Ministers › Diplomat / Envoy
Guo Songtao
Late Qing official from Xiangyin who became China's first resident minister in London and Paris, and whose travel diary Shixi jicheng was banned after he praised Western institutions
On a road beside a desert gateway, a camel train carries a lidded chest and rolled bundles while travellers walk along the path; a large sailing ship lies in the harbour at the right, a stone waymark stands by the road, and dunes and mountains fill the distance.
Also known as Zi Bochen · Hao Yunxian
Guo Songtao, courtesy name Bochen and literary name Yunxian, came from Xiangyin in Hunan and passed the jinshi examination in 1847. In the 1850s he helped Zeng Guofan raise and finance the Hunan Army, and in 1863 he became acting governor of Guangdong, leaving the post three years later. After the British interpreter Augustus Margary was killed in Yunnan in 1875, the court chose him to carry its apology to Britain and to stay on as minister; he set out at the end of 1876, reached London early the next year, and later added the post of minister to France. His travel diary, published as Shixi jicheng (Record of a Journey to the West), spoke well of Western government and learning; the Hanlin compiler He Jinshou impeached him, and the printing blocks were ordered destroyed. Recalled in 1879, he lived mostly in Changsha until his death in 1891. When Li Hongzhang and others asked that he receive an official biography and posthumous name, the court refused.
Life and times
Dates 1818 CE–1891 CE