EXAMINING HIS LEGACY
A new biography sheds light on Sir Robert Hart’s time in China as a customs official during the Qing Dynasty. reports.
By the time Sir Robert Hart left Beijing in 1908, he had been a top officer in China’s customs for most of his adult life. Now, Ireland’s Imperial Mandarin, a biography of Hart, looks at his life.
His biographer Mark O’Neill was at the launch of the book in Beijing on March 15. It was published in January.
Based in Hong Kong, O’Neill is the author of eight books about China.
Beijing was the fourth stop on his book tour after Taipei, Hong Kong and Macao, and he says it was the most important one.
“This is because he (Hart) lived here for 45 years. He lived very close to where I am standing now,” says O’Neill at Beijing’s Bookworm, a bookstore in the Sanlitun area known for its large collections of English language books about China.
“Just cross Chang’anjie (Chang’an Avenue) from Beijing Hotel, walk about 30 meters and turn left — that’s the street where Hart lived,” says O’Neill to a room full of listeners, both Chinese and expats.
There is a plaque which says in Chinese that Hart lived here, adds O’Neill.
“This plaque survived the Japanese occupation, the Chinese civil war, the ‘ cultural revolution’ (1966-76) and everything. It’s still there.”
“In the history of China, there has never been a foreigner like Sir Robert Hart. Nor will there ever be in the future,” he adds.
Hart was born in a Christian family in Portadown, a small town in what is now Northern Ireland, in 1835, and went to Queen’s University in Belfast at the age of 15.
The library of the university, which now has the diaries and correspondence by Hart, was one of the main sources for O’Neill’s book.
Three years after graduating, Hart was selected by British foreign secretary to work in China, and then began the most marvelous journey of his life.
In 1854, Hart was sent to Ningbo, Zhejiang province, where he hired a Chinese teacher and studied the Confucian classics, including Analects, Mencius and The Book of Songs (Shi Jing).
“Nothing but hard, hard study will conquer the Chinese language, literature and its difficulties; but I am determined to become its master,” Hart writes in his journal.
He was appointed inspector-general for the Imperial Maritime Custom Service of the Qing government in 1863.
In his journal Hart writes: “My life has been singularly successful: not yet twentynine, and at the head of a service which collects three millions of revenue, in — of all countries in the world! — the exclusive land of China …”
Hart knew that such a lofty position could be easily abused for taking bribes, so he made a set of rules to keep himself and the organization away from corruption.
“I must set a good example, in conduct, to all my subordinates,” Harts writes.
He hired a professional accountant from the treasury in London to draft rules to prevent embezzlement.
Wang Zhenyao, a professor at Beijing Normal University who attended the book talk, says: “A lot of Chinese people criticize Hart, and a lot of people have forgotten him, even the British I talked to when I visited London.
“Hart is a very important example at this time, when the Chinese government is fighting corruption so hard.”
Under Hart, the customs bureau grew in size — the number of its foreign staff grew from 93 in 1873 to more than 500 in 1885.
Hart writes: “I must try to induce among such Chinese as I can influence a friendlier feeling towards foreigners; right conduct; and in that way keep things straight and ensure peace…”
In a 1988 article titled Robert Hart: A Man of Two Worlds published by the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding, the writer Martin Lynn points out the mixed identification of Hart: “… he stood at the interface between China and the West, representing foreign influence in China, yet being used repeatedly by the Chinese government as its representative in dealing with foreign powers.”
In the book, O’Neill says the amount of customs revenue collected rose from 8 million silver taels in 1865 to 14.5 million two decades later, or nearly 20 percent of the national revenue, and to more than 30 million three years before Hart left China.
Part of the funds went to the founding of Tong Wen Guan, the translation service for the Qing government, and sending the first 120 Chinese children to study in the United States.
Hart also proposed and helped minister Li Hongzhang to purchase the first two steel-plated warships which led to the founding of Qing government’s Beiyang Navy.
The book contains details of many of Hart’s works in China, including his negotiation with France to end the SinoFrench War in Vietnam in the mid-1880s, and the founding of the imperial post office.
After Hart’s departure for Hong Kong from his homeland in 1854, he went back to Europe just twice — once to get married in 1866 and then to oversee the Chinese pavilion at the World’s Fair in Paris in 1889.
Hart left China at the age of 73 in 1908.
A photo captured this historic moment — Hart onboard a ship surrounded by customs staff in full dress uniform.
O’Neill chose this photo for the book cover.
In the latest book, O’Neill tries to strike a balance by including the comments of Chinese historian Wang Hongbin.
In his biography of Hart published in 2010, Wang wrote: “Hart was the most important invader representing British interests, who put the interests of that country above those of China.”
O’Neill includes this in his preface telling readers: “We leave you to make your own judgement.”
In the history of China, there has never been a foreigner like Sir Robert Hart. Nor will there ever be in the future.” Mark O’Neill, Hong Kong-based Irish author
Contact the writer at xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn
Chen Mengwei contributed to this story.