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Qu Hongji
Hunan grand councillor and first minister of the new Foreign Ministry who lost power to Yikuang and Yuan Shikai in the 1907 court struggle
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Zijiu · Hao Zhian
Qu Hongji, courtesy name Zijiu, styled Zhi'an, came from Shanhua, now part of Changsha, and passed the metropolitan examination in 1871, after which he served as education commissioner in Henan, Zhejiang, Sichuan and other provinces. He followed the court on its flight west in 1900, joined the Grand Council the next year and became the first head of the newly created Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later with the rank of assistant grand secretary. In 1907, allied with the Canton governor-general Cen Chunxuan against Prince Qing, Yikuang, and the Zhili governor-general Yuan Shikai, he was impeached for abusing power and sent home, an episode known as the political storm of the Dingwei year. After the 1911 revolution he took refuge in Shanghai, where he died in 1918; Puyi granted him the posthumous name Wenshen.
Life and times
Dates 1850 CE–1918 CE (birth by another account 1853)