Qing Diplomacy’s Scottish Face: Halliday Macartney, Yamen Culture, and Diplomatic Transformation in China’s London Legation, 1877–1905

Recent scholarship offers compelling evidence of the proactive engagement of late Qing China’s legations with Western European diplomatic culture. However, the resounding emphasis of this work has been ministerial receptivity to international law. This article argues for the importance of taking a broader perspective, elucidating a concurrent transformation in ministerial attitudes towards achieving rhetorical and oratorical sophistication in their diplomacy. To illustrate this shift, I use the career of Halliday Macartney, a Scotsman who served at the Qing London legation from 1877 to 1905, as a conduit. Initially responsible for interpretation and cultural explication, Macartney’s role evolved in the 1880s to become the legation’s lead rhetorician and negotiator. I argue that rather than constitute an instantiation of ministerial ineptitude, the ministers’ recalibration of Macartney’s remit was an important indication of their commitment to achieving rhetorical and oratorical sophistication in their diplomacy. Furthermore, I make the case that we need to understand Macartney’s position in the legation in line with the yamen culture of outsourcing technical work to muyou. In doing so, I argue that the ministers drew upon aspects of their own bureaucratic culture in order to meet the challenges posed by this foreign diplomatic culture.