Zeng Jize

Also known as Zi Jiegang · Shi Huimin

Zeng Jize, courtesy name Jiegang, was a son of the grand secretary Zeng Guofan of Xiangxiang in Hunan and inherited his title, Marquis Yiyong of the first rank, in 1877. In 1878 he became minister to Britain and France, and in 1880, after Chonghou was condemned for signing an unauthorised treaty with Russia, he was also sent to St Petersburg to reopen it. Ten months of argument produced the Treaty of St Petersburg in 1881, which returned the passes of southern Ili, including the Tekes valley. He then argued over Vietnam with the French government and settled the opium duty with Britain, adding over six million taels a year to revenue. Back in China in 1886, he joined the Zongli Yamen and served as vice-president of the Boards of War and Revenue until his death in 1890, when he was canonised as Huimin. In 1887 the Asiatic Quarterly Review in London printed an English essay under his name on the Qing state's sleep and awakening.