chinese documents in the united states national archives

Chinese Documents in the United States National ArchivesAuthor(s): Chu Shih-ChiaSource: The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 9, No. 4 (Aug., 1950), pp. 377-383Published by: Association for Asian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2049304 .

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CHINESE DOCUMENTS

IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARCHIVES1

CHU SHIH-CHIA2

Wuhan University

DURING the last 150 years numerous Chinese documents were sent from Chinese government officials to American ministers and consuls in

China;3 the latter, in turn, shipped many of them to the secretaries of state in Washington. The frequency of shipment varied according to the degree of importance of the documents, i.e., whether they related to political, economic, social, or cultural matters. They were shipped either (1) as enclosures with diplomatic dispatches and consular reports, or (2) sent separately, segregated as to category, and packed in paper boxes or bound separately in volumes.4

In 1934 the United States National Archives was founded. Since then the

'This paper was originally read before the joint annual meeting of the Far Eastern As- sociation and the American Oriental Society, at Yale University, April 7, 1949. It is the result of several years of work in the United States National Archives. However, without the assist- ance and encouragement of American and Chinese archivists, librarians, scholars, and friends, it would not have been completed, nor would it have been presented without the direct and indirect support of the Far Eastern Institute of the University of Washington. To each and every one of these kind people, including L. K. T'ao of the Academia Sinica, Librarians Charles H. Brown and T. L. Yuan, Archivists Oliver W. Holmes, Philip H. Hamer, Albert H. Leisinger, Jr., Almon R. Wright, David C. Duniway, Julia Brand, and M. B. Colket, Jr., and also Sadie Brown of the University of Washington, and to the respective institutions, the writer wishes to convey his hearty thanks.

2Dr. Chu Shih-chia * Nt, formerly assistant professor of Chinese language and history at the University of Washington, has been appointed professor of history in Wuhan University, Wtuchang, China. His interests include Chinese historiography, local history and bibliography, and Sino-American relations. His publications are Kuang-shu-chu shu-rnu hui-pien X :a l (Peiping, 1933); Chung-kuo ti-fang chih tsung-lu r (3 vols., Shanghai, 1935; 2nd ed., 1937); A Catalogue of Chinese local histories in the Library of Con- gress (Washington, D. C., 1942) and "Chang Hsiieh-ch'&ng, his contributions to Chinese local historiography," a monograph, ready for publication.

3The "Canton consular despatches" date from 1790 and are the earliest between the United States and the Far East in the National Archives. The first United States consul in China was Samuel Shaw, supercargo of an American vessel. He was commissioned by President Washington on February 10, 1790; see "Historical sketch of the Canton Consulate General," a manuscript in the National Archives.

4Chinese documents in paper boxes cover the period from 1862 to 1920. Those in bound volumes cover the period from 1851 to 1861 and are copies of original documents. In checking the catalogue Ch'ing-chi ko-kuo chao-hui mu-lu [IJI(Peiping 1936), 2:1, we find that three of these original documents are preserved in the Peiping Palace Museum. They are communications sent to Prince Kung from United States Minister Burlingame, dated March 21, 1863, June 19, 1863, and June 24, 1863. [For correct character for ko see Giles, no. 6026 - EDITOR]

377



378 THE FAR EASTERN QUARTERLY

Chinese documents, as well as those in English, have been transferred from the Department of State to the archives for permanent custody.5

While the writer was visiting the National Archives in August 1940, the Chinese document which first caught his attention was the credential sent from the Tao-kuang Emperor to President Tyler, dated December 16, 1844.6 This stimulated his desire to search for more materials. In the course of his search, which lasted for more than two years, he collected approximately one thousand documents, largely by means of microfilm,7 and prepared an annotated index to an additional number of important documents. These documents constitute the subject matter of this article.

