Dongtangzi Hutong

It starts from South Street in Chaoyang Gate in the East, and ends at Dongdan North Street in the west, with the Foreign Affairs Department Street in the South and Hongxing Hutong in the north

Dongtangzi Hutong

Dongtangzi hutong is an ancient Hutong with a history of nearly 800 years in Dongcheng District of Beijing. It is located in Jianguomen area of Dongcheng District. It is the sixth Hutong from south to North in the east of Dongdan North Street. From west to East, Dongdan North Street and Chaoyang Men South Street are connected, more than 700 meters long. The south side of the hutong is connected with Xiehe Hutong. It is one of the oldest and well preserved hutongs in Beijing. At present, the petition Office of the general office of the Ministry of public security is also located in dongtangzi Hutong.

Historical evolution

Creation process

In the Ming Dynasty, it was called "Tangzi Hutong" (formerly known as "Tangzi" in Suhu dialect); in the Qing Dynasty, it was renamed "dongtangzi Hutong" and "xitangzi Hutong" because of the same name as "Tangzi Hutong" in the north of "Jinyu Hutong"; in the "cultural Revolution", it was renamed "Ruijin Road 12" at one time and later "dongtangzi Hutong"

Historical changes

According to the Qing palace archives, the Qing government regarded the premier's Yamen as an important military and national place. In order to ensure that state secrets will not be leaked, when preparing to build the premier's Yamen, the site was once selected in the Forbidden City. Considering the frequent foreign affairs in the Department, it was obviously not suitable for foreigners to enter and leave the forbidden area. Later, they decided to choose dongtangzi Hutong, which is not far from the imperial palace. Zhang Jing, a military plane sent by the emperor, worked part-time in the prime minister's Yamen, shuttled between the military plane office in the palace and dongtangzi in the city, and regularly transferred confidential documents to the palace.

The premier's office for foreign affairs, the first specialized agency for foreign affairs of a country in Chinese history, was established in the former site of tieqian Bureau in dongtangzi Hutong, Beijing

Before modern times, the closed Qing government never had a special diplomatic organization. Foreign activities were mainly limited to receiving tribute envoys and business contacts, which were managed by the central Ministry of rites, the Li Fan yuan, and local governors. After the end of the second Opium War in 1860, the Qing government was forced to allow foreign envoys to stay in Beijing, and carried out a series of negotiation, which resulted in more and more negotiations between China and foreign countries. In order to concentrate on their own affairs and coordinate their relations with other countries, Prince Gong, who was in charge of the post-war "Fuyi bureau", wrote a letter to the Qing government, proposing to create a special foreign affairs agency, called the premier's national affairs yamen, and asked to "give it to another public office for office.".

Emperor Xianfeng, who was taking refuge in Rehe mountain resort, submitted the memorial to the Minister of the parliament for discussion and approved it by secret decree on January 20, 1861. Emperor Xianfeng appointed Prince Gong, shiguiliang and Wenxiang to manage the affairs of the Yamen. The Ministry of rites gave orders to the Imperial Guard. He also ordered the selection of western language talents to serve in the Yamen and rewarded the children of the eight banners to learn foreign languages. On March 11, 1861, the premier's office for foreign affairs, the first specialized agency for foreign affairs of a country in Chinese history, was established in the former site of tieqian Bureau in dongtangzi Hutong, Beijing.

It took only 50 days for the prime minister's Yamen to go to official office. Under the condition of domestic and foreign troubles and the shortage of domestic and foreign funds, the courtyards of this state organ, which is a symbol of China and foreign countries, are far less extravagant and luxurious than those of previous yamen offices. The whole preparation process embodies simplicity and efficiency.

In addition to the modification of the main gate, the rest were slightly reorganized according to the original situation, which was greatly reduced compared with the old rules of the Yamen

Prince Gong wrote in his memorial to the emperor about the progress of his work that there was an old iron money Bureau office in dongtangzi Hutong, which was divided into a lobby and a Sitang. Its gate was an old-fashioned residential structure. If it was not changed into a yamen form, foreigners would meet each other, and the image would not be spectacular and dignified. In addition to the modification of the main gate, the rest of the gate was slightly reorganized because of its simplicity, which was greatly reduced compared with the old rules of the Yamen. According to the records, there are more than 80 staff in the Yamen office. The monthly office expenses are only 300 liang of silver. All the doors and windows in the hospital are decorated by hand. The efficiency here is higher than that of the military aircraft office, the central organization assisting the emperor at that time.

When discussing the functions of the organization, Prince Gong and others advocated that

Local affairs can be reported to the emperor on one hand and to the prime minister's Yamen on the other. Emperor Xianfeng finally decided that the diplomatic secrets of each province should still be reported to the military aircraft department first, and then recorded to the prime minister's Yamen, so as to ensure the absolute status of the military aircraft department. This is Xianfeng's strategy of deliberately limiting the power of the prime minister's Yamen on the pretext of the old system, so as to prevent it from directly contacting with the provinces and invading the imperial power.

