This date in 1877, Guo Songtao (郭嵩焘 1818-1891), China's first permanent overseas ambassador, arrived at his new posting in London. Guo was somewhat an odd fit for this role. He was a classically-trained scholar who reacted to his new appointment by remarking, "How can I, who know no foreign language and am ignorant of world affairs, fill my post competently?"
Basically, nobody wanted the gig and Guo drew the shortest straw. As an official, he had developed a reputation for being (a bit too) sympathetic to the foreign invaders, counseling the court in 1858 that steps be taken to avoid, at all costs, a war the Qing could not win, even if it meant appeasing the imperialist powers.
Why send him to London? Well, in 1875 a British adventurer went and got himself killed in Yunnan. The Qing needed to send a 'mission of apology' and it seemed like Guo would be the perfect guy for this somewhat humiliating task. Oh yes, and while he was at it, did Guo mind staying awhile?
He left China in 1876 with a staff of two other officials and a Scottish secretary/advisor. Their ship arrived in London on January 21, 1877 and a week later Guo presented his credentials to Queen Victoria as the head of the Qing Dynasty's first permanent diplomatic mission.
As a diplomat, Guo had a quiet time at the Court of St. James and his tenure was uneventful. But it is not in the realm of diplomacy that Guo is remembered best, instead it is for his candid observations of life in Europe recorded in long journal entries which were subsequently published upon his return to China.
Unfortunately, Guo's musings proved a little too candid. The published journals were banned and the printing blocks confiscated. Conservative scholar-officials savagely criticized Guo for having sullied himself by living among the barbarians and for having the temerity to praise Europeans for having their own 2,000-year history. Guo lived the rest of his days in semi-retirement, writing essays and memorials to whomever would read them urging the establishment of railways, machinery, and other conveniences he had seen while in Europe.
As part of the Voices from China's Past series, here are three excerpts of a letter Ambassador Guo sent from London in 1877:
On England:
Here in England the circumstance of administration, education, and the social customs are changing every day. To trace the whole history of the nation--at first the kind and the people struggled for political power and slaughtered one another. Great confusion lasted for several decades or a hundred years until the time of Zhe-Er-Zhi when the situation became settled. Originally there was no time-honored accumulation of absolute virtue and excellent education [as in China]...
Their attainment of wealth and strength really began only after the Qianlong Period (r. 1736-1795). Steamships were first built at the beginning of the Qianlong period, but at first they were not very profitable. Then in 1801 they began using them in the ocean. The method again followed in the building of locomotives, which had its beginning in 1813. The method was again followed in the building of locomotives in 1813. Thereafter the study of electricity was pursued. Letters and messages were transmitted by a machine of magnetic-iron, until in 1838 a telegraph was first established in their national capital...
From the beginning of England's rise, it has only been several decades; while China was weak and declining they covered a distance of 70,000 li in the blink of an eye...Chinese scholars and officials are presumptuous in their sanctuary and are trying to obstruct the changes of the universe; they can never succeed.
On China:
Personally I think there is something in the minds of the Chinese which is absolutely unintelligible. Among the injuries that Westerners do us there is nothing more serious than opium. Even the British gentlemen feel ashamed of having used this pernicious thing as a pretext for hostilities with China and they are making a strong effort to eradicate it. Yet Chinese scholars and officials are willing to indulge complacently in it, without any sense of remorse.
For several decades it has been the national humiliation. It has exhausted our financial power and injured the lives of our people, but there is not a single person whose conscience is weighed down by it. Now clocks, watches, and toys are owned by all families, and woolen and cotton cloth and the like are prevalent in poor districts and the isolated countryside. The practice in Jiangsu and Zhejiang even goes as far as to put aide the national currency for the exclusive use of foreign bank notes...
Nevertheless as soon as these people heard of the building of railroads and telegraph lines they become solely disturbed and enraged and arose in multitudes to create hindrances and difficulties. There are even people who regard foreign machines as an object of public hatred.
On improving China's transportation and communication infrastructure:
My ideas is that if everything must be done by foreigners it cannot last long. We should make the Chinese thoroughly familiar with their methods. The state of Egypt is in Africa and when she builds railroads she first sends some people to England to study and then build them by imitation.
There is nothing more urgent than to plan earnestly for better domestic administration, in order to lay the foundation of wealth and strength...The area of China is more than 10,000 li. The postal transportation to a distant place takes several tens of days...If the railways and telegraphs are carried through, then 10,000 li will be like the hall or threshold of one's house.
I firmly believe that it is difficult, if not impossible, to objectively view one's own nation or culture without having spent some time someplace else. While Guo, by his own admission, had little knowledge of things foreign, this makes his journals even more interesting. He arrived in England pretty much a blank slate, and whatever gaps he had in his knowledge up to that point, he more than made up for them with his astute observations once he got there.
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Guo Songtao's journals have been translated into English and make fascinating reading, even for non-specialists:
The First Chinese Embassy to the West: The Journals of Kuo Sung-t'ao, Liu Hsi-hong, and Chang Te-yi. Translated and edited by J.D. Frondsham (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
The translations of Guo's letter found above are from:
- China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923. Edited by Ssu-yu Teng and John K. Fairbank. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), pp. 99-102
Other information gleaned in the pages of:
- Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, Volume I. Edited by Arthur W. Hummel. (Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1943), pp. 438-439
- Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, 6th Edition. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p 290.