TYPES AND NATURE OF CHINESE DOCUMENTS

The Chinese documents under discussion were dated from 1814 to 1913 and may be classified under eight categories:

1. Credentials from the emperors to the presidents. Nine credentials bearing dates between 1844 and 1893 have been found in the archives. Aside from the one already mentioned these include: (1) Hsien-feng to Buchanan, August 18, 1859; (2) Kuang-hsii to Hayes, 1878; (3) Kuang-hsii to Arthur, December 31, 1881; (4) Kuang-hsii to Cleveland, April 29, 1886; (5) Kuang-hsii to Harrison, October 3, 1889; (6) Kuang-hsii to Cleveland, 1893; (7) Kuang-hsii to Cleveland, undated; (8) credential brought over by Chih Keng (date not ascertained). Translated copies of these last eight credentials cannot be located. They have not been published in Hunter Miller's work or in the U.S. foreign relations.8

2. Treaties. The five most important treaties have been translated, but only two (those dated July 3, 1844, and June 18, 1858) have been reprinted in their original form with translations in Treaties and other international acts of the United States of-America (8 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1931-42), compiled by Hunter Miller.

3. Communications from the Grand Council, Tsungli Yamen, and Foreign Office to the United States ministers in China. These communications deal with

"See First annual report of the archivist of the United States, 1934-1935. Old documents from other government agencies also have been transferred to the National Archives. Con- temporary documents are subject to selection and appraisal by the archivists before being transferred. For discussion respecting the selection of documents see P. C. Brooks, "The selection of records for preservation," American archivists, 3 (Oct., 1940), 221-34; see also revision of a paper entitled "What records shall we preserve?" published as National Archives staff information circular no. 9 (1940).

"For reproduction and description of this credential see Chu Shih-chia, "Tao-kuang to President Tyler," Harvard journal of Asiastic studies, 7 (February 1943), 169-73.

7In 1946, when the writer was granted a fellowship by the American Library Association to study both the administration of the National Archives and the materials on Chinese- American relations preserved there, with the approval of the chief archivist, he microfilmed a volume of Chinese documents covering the year 1854. It is hoped that with the support and under the direction of one of the cultural institutions his collection may be reproduced in facsimile in the not distant future.

8Information respecting the last eight credentials is based upon Dr. A. R. Wright's letter to the writer dated March 4, 1949.



CHINESE DOCUMENTS 379

the negotiation and ratification of various treaties, the opening of Chinese ports to foreign countries, the activities of merchants and missionaries, the sending of Chinese students to the United States,9 the shipment of Chinese laborers abroad,10 the importation of American manufactured goods, American relief work, the nature and extent of the T'ai-p'ing and Boxer rebellions and the international implications of such rebellions, the Sino-Japanese war of 1895, and the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. Practically all the communications from the Grand Council have been translated but have not been published; translations have been made of the important communications from the Tsungli Yamen and reprinted in the U.S. foreign relations. Only portions of the communications from the Foreign Office are available in translation. It is estimated that there are over five thousand of these communications from the three agencies in the National Archives.

4. Communications from Chinese provincial and local officials to United States consuls. These documents are more or less similar to the ones mentioned above, except that they report events in greater detail and with emphasis upon happenings of a local nature and interest. It is these characteristics which make them more unique and valuable. In this group there are approximately twenty thousand communications and relevant reports, but only those dealing with the antimissionary movement, Boxer rebellion, Chinese emigration, and other important matters have been translated. The translations - included in the U.S. foreign relations are relatively few.

5. Petitions from Chinese civilians and merchants to Chinese and American officials. One such petition was sent under date of February 10, 1814, by a hong"1 merchant named Ponseequa to President Madison, and contained a complaint

9These consist of communications from Chinese officials to the United States consuls at Shanghai and are dated June 18, 1872; Sept. 3, 1875, April 22, 1892; and August 22, 1892. The communication dated Sept. 3, 1875, was reprinted in New horizons, 2 (March 1945), 22 ff., under the title "A selection of Chinese documents on American-Chinese relations," compiled by Chu Shih-chia. Unpublished documents in English concerning Chinese students can be found in the series "American legation archives at Peking," vol. 6137 (February-July, 1876), 505-527; vol. 6138 (August-December, 1876), 25; vol. 6037 (1881), 49, 102; vol. 6179 (April-May, 1882), 183-188; vol. 6205 (1884), 1-6; vol. 6207 (1884), 115-124. Other diplomatic and consular dispatches also contain materials on this subject.