The prime minister's Yamen was set up because of the invasion of foreigners. At the beginning of its establishment, it was actually a temporary institution to cope with the current situation. Both the government and the public were convinced that the country would be prosperous and strong, and even thought that "one day the Yamen will survive, that is, one day the country will not be prosperous again". Obviously, the people at that time did not know what diplomacy was. In fact, with the increase of negotiations between China and foreign countries, the premier's Yamen, as the only foreign organization at that time, expanded its functions and powers to railway, mining, posts and telecommunications, coastal defense, customs, manufacturing, missionary, schools and other emerging fields, and became an all inclusive "foreign affairs yamen", which played an increasingly important role in the Qing government .

Next to dongtangzi Hutong, there is a Hutong called foreign ministry street, which used to be the seat of the Ministry of foreign affairs of new China

In 1862, the Tongwen library, which specializes in teaching foreign culture and science, was officially opened in Beijing. This is the earliest foreign language school in China, directly under the prime minister's Yamen, and then went to Beijing Normal University to buy houses and build houses along the North River. On August 28, 1875, the premier's Yamen sent Guo Songtao, the first envoy of the Qing government to foreign countries, and Guo became the first Chinese envoy to foreign countries. After that, the number of envoys increased year by year until the end of Qing Dynasty, reaching 15 countries and 10 envoys.

On July 24, 1901, the Qing government changed the premier's office into the Ministry of foreign affairs, ranking first among the six ministries of the Central Committee. All the management ministers enjoyed rich salaries. As an important symbol of political change in the late Qing Dynasty, the Ministry of foreign affairs was more prominent than the premier's Yamen at that time, and a large number of Westernization industrial activities continued to be launched here.

In 1906, the Ministry of foreign affairs set up the talent reserve hall, which is a special school for cultivating diplomatic talents. In 1909, the Youmei study hall, which was built by the tourism aesthetics Office of the Ministry of foreign affairs, was the predecessor of Tsinghua University. People can see that right next to dongtangzi Hutong, there is a Hutong called foreign ministry street, which used to be the seat of the Ministry of foreign affairs of new China. Two seemingly ordinary streets, one is the history of national tribulation, the other is the starting point of national prosperity.

Dongtangzi Hutong used to be one of the best preserved hutongs in Beijing. However, with the development of real estate in recent years, dongtangzi Hutong has been seriously damaged. In order to develop commerce in Wangfujing, Beijing municipal government listed dongtangzi Hutong and Hongxing Hutong as key investment projects as early as 1998. In 2000, the project of "municipal reconstruction zone" in this area was officially started. At the end of 2004, the project of Jinbao Street, which was invested nearly 6 billion yuan by Hong Kong Fuhua International Group Co., Ltd., was started. The vast area from dongtangzi Hutong in the south to Ganmian Hutong in the North was listed as the development object. In addition to a few registered cultural relics protection units such as Cai Yuanpei's former residence, a large number of them are well preserved and have a long history In the near future, dongtangzi Hutong will become a historical term and disappear from the map of Beijing.

Characteristics of Hutong

Former residence of celebrities

Dongtangzi hutong is closely related to modern Chinese history. In this Hutong, there are not only the premier's office for foreign affairs in the late Qing Dynasty, but also the former residences of Cai Yuanpei, Shen Congwen, Wu Jieping, Lin Qiaozhi, Ding Xilin and other historical and cultural celebrities who have a decisive influence on the development of modern Chinese history, culture and science and technology.

No. 75 dongtangzi Hutong, the old house number is No. 33 dongtangzi Hutong. On the north side of the west section of the Hutong, it is a three entrance courtyard facing south, with a construction area of 368 square meters. Nowadays, the street gate is built by a south room, which has no rules. There are five South rooms in the first entrance, four South rooms in the second entrance, three North rooms, one ear room in the East and one in the west, three in the East and three in the west, and three North rooms with front porches in the third entrance. The houses in the hospital are all ridge and tile houses. Cai Yuanpei rented here from 1917 to 1920. When he entered the courtyard, the south room was the living room. In October 1985, Dongcheng District People's government announced it as "Cai Yuanpei's former residence" as a cultural relic protection unit. Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, was named as Heqing. In 1890, he was a Jinshi in the 16th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty. He joined the Imperial Academy as an editor and once served as the supervisor of Shaoxing Zhongxi school. In 1902, he and Jiang Guanyun initiated and organized the Chinese Education Association, founded the patriotic society and the patriotic women's school. In 1904, he and Tao Chengzhang organized the restoration Association and was elected president; the next year, he joined the alliance and became president of Shanghai Branch. In 1907, he went to Germany to study. In 1912, he served as the director general of education of Nanjing Provisional Government. In 1915, he founded the Institute of diligence and thrift in France with Li Shizeng and Wu Yuzhang. He was the president of Peking University in 1917 and was forced to resign after the outbreak of the May 4th movement. In 1927, he was the president of the Kuomintang University and later the president of the Academia Sinica. After the September 18th Incident, he advocated Anti Japanese and organized China civil rights protection alliance with Song Qingling and Lu Xun. Cai yuanpeiquan

Chinese PinYin : Dong Tang Zi Hu Tong