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Before the imperial court of the Qing dynasty 清 (1644-1911) set up an institution for foreign affairs (zongli yamen 總理衙門), the ambassadors or rather representants of foreign countries were dealt with as tributary missionaries of "barbarians" (yi 夷) via the "Court regulating the barbarians" (lifanyuan 理藩袁). In a large collection of archival material countless details of foreign affairs from the Daoguang period (1821-1850) on are revealed, describing how the Qing court dealt with the problems of foreign intrusion from the prohibition of selling opium in the late 18th century on until 1874. The first part, covering the years from 1836 until 1850, in 80 chapters (juan "scrolls"), was compiled by Wenqing 文慶. The second part, from 1851 until 1861 (Xianfeng period), in 80 juan, was compiled under the direction of Jia Zhen 賈禎. The third part, covering the years from 1861 until 1874 (Tongzhi period), in 100 juan, was compiled by 寶鋆 Baoyun.
The collection Chouban yiwu shimo contains imperial edicts (shangyu 上諭), court directions (tingji 廷寄), court discussions (zhaohui 照會) and memorials (zouzhe 奏摺), all in all more than 3,600 documents. It is therefore a highly important primary source for the history of the two so-called Opium wars, the role of foreign countries during the Taiping rebellion, and for the question of dealing with Christian missionaries as well as the problem of territorial concessions to the foreign colonial powers.
The "Foreign affairs" were first published in 1930 by the National Palace Museum 故宮博物院. In XXX the Zhonghua shuju 中華書局 press published a version with an index.
Source: Zhongguo da baike quanshu, Zhongguo lishi, vol. 1, p. 108.
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