10 See "Notes from the Chinese legation in the United States to the Department of State," dated Oct. 10, 1879; March 9, 1880; Nov. 10, 1880; Jan. 21, 1881; Feb. 25, 1881; June 7, 1895; a considerable number of the above notes have been published in the U.S. foreign relations; also "Notes from the Chinese Foreign Office to the American legation at Peking," dated August 3, 1886; August 29, 1886; June 17, 1890; Nov. 24, 1892; April 22, 1893; May 25, 1893; Jan. 21, 1894; March 30, 1895; August 21, 1896. Similar information can be found in the Hongkong, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai consular despatches. An account of the treatment of Chinese laborers in the United States in pictorial form is included in "Shanghai consular despatches," vol. 53. A copy of a proclamation on Chinese laborers issued in December 1877 by the magistrate of the Nan-hai district, is included in vol. 48 of the "Diplomatic despatches." In the records of the Justice Department of the National Archives are nearly one thousand cases respecting Chinese immigrants into the United States.

11For a detailed study of the cohong see Liang Chia-pin's G Kuang-tung shih-san- hang k'ao -a+=ff# (A study of the thirteen factories at Canton) (Shanghai, 1937).




that American merchants did not pay for goods supplied. Another petition, dated April 4, 1801, was from Ma Chih-pao to the American consul at Canton, and reported a case of robbery in which American soldiers were alleged to be involved. During April 1854 a group of thirty-two Chinese merchants, in a joint petition to the United States minister, complained that some American merchants (probably in Shanghai) had furnished the T'ai-p'ing troops with supplies of ammunition and food. The number of these petitions is estimated to be about one hundred. Only a few of them have been translated, and none of them has been published. [The date 1801 is more probably 1851. - EDITOR]

6. Proclamations issued by the emperors, governors, prefects, and magistrates. In the period following 1840, numerous proclamations were issued in regard to the Opium War, the T'ai-p'ing rebellion, and the Boxer rebellion. There were also proclamations of a local nature dealing with the selling of opium, February 20, 1858; forbidding the manufacture of counterfeit coins, January 5, 1877; and prohibiting the forgery of an American trade-mark covering cloth, September 26, 1887.12 In this category there are less than one hundred proclamations, and only those dealing with the antimissionary movements and Boxer rebellion have been translated and published in the U.S. foreign relations.

7. Cartoons on the Boxer rebellion. In the course of the Boxer rebellion Chinese soldiers and those of foreign powers engaged in battles at Tientsin and the area between that city and Peking. These engagements were vividly de- picted in a score of colored cartoons. Among them was one in the form of a map showing how the Russian bear encroached on north China, the British bulldog occupied the Yangtze valley, le coq gaulois attempted to invade south- west China, and the American eagle was flying from the Philippines in the direction of Fukien and Kwangtung.

8. Maps. In the archives are maps of China showing the telegraphic lines up to 1898, maps of Peking of the Boxer period, maps of Tientsin showing the concessions of 1901, and maps of Formosa in 1882.

APPRAISAL OF CHINESE DOCUMENTS IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

After careful examination and study it is believed that about 15 per cent of the Chinese documents have been translated and possibly 3 per cent published in translation. Very little, if any, attention has been given them by the scholarly public, notwithstanding the fact that they are valuable to students of Chinese geography,14 anthropology,15 history, political science, economics, sociology, and

12There is also a proclamation issued in 1888 by the magistrate of Nan-hai, prohibiting the forgery of an American trade-mark covering canned milk. From these proclamations it would appear that both American cloth and American canned milk were popular among Chinese customers.

13A list of antiforeign publications in Hunan was enclosed with the annual report of the American consuls in Chinkiang and Foochow, see "American legation archives at Peking," vol. 6284.

14 Included in the "American legation archives at Peking," 6238 (June-Sept. 1869), 231-44,




cultural relations. A careful study of the Chinese documents in the archives, especially if coordinated with the collections published in China and the unused dispatches in English, would give a much more accurate picture of the history of Sino-American relations than exists at present.

The Chinese documents and consular reports also provide much material on the history of economic conditions in different parts of China. In south China silk and tea have been outstanding products for export to foreign countries. In central and north China certain fruits, such as pears and plums, were much sought after by American merchants; the quantity of fruits shipped has been amazingly large.16 In the early nineteenth century the income from the China trade is said to have affected substantially the national income of the United States.17 The impact of Western science and machinery on Chinese industry has had even more far-reaching effects. Because of this impact Chinese economic and social life has undergone a great change.18

Social life in Shanghai in the late nineteenth century was made more interest- ing by the appearance of American jugglers.'9 The employment of Chinese girls as waitresses once encountered the opposition of the Chinese gentry class. (The same thing may have happened before in the United States.) The sending in June 1869 of a gift of Chinese books by the emperor of China to the President of the United States undoubtedly gave impetus to the building up of Chinese

is a work printed in English entitled, "A geographical sketch of the island of Hainan," to- gether with a map of the island.

