The art of gift giving

Highly prized by the Chinese, but to me it does not appear in itself to be of any great value

So Lord George Macartney (1737-1806), leader of the British embassy to China in 1793, described the ruyi’s that his mission received:[Cf. The Macartney Embassyemperor] one for King George III, one for Sir George Staunton (1781-1859), and one for Lord Macartney himself. In 1793 his embassy arrived in China with the goal to open up more trade opportunities. In this, gift giving played an important role.

Gift giving served an important diplomatic function in the early modern period. The arrival of an ambassador also came with material expectations.[Cf. Biedermann, Gerritsen and Riello 2018, p.6] Within the so-called “Tribute System”, as scholar John K. Fairbank named the East Asian international system, gift giving was of great importance, as were rituals. Other nations were expected to send tribute to China and to adhere to China’s protocol.[Cf. Yuen Foong Khong 2013, p. 12-2] Since England lay far away from China and thus belonged to the outer zones, the expectation was not as high as that of nations belonging to the Chinese sphere of influence.

Lord Macartney’s embassy brought many gifts to give to the Qianlong Emperor, such as clocks, and Qianlong also gave gifts in return. There is no explicit mention in the archives of producing this ruyi as a gift to the English. Since the ruyi was made in the 1770s and given to Lord Macartney in 1793, this is no surprise. The gap between the year of production and year of gifting is interesting, since the gap is rather large, but due to Qianlong’s fondness of the object there were likely many spare ruyi’s. The materials used, however, require further investigation.

The ruyi’s received by the embassy were made of different materials, but in the case of this Chinese gift, the difference in materials was no coincidence: King George III received a white jade ruyi, whereas Staunton and Macartney received green nephrite jade ones. Why was this?

In the art of gift giving, there was a certain hierarchy. The Qianlong Emperor recognized the difference in status between the ambassadors and their king. This ruyi, made of green nephrite jade, was likely given to the two ambassadors, whereas the English monarch was given a more special white jade version.[Cf. The Macartney Embassyemperor]

In the process of gift giving, the Qianlong emperor thus showed and respected the difference in status between the recipients.