Zhong Ying’s Study Of Xi Zang Affairs

At the end of the Qing Dynasty,the situation in Tibet deteriorated as a result of the two British wars against Tibet,and the Qing Dynasty’s southwestern frontier was in unprecedented crisis.After raising funds,the Qing court sent Zhang Yintang to Tibet to "investigate Tibetan affairs" and implement the New Deal in order to stabilise Tibet.Zhang Yintang,Lian Yu and others inherited Ding Baozhen’s strategy of governing Tibet and repeatedly requested the court to send troops into Tibet to protect the border and consolidate national defence.The Qing court sent Zhang Yintang to India to negotiate,and Lian Yu took over the reform of Tibetan affairs,but the political situation in Tibet deteriorated,making the New Deal difficult to implement.After arriving in Lhasa,Lian Yu took advantage of Zhong Ying’s failure to pacify Bomi and appointed him to be the chief of the mint,depriving him of his military power and appointing Luo Changk to take charge of the army.When news of the Xinhai Revolution reached Lhasa,the Lhasa garrison rose up in the name of the revolution,which in turn caused the Qing troops in Bomi and Yadong to rise up and go to Lhasa,while Lian Yu,Qian Xibao and other Tibetan officials stayed away from the incident.The Sera Monastery incident and the British encouragement soon led to a conflict between the Qing army and the Tibetan army.The Tibetan army was ordered to surround Lhasa by the Tibetan hierarchy,demanding that the Qing troops in Tibet be evacuated from Tibet.After being appointed as the Tibetan Chief of Staff of the Republic of China,Zhong Ying held on to his post and insisted on carrying out his duties in the face of the expulsion of the Tibetan upper echelons.Upon his return to the capital,Zhong Ying was accused of killing Luo Changqi,and Yuan Shikai ordered his execution in order to demonstrate the high degree of responsibility of the central government towards Tibet,to announce the change of policy towards Tibetan governance and to comfort the Tibetan people.As the only link in the transformation of the central government’s sovereignty in Tibet at the end of the Qing Dynasty into the central government of the Republic of China in Tibet,Zhong Ying had qualified military qualities and skills,and as the central government official in Tibet,he fulfilled his mission with a high sense of responsibility.Yuan Shikai’s appointment of Zhong Ying as the chief of the Tibetan office reflected the legitimacy of the central government’s sovereignty over Tibet.His presence ensured the historical continuity of the central government’s sovereignty over Tibetan localities,and in the midst of the great changes of the late Qing and early Republican period,he had already promoted the practice of the concept of the great unification of the Chinese nation in Tibetan localities with his own efforts,contributing to the restoration of the normalization of relations between Tibetan localities and the motherland.