16 Many of the "Amoy consular despatches" sent to the American ministers at Peking during the years 1872 to 1874 contained descriptions, written in Chinese, of the lives and conditions of the aborigines of Formosa.

"'Other exports to the United States include soybeans, oranges, chrysanthemum, magnolia, persimmon, rheum, and ma-huang; the latter contains ephedrin, of great value in the treatment of throat and nose diseases. Dr. Walter Swingle of the Department of Agriculture has been responsible for introducing many Chinese plants into the United States. Of the American exports to China corn and cotton seeds are believed to have affected most profoundly the lives of the Chinese people.

17 See K. S. Latourette, The history of early relations between the United States and China (New Haven, 1917), 48.

18 Hundreds of photographs in the records of the Department of Agriculture in the Na- tional Archives show us various tools used by Chinese farmers and their living conditions in the early decades of the present century. In addition to this type of material, there is a great deal of correspondence between the Department of Agriculture and the American agri- culturalist, Frank N. Meyer, who, between the years 1905 and 1908, made numerous trips to, Peking and Manchuria. There are also various reports on agricultural conditions in Canton, Swatow, Nanking, Chefoo, Tsinan, and Harbin, compiled from 1918 to 1938 by the different consuls and representatives of the United States Agricultural Foreign Service.

19 An account of this incident is contained in a letter of July 3, 1877, from the Chinese magistrate to the American consul at Shanghai, requesting the discontinuance of an American juggling act in the Wusoong area, in the interests of peace and good order. From the advertisement enclosed with the magistrate's letter, it is evident that the first appearance of the Amer- ican jugglers occurred on June 27, 1877 and that the price of admission was twenty-eight coins. The magistrate's letter and the advertisement have been reprinted in the author's article in New horizons, 2 (March 1943), 21.




collections in the United States.20 These documents also provide information relating to the introduction of Western ideas by missionaries, the founding of the Kiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai (1865),21 the T'ung-wen College in Peking (1862),22 and the sending of Chinese students abroad.23

PROPOSAL FOR STUDY OF CHINESE DOCUMENTS IN THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Various types of studies can be made from the Chinese documents in the archives. Perhaps of first importance would be bibliographical studies. A great deal still remains to be done in locating, selecting, cataloguing, classifying, describing, and indexing the Chinese materials in the archives,24 and special attention should be paid to the communications from the Chinese Foreign Office. No index of these communications has ever been prepared because the archivists have no one trained in Chinese. Over fifteen hundred notes on cards have been made by the writer on the Chinese documents. They have been arranged by subjects but are not in chronological order. To the end that these documents may be made available for use, an annotated index of them should be prepared.

Possible subjects of study are too numerous to be mentioned here.25 The writer has the impression that two vital issues, namely, the Chinese in the United States26 and the American missionaries in China27 important though

'O Ten works, consisting of 1,049 volumes on Chinese classics, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture, and medicine, published at various times beween 1416 and 1829, were presented to the president. They are preserved in the Division of Orientalia of the Library of Congress.

21 Under the leadership of John Fryer many Western scientific books have been translated into Chinese; see "An account of the department for the translation of foreign books at the Kiangnan Arsenal, Shanghai," Dec. 31, 1879, which was included in the "Diplomatic despatches (China)," vol. 53, despatch no. 600; also Chou Ch'ang-shou JtJo P ",I-k'an k'e hstleh shu-chi k'ao-lteh" + IiI4 (A study of translations and publications of scientific works) in Chang Chii-sheng hsien-sheng chi-shih sheng-jih chi-nien lun-wen chi qpx/1t/1 L+ 4L fl --E t pi t (Shanghai, 1937), 422-25; also, Yung Wing's P' A, My life in China and America (New York, 1909), 154-59. This book was translated into Chinese under the title of Hsi-hsfieh tung-chien-chi i

2 W. A. P. Martin was appointed as the first president of the T'ung-wen College; under him professors of various nationalities were invited to offer Western language and science courses. A calendar of the T'ung-wen College, first issue, published in 1879, is included in the "American legation archives at Peking" vol. 6162. This college changed its name in 1898 to Imperial University and since 1911 has been known as the National Peking University.

