and entrepreneurs.At the same time, Hart knew Chinese well,lived with a Cantonese partner named Ayaou with whom he had three children,and developed strong relations with
634 HANS VAN DE VEN different policies generated important divisions and rivalries within this network. It did not divide simply along Sino-Foreign lines. Finally, precisely where power was based, how it was enacted, and what effects it had are perhaps not as clear as the models of imperialism or synarchy suggested. To explore the complexity of the world of transnational elites as it operated in late Qing China, I bring into the analysis Gustav Detring (1842–1913), the German Commissioner of Customs at Tianjin. Detring had helped built the Tianjin Foreign Concession and was close to Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), one of the most powerful officials of the late Qing who followed a pro-Russian policy after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–5. Even though nominally a subordinate of Robert Hart, Li Hongzhang’s patronage provided Detring a great deal of autonomy. When Hart’s stature declined together with the waning of British influence in China after the Sino-Japanese War, Detring attempted to use his connections with Li Hongzhang and the strengthening of German influence to become to China’s railroad and mining industries what Hart was to China’s sea-borne trade. Li Hongzhang himself used Detring as a counterweight to Hart in the Customs Service and to recover his own influence in China’s railroad and mining administrations which he had lost after the Sino-Japanese War. Unlike Hart, whose position improved during the Boxer crisis and who was able to secure the survival of the Customs Service, Detring would lose all. To examine closely the activities of Robert Hart and Gustav Detring during the Boxer Rebellion therefore is useful to illustrate in a concrete way the structures, connections, concerns, and modes of operation characteristic of the world of transnational elites at the turn of the twentieth century in China. I. Robert Hart Hart had deep roots in both Britain and China. He grew up in County Armagh, attended first a preparatory school at Taunton in England and then Wesley College in Dublin, and completed his education at Queen’s University Belfast. While maintaining contact with family and boyhood friends throughout his life, as O’Leary makes clear, Hart also developed close connections with leading British diplomats, bankers, journalists, scientists, and entrepreneurs. At the same time, Hart knew Chinese well, lived with a Cantonese partner named Ayaou with whom he had three children, and developed strong relations with
ROBERT HART AND GUSTAV DETRING 635 Qing officials,including Prince Gong (1833-1898)and Wenxiang (1818-1876),two officials who dominated Chinese politics in the decades after the Taiping Rebellion(1850-1864)when Hart built up the Customs Service.He possessed a thorough knowledge of Chinese bureaucratic procedures.His understanding of and respect for official etiquette was critical to his success. In the letters that Robert Hart exchanged with the Zongli Yamen during the Siege of the Legations itself,he was concerned about two interconnected issues,the first of which was the Customs Service itself, including his own control over it.When Hart wrote to Campbell that he believed that only he could be of service to the Customs Service,China, and the general interest,this ranking was probably a quite accurate reflection of Hart's priorities.The second issue was the reopening of contact between Qing officials and Allied diplomatic representatives. Hart feared that the longer such contact was postponed,the stronger the likelihood of partition.The departure of the court with Empress Dowager Cixi(1835-1908)and the Guangxu Emperor (1871-1908) from Beijing,and the consequent exodus of officials,placed added obstacles in the way of beginning peace negotiations. On 19June,just before the beginning of the Siege,the Zongli Yamen informed Robert Hart that foreign naval commanders in Tianjin had demanded the surrender of the Dagu Forts and that they regarded this as a declaration of war.They ordered the foreign Legations to leave Beijing within 24 hours for their own safety as Boxer disturbances had spread to Beijing.Hart replied the next day that he found it difficult to believe that the naval commanders had acted without the authorization of the foreign ministers in Beijing and that he believed that peace could have been maintained if the Qing had not ordered the departure of the ministers.He further argued that it was wrong to see the actions of the foreign countries as a threat.They had mobilised forces,he stated,'for self-protection and to assist in pacifying the disturbances;they mean no harm to the court'.12 Hart stressed that as an employee of the Qing he belonged to a different category then the ministers:I have assisted in the collection of revenue for forty years and I should stay in Beijing as I have always Zongli Yamen to Hart'(1June 1go0),Wright,ed.,in Documents Illustrative,II, 241. To Their Excellencies the Senior Secretaries of the Zongli Yamen'(20 June 1goo),Out Letters Number 1.The numbers refer to the number given in the table of contents of the file.Hart began numbering the correspondence in this file only from his second letter,which he numbered New Series Number 1
ROBERT HART AND GUSTAV DETRING 635 Qing officials, including Prince Gong (1833–1898) and Wenxiang (1818–1876), two officials who dominated Chinese politics in the decades after the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) when Hart built up the Customs Service. He possessed a thorough knowledge of Chinese bureaucratic procedures. His understanding of and respect for official etiquette was critical to his success. In the letters that Robert Hart exchanged with the Zongli Yamen during the Siege of the Legations itself, he was concerned about two interconnected issues, the first of which was the Customs Service itself, including his own control over it. When Hart wrote to Campbell that he believed that only he could be of service to the Customs Service, China, and the general interest, this ranking was probably a quite accurate reflection of Hart’s priorities. The second issue was the reopening of contact between Qing officials and Allied diplomatic representatives. Hart feared that the longer such contact was postponed, the stronger the likelihood of partition. The departure of the court with Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) and the Guangxu Emperor (1871–1908) from Beijing, and the consequent exodus of officials, placed added obstacles in the way of beginning peace negotiations. On 19 June, just before the beginning of the Siege, the Zongli Yamen informed Robert Hart that foreign naval commanders in Tianjin had demanded the surrender of the Dagu Forts and that they regarded this as a declaration of war. They ordered the foreign Legations to leave Beijing within 24 hours for their own safety as Boxer disturbances had spread to Beijing.11 Hart replied the next day that he found it difficult to believe that the naval commanders had acted without the authorization of the foreign ministers in Beijing and that he believed that peace could have been maintained if the Qing had not ordered the departure of the ministers. He further argued that it was wrong to see the actions of the foreign countries as a threat. They had mobilised forces, he stated, ‘for self-protection and to assist in pacifying the disturbances; they mean no harm to the court’.12 Hart stressed that as an employee of the Qing he belonged to a different category then the ministers: ‘I have assisted in the collection of revenue for forty years and I should stay in Beijing as I have always 11 ‘Zongli Yamen to Hart’ (19 June 1900), Wright, ed., in Documents Illustrative, II, 241. 12 ‘To Their Excellencies the Senior Secretaries of the Zongli Yamen’ (20 June 1900), Out Letters Number 1. The numbers refer to the number given in the table of contents of the file. Hart began numbering the correspondence in this file only from his second letter, which he numbered New Series Number 1