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Further Light on the Expansion of Russia in East Asia: 1792–1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

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Abstract

The article discusses recently published material on the subject of the author's book on Sino-Russian relations entitled The Expansion of Russia in East Asia 1857–60 (with an introductory chapter on 1792–1856). The two Chinese document collections Szu-kuo hsintang and Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo, edited by Kuo Ting-i, contain a number of hitherto unpublished Chinese government papers. One document in the Szu-kuo hsintang confirms that Putiatin defied Russian government orders when he negotiated for the Amur at Tientsin. Others throw light on the activities of the anti-Russian clique of princes and dignitaries, who influenced Ch'ing policy in these years, on Perovskii's mission to China and on the mutual present giving after the conclusion of the Sino-Russian treaties. The Soviet document collection Vneshnaia politika Rossii v XIX i nachale XX veka gives new facts about the Golovkin mission to China in 1805, but excludes all mention of the Amur. The extracts from K. A. Skachkov's Peking diary published in Moscow also exclude foreign affairs. Finally, the author's researches into the private papers of the 8th Earl of Elgin are described. They appear to confirm Ignatiev's claim that Elgin was ignorant of his negotiations with the Chinese in Peking in autumn 1860.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

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References

1 Mr. Chan Ngor Chong, formerly of the University of Malaya, and now of Merton College, Oxford, has kindly helped me with the translation of some of the Chinese documents here referred to, and has checked the whole article against the Chinese texts used, to ensure that there are no mistakes of comprehension. He is, however, not responsible for the selection of the material, nor for any of the opinions expressed here.

2 pp. 177, 189, 234, etc.

3 The Expansion of Russia, pp. 94, 95.Google Scholar

4 Ibid., p. 160.

5 i.e., presumably after it had been ratified. It had not yet been so at this time.

6 IWSM, 33, p. 28 A.Google Scholar; The Expansion of Russia, p. 163.Google Scholar

7 Ibid., pp. 167, 178. The date on which Gorchakov sent Perovskii orders to conclude this treaty is misprinted in The Expansion of Russia, p. 167Google Scholar: it should read Mar. 8 (Feb. 24).

8 The Expansion of Russia, p. 178Google Scholar. The reply was made on May 25 (Hsien-feng 9/4/23).

9 The Expansion of Russia, p. 163Google Scholar, etc.; SKHT, no. 771.

10 IWSM, 41, p. 14BGoogle Scholar; The Expansion of Russia, p. 207—no detail given.Google Scholar

11 Not mentioned in The Expansion of Russia.

12 But this matter has not yet been fully elucidated by any study in a Western language, and it must be noted that Russian observers in Peking at this time (Palladii, and Skachkov) considered that there was opposition to the Manchus even amongst the official class.

13 The Expansion of Russia, pp. 207, 211, 214, 222Google Scholar—but p. 222 gives no detail about the soldiers.

14 The Expansion of Russia, p. 92.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., pp. 33, 34; IWSM, Tao-kuang ch. 79, p. 20A.Google Scholar

16 See Mark Mancall, chapter in: The Economic Development of China and Japan, edited by C. D. Cowan, also his forthcoming book Russia and China: their early relations to 1728, also The Expansion of Russia, p. 5Google Scholar, etc.

17 Podvigi russkikh morskikh ofitserov na Dal'nom Vostoke, ch. 29, p. 363Google Scholar; The Expansion of Russia, p. 55.Google Scholar

18 Ibid., p. 60.

19 Nevel'skoi, , op. cit.Google Scholar, ch. 29. Not mentioned in The Expansion.

20 The Expansion of Russia, p. 185.Google Scholar

23 Ibid., pp. 10–16.

24 According to a footnote to this document, Golovkin had not been asked to kowtow before a “screen concealing a tablet draped in yellow silk,” as Klaproth wrote, but before a table with three lighted candles on it.

25 The Expansion of Russia, p. 16.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., pp. 9, 24–29, etc.

27 Ibid., pp. 16–18.

28 Pekin v dni Taipinskago vosstaniia.

29 The Expansion of Russia, p. 271.Google Scholar

30 Ibid., pp. 260, 261.

31 Ibid., pp. 255–261, 273, etc.