Qiying ( ; Manchu: Ciyeng; born 21 March 1787, forced suicide 29 June 1858) was a Manchu statesman during the Qing Dynasty.

Background and early career

Being a descendant of Nurhaci's ninth son Babutai, Qiying was a member of the imperial house of Aisin-Gioro and belonged to the Manchu Plain Blue Banner in the Eight Banners. Qiying held several prominent posts in the Qing government and was demoted several times because of corruption in office, but managed to regain his position as a leading official in the Qing court.

Role during the Opium Wars

In 1842, the Daoguang Emperor entrusted Qiying to conclude a peace treaty with the Britain following the First Opium War, and he was chiefly responsible for negotiating and signing the Treaty of Nanking with the British on 29 August 1842. In the following years, Qiying also concluded the Treaty of Whampoa with France, the Treaty of Wanghia with the United States and the Treaty of Canton with Sweden-Norway. This was the first group of treaties known as the "Unequal Treaties" in China.

In 1858, the Xianfeng Emperor ordered Qiying to negotiate a peace treaty with Britain and France in order to conclude the Second Opium War. During the negotiations, the British interpreters Horatio Nelson Lay and Thomas Francis Wade sought to expose Qiying's duplicity by producing documents the British had captured in Guangzhou, in which Qiying expressed his contempt for the British. Humiliated, Qiying promptly left the negotiations in Tianjin for Beijing and he was later arrested for having left his post in contravention of imperial order. He was sentenced to death by the Imperial Clan Court, but was allowed to commit suicide instead.

Notes

References

• Fairbank, John King. "The Manchu Appeasement Policy of 1843." Journal of the American Oriental Society 59, no. 4 (1939): 469-84.
• Hummel, Arthur William, ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644-1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.