Report of the bailiff of the XII Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing
N.I. Lyubimov on interaction with Chinese officials (first half of the 19th century)

Malygina Ol'ga Anatol'evna ORCID: 0000-0002-4244-2355 PhD in History Senior Scientific Associate, Institute of Inner Asia of Dorji Banzarov Buryat State University; Senior Educator, Department of World and Russian History, Dorji Banzarov Buryat State University 670018, Russia, Republic of Buryatia, Ulan-Ude, Yantarnaya str., 43 kirienko-o@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Akhmadulina Svetlana Zinnatovna ORCID: 0000-0002-8254-6036 PhD in History Cand. Sci. (Hist.), A/Prof., Dorzhi Banzarov Buryat State University 6 Ranzhurova str., Ulan-Ude, Republic of Buryatia, 670000, Russia lana_clio@mail.ru

Introduction. The activities of the bailiff of the XII Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, N.I. Lyubimov, seem relevant for analyzing the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, its important role in the context of contacts between the two states – Russia and China.

During the work on the grant of the RFBR Malygina O.A. and Akhmadulina S.Z. in the Russian State Historical Archive (St. Petersburg), the fund of the Office of the Synod (Fund No. 796) was studied, which reflects the cases of Orthodox monasteries and churches in Russia and abroad, domestic and foreign missions, spiritual educational institutions. This fund contains materials of N.I. Lyubimov, who accompanied the Beijing spiritual mission in 1840-1842, Beijing notes, travel journals and notebooks of N.I. Lyubimov for the 40-60s of the XIX century, etc. (Russian State Historical Archive Access: https://fgurgia.ru/. Date of application: 09.07.2022).

The very personality of the bailiff of the XII ecclesiastical mission in Beijing is quite interesting. According to the biographical notes of N.I. Veselovsky, Nikolai Ivanovich Lyubimov was born on December 16, 1808 in a spiritual family. After graduating from Moscow University with a PhD degree, he joined the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Lyubimov quickly advanced through the ranks and was often awarded orders. N.I. Veselovsky characterizes him as a hard-working and executive person, gives him a high assessment: "All these awards given to N.I. (Lyubimov) almost every year should be explained not by protection, which he did not have, but by his remarkable efficiency, much appreciated by the authorities" ^{[3, p. 2-3]}. In 1836, Nikolai Ivanovich was appointed head of the 2nd department of the Asian Department, and on April 20, 1840, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent him as a bailiff to accompany the RDM to Beijing, from where he returned on March 2, 1842. Lyubimov was appointed Vice-director of the Asian Department on April 22, 1843, and became director of the department on March 10, 1852. After the Crimean War, on October 2, 1856, he received the rank of senator. Lyubimov died on August 31, 1875 in the Swiss city of Gais. It should be noted that he visited China twice, the second time in 1845, as a secret agent, he also penetrated into Chuguchak and Kuldzha ^{[5, p. 35]}. The fate of the personal archive of Nikolai Ivanovich Lyubimov is special, leaving Russia, he took all his documents, everything that had been accumulated over 30 years of work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with him to Switzerland and after his death the manuscripts were lost. And only thanks to the perseverance of the widow of his friend M.B. Anichkova, these documents were found in the attic of his house in Switzerland and deposited in the Russian archive (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 d. 25). Subsequently, most of N.I. Lyubimov's documents were published, and the novelty of our research lies in the fact that we managed to find a previously unpublished report of the bailiff of the XII Russian Ecclesiastical Mission N.I. Lyubimov for 1840-1842, which highlights issues of interaction with Chinese officials. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct historical events about the relationship between Russia and China through the prism of the personal views of Bailiff XII N.I. Lyubimov, which were directly reflected in his reports.   Historiography of the issue.

