| Abstract |
Zongli Yamen (Office for the Management of the Business of All Foreign Countries 總理各國事務衙門) was established in 1861. In the following year, 1862, Tongwen Guang (College of Foreign Languages 同文館) was also established to train students in translating foreign languages. In 1863, the Chinese translation of International Law （《萬國公法》）was translated by Ding,Wei-liang（丁韙良）and was published by Zongli Yamen in the following year. In Feb. of 1865, the Chinese translation of International Law was submitted to the Emperor Tongzhi, and in the same year, Ding,Wei-liang was employed as a lecturer of Tongwen Guang. Hence, the study of International Law became a major course for the students of Tongwen Guang. For Ding, the purpose to translate International Law was to help Chinese people understanding western diplomatic institutions and customs. Once the Chinese translation was published, International Law did cast its major influence upon the intellectuals at that time. On Dragon Boat Festival of 1863, Chinese scholar-official Zhong Sikuei（張斯桂）, wrote a preface for this book. In his preface, Zhang revealed the Chinese critical and dangerous situations under the pressure of western powers. At the same time, he highly recommended this book and esteemed it as important as the ancient classical SpringAutumn(《春秋》). In brief, International Law opened a door for Chinese intellectuals to acquire western diplomatic knowledge and also had significant influence upon their contemporaries. |
