The Lifan Yuan (; ; Mongolian: Гадаад Монголын төрийг засах явдлын яам, ''γadaγadu mongγul un törü-yi jasaqu yabudal-un yamun'') was an agency in the government of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

of China which administered the empire's Inner Asian territories such as

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

and oversaw the appointments of Ambans in

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...

. Until the 1860s, it was also responsible for the Qing's relations with the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

Name

The name Lifan Yuan has various translations in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, including the ''Board for National Minority Affairs'', ''Court of Territorial Affairs'', ''Board for the Administration of Outlying Regions'', ''Office for Relations with Principalities'', ''Office of Barbarian Control'', ''Office of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs'' and ''Court of Colonial Affairs''. etc. The office was initially known as the Mongol Yamen (; , lit. the Mongol department) when it was first created in 1636. In 1639 the department was renamed and expanded to "Lifan Yuan" in Chinese and "Tulergi golo be dasara jurgan" in Manchu. The Manchu name literally means the department for the administration of outlying regions. During the period of the Late Qing Reform or

New Policies Late Qing reforms (), commonly known as New Policies of the late Qing dynasty (), or New Deal of the late Qing dynasty, simply referred to as New Policies, were a series of cultural, economic, educational, military, and political reforms implemen ...

, the name was changed again to Lifan Ministry () in 1907 and existed until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912.

Function

Prior to the establishment of the

Zongli Yamen The ''Zongli Yamen'' (), short for Office for the General Management of Affairs Concerning the Various Countries (), also known as Prime Minister's Office, Office of General Management, was the government body in charge of foreign policy in imp ...

, the Court also supervised the empire's relation with Russia under the treaties of

Nerchinsk Nerchinsk ( rus, Не́рчинск; bua, Нэршүү, ''Nershüü''; mn, Нэрчүү, ''Nerchüü''; mnc, m=, v=Nibcu, a=Nibqu; zh, t=涅尔琴斯克（尼布楚）, p=Niè'ěrqínsīkè (Níbùchǔ)) is a town and the administrative ce ...

and

Kyakhta Kyakhta (russian: Кя́хта, ; bua, Хяагта, Khiaagta, ; mn, Хиагт, Hiagt, ) is a town and the administrative center of Kyakhtinsky District in the Republic of Buryatia, Russia, located on the Kyakhta River near the Mongolia–Rus ...

. Lifan Yuan was exclusively staffed with members from the

Eight Banners The Eight Banners (in Manchu: ''jakūn gūsa'', ) were administrative and military divisions under the Later Jin and Qing dynasties of China into which all Manchu households were placed. In war, the Eight Banners functioned as armies, but the ...

. Lifan Yuan was the closest administrative office that the Qing dynasty had that would have been comparable with a foreign policy department. Guests of the Lifan Yuan were housed in the Bureau of Interpreters () in the southeast part of the

Inner City The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists some ...

, later also known as the Russian hostel () due to the predominance of Russian visitors there. It was also called the ‘south pavilion’ (南館 ''nan kuan'') to distinguish it from the ‘north pavilion’ (北館 ''pei kuan'') where the

Albazinians The Albazinians (Russian: албазинцы; Simplified Chinese: 阿尔巴津人, Traditional Chinese: 阿爾巴津人) are one of the few groups of Chinese of Russian descent. There are approximately 250 Albazinians in China who are descendants ...

lived. From the Treaty of Kyakhta this residence became permanent. There was also a Russian Language Institute (), which was a school where Manchus learned to speak Russian. Founded in 1708, it was incorporated into the newly founded

Tongwen Guan The School of Combined Learning, or the Tongwen Guan () was a government school for teaching Western languages (and later scientific subjects), founded at Peking (Beijing), China in 1862 during the late-Qing dynasty, right after the conclusion o ...

in 1862. The Lifan Yuan was roughly a Qing version of the Xuanzheng Yuan () or Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs, instituted by the Mongol-led

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

for administering affairs in Tibet.State and Ethnicity in China's Southwest, by Xiaolin Guo, p29 It is to be distinguished from the

Ministry of Rites The Ministry or Board of Rites was one of the Six Ministries of government in late imperial China. It was part of the imperial Chinese government from the Tang (7th century) until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. Along with religious rituals and cour ...

, which was the traditional Chinese institution for dealing with all outsiders during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

. The Qing used the Board of Rites to deal with the tributary countries to the south and east like Joseon Korea,

Nguyen dynasty Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this ...

Vietnam, the

Ryukyu Kingdom The Ryukyu Kingdom, Middle Chinese: , , Classical Chinese: (), Historical English names: ''Lew Chew'', ''Lewchew'', ''Luchu'', and ''Loochoo'', Historical French name: ''Liou-tchou'', Historical Dutch name: ''Lioe-kioe'' was a kingdom in the ...

and western peoples who came by sea like the Dutch and the English. The Lifan Yuan was established at the time of

Huang Taiji Hong Taiji (28 November 1592 – 21 September 1643), also rendered as Huang Taiji and sometimes referred to as Abahai in Western literature, also known by his temple name as the Emperor Taizong of Qing, was the second khan of the Later Jin ...

to deal with the Mongols. After the establishment to the Qing dynasty it continued to be a separate institution for dealing with Mongols and Russians and other Inner Asian peoples to the north and west. It was replaced by the

for conducting foreign relations in 1861.

Name

Function

See also

References

Further reading