Qishan (; 18 January 1786 – 3 August 1854), courtesy name Jing'an, was a Mongol nobleman and official of the late Qing dynasty. He was of

Khalkha Mongol The Khalkha ( Mongolian: mn, Халх, Halh, , zh, 喀爾喀) have been the largest subgroup of Mongol people in modern Mongolia since the 15th century. The Khalkha, together with Chahars, Ordos and Tumed, were directly ruled by Borjigin khans ...

and

Borjigit A Borjigin, ; ; russian: Борджигин, Bordžigin; English plural: Borjigins or Borjigid (from Middle Mongolian);''Histoire des campagnes de Gengis Khan'', p. 119. Manchu plural: is a member of the Mongol sub-clan, which started with B ...

descent, and his family was under the

Plain Yellow Banner The Plain Yellow Banner () was one of the Eight Banners of Manchu military and society during the Later Jin and Qing dynasty of China. The Plain Yellow Banner was one of three "upper" banner armies under the direct command of the emperor himself, ...

of the

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

Eight Banners. He is best known for negotiating the Convention of Chuanbi on behalf of the Qing government with the British during the

First Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...

of 1839–42.

Life

Qishan was a

by birth and was from the Borjigit clan. His 7th generator ancestor Enggeder had led his followers to submit to the

Qing Empire 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-speak ...

and received a hereditary first class marquis peerage in return. Qishan inherited the peerage from his ancestor. His father, Chengde (), served as a general in Hangzhou and ''dutong'' (都統; a military commander) in Rehe Province. In 1806, Qishan obtained the position of a ''yinsheng'' (蔭生; or ''shengyuan'' 生員) in the entry-level imperial examination and was recruited into the civil service as a ''yuanwailang'' (員外郎; assistant director) in the Ministry of Justice. In 1819, he was promoted to ''xunfu'' (provincial governor) of Henan Province but was later demoted to ''zhushi'' () and put in charge of river works. Since then, he served in a number of appointments, including Viceroy of Liangjiang (1825–1827), Sichuan (1829–1831) and Zhili (1831–1840), and Grand Scholar of Wenyuan Cabinet (). Toong-Koo encampment

In 1840, during the

, the Daoguang Emperor ordered Qishan to replace Lin Zexu as the acting Viceroy of Liangguang (covering Guangdong and

Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

provinces). Qishan was also tasked with negotiating peace with the British. Upon witnessing British naval power, he ordered his troops to evacuate from the artillery batteries and sent Bao Peng () to meet the British at Chuanbi (穿鼻; present-day Humen, Guangdong Province) and call for a peace settlement. On 20 January 1841, without seeking approval from the Qing imperial court, Qishan agreed to the Convention of Chuanbi with the British. Among other things, the convention required the Qing Empire to pay the British an indemnity of six million silver coins and cede

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an Islands and peninsulas of Hong Kong, island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km ...

. The Daoguang Emperor was furious when he found out later that Qishan had agreed to the convention without his permission. He ordered Qishan to be arrested and escorted as a criminal to Beijing for trial. Qishan had his properties and assets confiscated and was sentenced to military service. Qishan was pardoned later and reinstated as an official in 1842. He was subsequently appointed as Imperial Resident in Tibet (1843–1847), a second term as Viceroy of Sichuan (1846–1849), and Viceroy of Shaan-Gan (1849–1851). In 1852, during the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, Qishan was appointed as an

Imperial Commissioner Imperial commissioner is an ambivalent English language term, used to render foreign language titles of various – mostly gubernatorial – officers whose ' commission' was in the gift of an Emperor, including China, the Russian Empire and the Hol ...

to oversee Qing imperial forces in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. He set up the "Jiangbei Camp" () on the northern bank of the Yangtze River at Yangzhou, with 18,000 troops stationed there. He died in the autumn of 1854 in camp. The Qing government granted him the posthumous name "Wenqin" ().

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References

* * , - , - , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Qishan 1786 births 1864 deaths Chinese people of Mongolian descent People of the First Opium War Political office-holders in Guangdong Political office-holders in Jiangsu Political office-holders in Tianjin Qing dynasty politicians from Beijing Grand Secretaries of the Qing dynasty Assistant Grand Secretaries Viceroys of Liangguang Viceroys of Liangjiang Viceroys of Shaan-Gan Viceroys of Sichuan Viceroys of Zhili