The Modern And Perplexity Of Zeng Jize's Diplomatic Ideas

Zeng Jize, a well-known modern diplomat in China, made great contributions to safeguarding state sovereignty and national interests. Serving as an envoy abroad for eight years, he handled numerous foreign affairs. As one of the representatives whose diplomatic ideas moved towards the modernized ones, his idea occupied a position of prestige in diplomatic history of modern China. At the time, the situation of sino-foreign relation suffered a drastic change and the Chinese-western ideologies were subjected to sharp collision and fusion. In spite of the unfavorable circumstances, Zeng Jize accepted a liberal education from his father. His constant learning advanced culture from western countries contributed to the progressive formation of his modern diplomatic ideas in his diplomatic practice. Pragmatic and objective, he realized that the diplomacy of the government of the late Qing Dynasty, totally divorced from the modern international diplomacy, still remained at the level of that of the traditional feudal clan and vassal states due to its adaptation of the closed-door policy and its ignorance of the general trends in the world. He argued that the drastic change of the sino-foreign relations made it necessary to appropriately handle the relationship between China and western countries, actively learn from the west and take advantage of modern diplomacy to eradicate China's backwardness. Later, he put forward the diplomatic method, diplomatic tradition and diplomatic system centering on celestial empire and advocated the employment of modern diplomatic method and system to maintain the national rights and interests and to promote communication with western countries. While serving abroad, he attempted to conduct foreign affairs in accordance with common international practice and adhere to the principle of state sovereignty, equality and international law in international exchanges. In this way, he strove to regain some rights for the country. However, the influence of traditional culture, the exclusion of conservative forces, the decline of the country, the restriction of dictatorial system and the oppression of various western powers allowed of the strong consciousness of feudal sovereignty and monarchical power in his mind. As a result, his aspirations for diplomacy were difficult to fulfill and his diplomatic ideas were characterized by perplexity and vacillation between modern and conservative ideas.