Among the historical studies of the pre-revolutionary period, the work of N.I. Veselovsky on the trip of N.I. Lyubimov, under the guise of merchant Khoroshev, to the western Chinese cities of Chuguchak and Kuldzhu in 1845 is of particular importance ^{[3, 52 p.]}. In this work, the materials of N.I. Lyubimov's report on the trade conducted by through Semipalatinsk. The main purpose of the secret dispatch of the state councilor was to analyze the possibility of the spread of trade between Russia and the western regions of China. It should be noted that the appeal to the personality and activity of N.I. Lyubimov is reflected to a greater extent in the works of modern historians, through the prism of studying the Russian spiritual mission in China. Of interest are the works of the Russian orientalist, sinologist, specialist in the field of the history of relations between Russia, China, Japan and Mongolia V.G. Datsyshen ^{[4, 448 p.]}. Of scientific interest are the works of S.G. Andreeva, N.A. Samoilov, T.Yu. Feklova, A.N. Khokhlov, V.G. Sharonova on the work of the Beijing Spiritual missions in the context of Russian-Chinese relations ^{[1, pp.79-86; 2, pp. 187; 8, pp.48-76; 9, pp.139-150, 11, pp. 864-915; 12, pp. 151-169]}. Among foreign authors, our attention was attracted by the work of Kuroyanagi Chiaki, an employee of Tokyo University, on the diplomatic function of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing during the First Opium War ^{[5, pp.32-43]}. Analyzing the research on the stated topic, we come to the conclusion that the activities of N.I. Lyubimov were reflected in the works of pre-revolutionary and modern historical science, many reports of N. Lyubimov about his stay in China were published. However, the materials of the report as the bailiff of the XII Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing, N. I. Lyubimov, on interaction with Chinese officials, which were discovered by the authors in the Russian state Historical Archive, will be published for the first time in this article.

The main part. Russian Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China was established by the decree of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1713. From 1715 until the early 1930s, two dozen missions and over two hundred Orthodox preachers were sent to Beijing. The uniqueness of the mission lies not only in the fact that at the time of its origin it was one of the earliest among the foreign missions of the Orthodox Church, but also acted as an unofficial diplomatic representation of Russia in China. Until 1864, the mission was subordinate to the Holy Synod and the College of Foreign Affairs (since the beginning of the XIX century – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia).

For a long time, the Spiritual Mission has been a link between the two countries, a source of reliable information about China's domestic political life, its language, traditions, history, culture and way of life. The main task assigned to the missionaries was the study of Chinese and Manchurian languages, for conducting preaching activities, translating liturgical literature into the language of the region, and studying the cultural heritage of China.

All these years, missionaries have been spreading the Orthodox faith in Beijing and other regions of China, have been doing a lot of work on translating liturgical books into Chinese and Manchurian, translated into Russian and published essays on the history, culture and modern situation of China, carried out various diplomatic assignments, and since 1917, have taken on the work of spiritual to nurture and moral support of the numerous Russian diaspora formed on the territory of China after the tragic events of the revolution and the civil war in Russia ^{[8, p. 50]}.

Russian Russian Ecclesiastical Mission has established more than thirty Orthodox churches in China, established men's and women's religious schools, an Orthodox seminary, opened a library, a publishing house, published various thematic issues of the magazine "Chinese Evangelist" in Russian, Chinese and English, carried out active charitable activities.

As noted above, the special position of the mission on the territory of China until the 60s of the XIX century led to the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry was directly involved in the preparation of each regular spiritual mission to Beijing, providing the heads of Missions and bailiffs with instructions and funds. With careful treatment by the participants of the mission, we see that in addition to the chief, as a rule, the archimandrite, it included hieromonks, hierodeacons, acolytes, psalmists, novices, pupils, students, doctors, artists, seconded (botanists, astronomers, Mongolologists), as well as a special category – bailiffs ^{[7, pp. 1-4]}.

The institution of bailiffs was introduced, starting with the 3rd Russian Spiritual mission (1736 - 1743), repeated at the 5th, but finally established with the 8th Mission (1794 – 1807). The bailiff was appointed from among the employees of the Foreign Ministry, or from military people to accompany a new Mission to Beijing and return to the homeland of the previous one. In addition, the bailiff carried out separate diplomatic assignments in Beijing, involving members of the mission, mainly students, in this activity as necessary ^{[2, p. 58]}. Unable to attract professional diplomats, the Russian government had to make do with the active participation of the church-political representation of the Orthodox Church.

Perhaps that is why the efficient and executive N.I. Lyubimov, at the time of China's defeat in the opium war of 1840-1842, during the collapse of the country's isolation policy and the gradual displacement of Russian goods from the Chinese market, was assigned to the Russian spiritual Mission. After all, it was at this moment that the competitive game in the Asian region began, and the Russian government was extremely concerned about the political processes taking place there. When Nikolai Ivanovich Lyubimov left for Beijing, he received quite detailed instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire: "<...> The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wishing to clarify some subjects related both to the Mission and in general to our relations with China, by the instruction given to me on April 7, 1840, awarded the Highest approval, instructed should I delve into the following main questions:1. To what extent our Mission by means of our contacts in Beijing can be a useful tool of the Government to achieve any political views <...>" (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 D. 25. L. 2). The Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was primarily interested in the report on the political part from the bailiff N.I. Lyubimov. And he tried to understand this issue in as much detail as possible. It is clear from the document that the bailiff N.I. Lyubimov, going abroad, received a task to monitor the political situation and identify persons who may be useful for influencing the Chinese government.