23The following works deal with the introduction of Western ideas and sciences: Chang Hsin-lang , Ou-hua tung-chien shih V t30ft _(A history of the spread of western culture into the East) (Shanghai, 1934), and C. H. Peake, "Some aspects of the introduction of modern science into China," Isis, 22 (December 1934), no. 63.

24 In 1946 the writer discovered a great number of Chinese documents (1855-74), transmitted by the Canton consulate, that had been partially eaten by white ants or other bookworms.

25 Dr. Eldon Griffin gives a useful list of research topics in his work on East Asia entitled Clippers and consuls (Ann Arbor, 1938), 526.

`6Many books and articles have been written relating to the Chinese in the United States, but none of them seems to have stressed the importance of the Chinese contribution to the rapid development which took place in the last half of the nineteenth century, particularly in mining enterprise and railway construction in the west and northwest.




they are, have not been thoroughly explored. Despite the numerous works which deal with Sino-American diplomatic and commercial relations, too little use has been made of Chinese sources. Swisher28 and Fairbank have worked ex- tensively on the periods between 1840 and 1860 and 1860 and the present re- spectively. The Far Eastern Institute of the University of Washington has initiated a study of the T'ai-p'ing period and, among other sources, is using the Chinese documents in the archives.29 Future studies should utilize not only the Chinese documents in the National Archives but the great collections published in China30 and the mass of unused original records in English also in the archives.31

27 There is a great deal of archival material on this subject which has escaped the attention of scholars. In studying this subject, in addition to K. S. Latourette's A history of Christian missions in China (New York, 1929), one should consult Chiao-an shih-liao pien-mu

MC IN _ O, (A catalogue of the source materials on missionary cases), compiled by Wu Sheng-te G and Ch'en Tseng-hui M*W (Shanghai, 1942).

28Professor Earl Swisher of the University of Colorado has translated all the documents in the Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo NL t -- concerning American-Chinese relations, and it is hoped that his translations, in annotated form, will be published in the near future.

29 For instance, the archives contain copies of ten communications between T'ai-p'ing government officials and American naval officers in China, dated in the year 1854. The originals cannot be found either in China or America; nor have they been reprinted in the collection of T'ai-p'ing materials entitled T'ai-p'ing t'ien-kuo ts'ung-shu k-ii@0g3:(First series, 1936), compiled by Hsiao I-shan

300ne should not neglect the archival materials available in the following places: Peiping Palace Museum, National Peiping University, National Tsinghua University, Academia Sinica, and the archives of London, Paris, and Tokyo. Among the published documents the following are of great importance: Ch'ou-pan i-wu shih-mo (Peiping: Palace Museum, 1929-30); Wen-hsien ts'ung-pien a; -a X -- formerly called Chang-ku ts'ung-pien, $ (Palace Museum, 1930-37); Ch'ing-chi wai-chiao shih-liao , (Palace Museum, 1932-35); Shih-liao hsun-k'an .fl't4fIJ (Palace Museum, 1930-31); and Chin-tai Chung-kuo wai-chiao- shih tzu-liao chi-yao tj-Pt4; compiled by Chiang T'ing-fu *99 (Shanghai, 1932, 1934).

"The Department of State documents of the National Archives constitute the basic source materials for the study of Sino-American relations, e.g., "Diplomatic and consular instructions," "Diplomatic and consular despatches," "Notes to and from the Chinese legation and con- sulates," "Records of diplomatic and consular posts." To use these sources most effectively one should first consult the registers or calendars. At the writer's suggestion, the Far Eastern Institute of the University of Washington, the Social Science Department of the Academia Sinica at Nanking, and the National Peiping Library have either acquired, or are in the process of acquiring, microcopies of the documents listed above. In 1947 Albert H. Leisinger of the National Archives prepared a useful publication entitled, List of file microcopies. Only a very limited number of these materials are published in the U.S. foreign relations series. In the archives there are other important documents on American-Chinese relations, some of which were formerly in the possession of the departments of Justice, Treasury, War, Interior, Agriculture, and Commerce.

