Lifan Yuan

TheLifan Yuan(Chinese:Lý phiên viện;pinyin:Lǐfān Yuàn;Manchu:ᡨᡠᠯᡝᡵᡤᡳ
ᡤᠣᠯᠣ
ᠪᡝ
ᡩᠠᠰᠠᡵᠠ
ᠵᡠᡵᡤᠠᠨ, Möllendorff:tulergi golo be dasara jurgan;Mongolian:Гадаад Монголын төрийг засах явдлын яам,γadaγadu mongγul un törü-yi jasaqu yabudal-un yamun) was an agency in the government of theQing dynastyof China which administered the empire'sInner Asianterritories such asMongoliaand oversaw the appointments ofAmbansinTibet.Until the 1860s, it was also responsible for the Qing's relations with theRussian Empire.

Name

The name Lifan Yuan has various translations inEnglish,including theBoard for National Minority Affairs,^[1]Court of Territorial Affairs,^[2]Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions,^[3]Office for Relations with Principalities,^[4]Office of Barbarian Control,^[5]Office of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs,^[6]andCourt of Colonial Affairs.^[7]^[8]etc. The office was initially known as the Mongol Yamen (Chinese:Mông cổ nha môn;pinyin:Měnggǔ Yámén;^[9]Manchu:ᠮᠣᠩᡤᠣ
ᠵᡠᡵᡤᠠᠨ, Möllendorff:monggo jurgan,lit. the Mongol department) when it was first created in 1636. In 1639 the department was renamed and expanded to "Lifan Yuan" in Chinese and "Tulergi golo be dasara jurgan" in Manchu. The Manchu name literally means the department for the administration of outlying regions.^[10]During the period of thelate Qing reforms(or "New Policies" ), the name was changed again to Lifan Ministry (Chinese:Lý phiên bộ;pinyin:Lǐfān Bù) in 1907 and existed until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

Function

Prior to the establishment of theZongli Yamen,the Court also supervised the empire's relation with Russia under the treaties ofNerchinskandKyakhta.^[11]Lifan Yuan was exclusively staffed with members from theEight Banners.Lifan Yuan was the closest administrative office that the Qing dynasty had that would have been comparable with a foreign policy department.

Guests of the Lifan Yuan were housed in the Bureau of Interpreters (Chinese:Hội đồng quán;pinyin:Huìtóng Guǎn;Wade–Giles:Hui-t'ung Kuan) in the southeast part of theInner City,later also known as the Russian hostel (Chinese:Nga la tư quán;pinyin:Éluósī Guǎn;Wade–Giles:O-lo-ssu Kuan) due to the predominance of Russian visitors there. It was also called the 'south pavilion' ( nam quánnan kuan) to distinguish it from the 'north pavilion' ( bắc quánpei kuan) where theAlbazinianslived. From theTreaty of Kyakhtathis residence became permanent.

There was also a Russian Language Institute (Chinese:Nga la tư văn quán;pinyin:Éluósī Wénguǎn;Wade–Giles:O-lo-ssu Wen-kuan), which was a school where Manchus learned to speak Russian. Founded in 1708, it was incorporated into the newly foundedTongwen Guanin 1862.

The Lifan Yuan was roughly a Qing version of the Xuanzheng Yuan (Chinese:Tuyên chính viện;pinyin:Xuānzhèngyuàn) orBureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs,instituted by the Mongol-ledYuan dynastyfor administering affairs in Tibet.^[12]It is to be distinguished from theMinistry of Rites,which was the traditional Chinese institution for dealing with all outsiders during theMing dynasty.The Qing used the Board of Rites to deal with its tributary states to the south and east like theJoseon dynastyof Korea, theNguyen dynastyof Vietnam, theRyukyu Kingdom,and the Westerners who came by sea like the Dutch and the English. The Lifan Yuan was established during the reign ofHuang Taijito deal with the empire's Mongol subjects. It later continued to be a separate institution for handling the affairs of the empire's Inner Asian territories and its foreign relations with the Russians.

References

^The biographies of the Dalai Lamas By Hanzhang Ya, P33
^Opium and the limits of empire: drug prohibition in the Chinese interior... By David Anthony Bello, P65
^Political frontiers, ethnic boundaries, and human geographies in Chinese history By Nicola Di Cosmo, Don J. Wyatt, P367
^Imperial China 900-1800 By Frederick W. Mote, P868
^Sino-Russian Relations: A Short History By R. K. I. Quested, P46
^Traditional government in imperial China: a critical analysis By Mu Qian, Mu Ch'ien, George Oakley Totten, P135
^Coleman, William M. IV (2014).Making the State on the Sino-Tibetan Frontier: Chinese Expansion and Local Power in Batang, 1842-1939(PDF).p. 193-194. Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2021-05-07.{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help)
^"China - The Qing empire".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved8 May2020.
^Pamela Kyle Crossley (15 February 2000).A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology.University of California Press. pp. 214–.ISBN 978-0-520-92884-8.
^The Imperial Moment, by Kimberly Kagan, p97
^Akifumi, Shiyoya (2019)."The Treaty of Ghulja reconsidered: Imperial Russian diplomacy toward Qing China in 1851".Journal of Eurasian Studies.10(2): 147–158.doi:10.1177/1879366519842882.S2CID 164659711.
^State and Ethnicity in China's Southwest, by Xiaolin Guo, p29

Lifan Yuan

Contents

Name

Function

See also

References

Further reading