As N.I. Lyubimov writes, "can a mission through its means of communication in Beijing be a useful tool for the government in political relations? We were instructed to pay special attention to <...> ties in Beijing, to the property of influential people there, to the political character of the Chinese and their government, in order to draw a conclusion with some thoroughness about the degree of such services that we can expect from such ties in Beijing" (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 d. 25. L. 4). N.I. Lyubimov, who was sent to China, was tasked with finding out how the spiritual mission could be used for political purposes if there were people through whom it would be possible to influence governments. Nikolai Ivanovich, approached the solution of this issue thoroughly. He studied the people in the mission's environment from the Chinese government, the Chinese environment and gave them characteristics. So, he believed that "the first place" in the relationship could be played by "a relative of the Chinese emperor Ding-Wan, who was considered one of the most important dignitaries and a strong person at the Beijing court," he, according to N.I. Lyubimov, was "from among the familiar people of the mission" (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 d. 25. l. 4). There were also several people worth paying attention to were "Chinese <...> Xiu-Bandze and the current commander of the External relations tribunal Sai-Shang", these officials not only held key positions in the Chinese government, but also enjoyed considerable trust in society. At the same time, analyzing information about the environment, N.I. Lyubimov understood that it was necessary to take into account lower officials, such as heads of departments, for example. And he was well aware that this is not just the interaction of authorities, it is also a serious protection and patronage against any harassment or injustice (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 D. 25. L. 5). Lyubimov quickly figured out the usefulness of important dignitaries of China and in what matters they can be used.

In the future, N.I. Lyubimov writes that "based on these considerations, I believe that our relations in Beijing need some kind of borders, so as not to lose usefulness in actions, and on the other hand not to strain the treasury with unnecessary costs. Maintaining any acquaintance in China with some not even small persons requires significant costs, the necessary Chinese etiquette requires that twice a year (in the new Chinese year and in early July) to send gifts to all familiar persons the degree of the gift <...> with the importance of the person and not to send gifts on these days, it means to interrupt all sorts of acquaintances" (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 d. 25. L. 8).

And the moment of gifts to attract Chinese officials to his side became a "stumbling block" for N.I. Lyubimov, he believed that it was necessary to give gifts and "make friends" with Chinese officials of different levels, that it was impossible to violate etiquette. On the other hand, he understood and wrote about it in his report that the Chinese are very suspicious of gifts and offerings, and these gifts lead to significant expenses from the funds of the mission and the Russian treasury. Speaking in his messages about costs, he focuses on the fact that even small officials are given offerings to maintain relations with Chinese residents and to observe etiquette. And given the suspicion of the Chinese, he did not consider it advisable to spend money on a huge number of people. He proposed simply to single out two or three main influential officials and once a year (on the eve of the Chinese New Year) to make these gifts (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 d. 25. L. 8). It is noteworthy that in this context N.I. Lyubimov takes care of the state treasury and offers a way out to save money.

Summing up in his report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, N.I. Lyubimov, once again says that funding should go to certain people, but you need to choose these people carefully enough. Namely, Chinese officials depend on them for the benefit or harm, and Chinese society will interact with the mission "this is what we should do, our efforts in acquiring useful contacts in Beijing will be limited" (RGIA F. 796. Op.448 D. 25. L. 9).  

Conclusion.Representatives of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Beijing have long acted as an unofficial body of diplomatic cooperation between Russia and China. The analysis of the document revealed for the first time allowed the authors to present detailed information about the issues of interest to the Asian Department of the Russian Empire through the prism of the personal views of the bailiff of the XII Russian Ecclesiastical Mission N.I. Lyubimov. With knowledge of the matter, he studied the environment and gave recommendations on the relationship with Chinese officials. He clearly defined the officials with whom to interact and who is influencing Chinese society at this moment. Realizing that the financial possibilities of the Spiritual Mission in China are not unlimited, he admitted that it is not possible to completely abandon spending, because of the rules of etiquette of interaction with Chinese officials. In his reports, he put forward a number of proposals that could reduce the material burden on the financial side of the mission. In general, the study of the Orthodox Mission in China is of great interest and historical importance, allows us to present a mechanism for the rapprochement of the two countries and related foreign policy interests, the formation of diplomatic, cultural, and economic relations.