イリ問題にみる清朝中央の政策決定過程と總理衙門

Abstract

This study is a reconstruction and analysis of the political decision-making process at the heart of the Qing dynasty, including the behind-the-scene movements, which cannot be seem in official documents, as one part of a consideration of political decision making in the "rule from behind the curtains" 垂簾聽政 by powerful women of the imperial family. It should be pointed out that on the basis of my previous studies, there existed three chief means of coordinating the views of the Empress Dowagers and their subjects in the process of political decision making, i.e., audiences 召見, memorials 上奏, and court conferences 廷臣會議. Then, keeping these methods in mind, I focus on and analyze the activities of the Zongli Yamen Dacheng 總理衙門大臣. As a specific object of examination, I take up the process of arriving at the decision to prepare for the reopening of negotiations with Russia in 1880 in an attempt to resolve the problem of Ili and the pardon of Chong Hou 崇厚, who had been sentenced to death as a result of his role in the Treaty of Livadia. In this regard, the discussions between the Zongli Yamen Dacheng without Prince Gong 恭親王 and Prince Chun 醇親王 were behind the political shift on negotiations with Russia and the pardon of Chong Hou. Thereafter, it can be surmised that the Zongli Yamen, which had issued an opinion in favor of negotiations with the participation of Prince Gong, employed memorials and audiences in an attempt to persuade the Empress Dowagers Cian 慈安 and Cixi 慈禧 to have the opening of negotiations approved. Two memorials were then issued in the name of the Zongli Yamen, and due to the persuasion employed in the audiences, and it can be inferred that proceeding with the negotiations for a time was a strategy that had been predetermined between the Dowagers and the Zongli Yamen. However, with the issuance of an opposing memorial, the situation changed abruptly. The views of the Empress Dowagers, which had theretofore been hawkish, were altered, and they ordered a court conference to discuss a pardon for Chong Hou and the re-opening negotiations with the Russians. At that point in preparation for the court conference the Zongli Yamen together with the grand secretary of the cabinet who had been charged with drafting a proposal gained the cooperation of Weng Tonghe 翁同龢, and composed a proposal whose content was based on the position it had originally advocated. The majority of the participants in the conference then requested the acceptance of negotiations. The Empress Dowagers who had appeared not to favor negotiations, on the other hand accepted this result, agreeing to permit the negotiations that they had kept on reserve when the persuasion of the Zongli Yamen alone had been involved. From this it can be understood that the result of the court conferences influenced the political decision making of the two Empress Dowagers.