Gui Liang (桂良) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Gui Liang as a diplomat, official, and statesman. This record brings together 9 passages from 4 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Gui Liang	桂良	Gui Liang
Title	Grand Secretary	大學士	Daxueshi
Surname	Gui	桂	Gui
Personal name	Gui Liang	桂良	Gui Liang
Personal name	Guiliang	桂良	Guiliang
Personal name	Guiliang	桂良	Guìliáng
Personal name	Guiliang	桂良
Given	Liang	良	Liang

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:111:s0096, qingshigao:378:s0050, qingshigao:394:s0173
Sex: male
Explicit · qingshigao:387:s0010

Roles

Diplomat
Official
Statesman

Life and dates

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 八年 · Western Year: AD 1858
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:378:s0161, qingshigao:378:s0164, qingshigao:387:s0009, qingshigao:387:s0010
Source Date: Text: 十年 · Western Year: AD 1860
Explicit · qingshigao:387:s0026
Source Date: Text: 咸豐八年 · Western Year: AD 1858
Explicit · qingshigao:394:s0173
Source Date: Text: 咸豐六年 · Western Year: AD 1856
Strongly inferred · qingshigao:378:s0212, qingshigao:378:s0211
Source Date: Text: 咸豐十年 · Western Year: AD 1860
Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:111:s0095, qingshigao:111:s0096

Career and standing

Label: Grand Secretary / 大學士 · Action: held
Explicit · qingshigao:111:s0096
Status: demoted-but-retained · Action: entered
Explicit · qingshigao:111:s0096
Label: rank inscription removed while retained / 鐫級留任 · Action: suffered
Explicit · qingshigao:111:s0096

Places and affiliations

Polity: Qing / 清 · Relation: served
Explicit · qingshigao:111:s0096, qingshigao:378:s0002, qingshigao:387:s0010

Events and relationships

Kind: diplomatic · Role: negotiator · Action: memorialized to dissolve militia bureau
Explicit · qingshigao:378:s0164

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 111Volume 111 Treatises 86: Selection and Examinations 6, Kao Ji · 1 passage

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僅予大學士桂良等鐫級留任，出考堂官罰俸而已。 Only Grand Secretary Gui Liang and others lost a rank increment while retaining office; inspecting chiefs received only salary fines.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 378Volume 378 Biographies 165: Huang Juezi, Jin Yinglin, Chen Qingyong, Su Tingkui, Zhu Qi · 2 passages

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議和大臣桂良慮撓成議，奏請撤局。 Peace negotiator Guiliang feared this would disrupt the treaty and memorialized to dissolve the bureau.

居兩歲，從欽差大臣桂良至江蘇，無所遇，王有齡獨重之，有齡撫浙，闢贊軍事。 After two years he followed Imperial Commissioner Guiliang to Jiangsu without success until Wang Youling alone valued him; when Wang became governor of Zhejiang, he recruited Qi to assist in military affairs.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 387Volume 387 Biographies 174: Zong Shisushun, Mu Yin, Kuang Yuan, Jiao Youying, Chen Fuen · 4 passages

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會英法聯軍犯天津，起前大學士耆英隨欽差大臣桂良、花沙納往議約。 As the Anglo-French allied armies threatened Tianjin, the former grand secretary Qiying was sent with the imperial commissioners Guiliang and Huashana to negotiate terms.

自八年桂良等在天津與各國議和，廷議於「遣使入京」一條堅不欲行，迄未換約。 Since Guiliang and others had negotiated with the foreign powers at Tianjin in 1858, the court had stubbornly refused the clause on "envoys entering the capital," and no treaty exchange followed.

十年，英法聯軍又來犯，僧格林沁拒戰屢失利，復遣桂良等議和。 In 1860 the allied armies returned; Sengge Rinchen fought them repeatedly but lost again and again, and Guiliang and others were once more dispatched to negotiate.

十年，命偕怡親王載垣赴通州，與英法聯軍議和，解桂良等欽差大臣關防授之。 In 1860 he was ordered with Prince Yi Zaiyuan to Tongzhou to negotiate with the allied armies; the seals of Guiliang and the other imperial commissioners were transferred to them.

Draft History of Qing, Chapter 394Volume 394 Biographies 181: Xu Guangjin, Ye Mingchen, Huang Zonghan · 2 passages

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泊大學士桂良等至上海議稅則及換約事宜，將與商交還廣州，向宗漢詢近狀，輒不答。 When Grand Secretary Guiliang reached Shanghai to negotiate tariffs and treaty revision and to discuss the return of Canton, he asked Zonghan for reports on the situation, but Zonghan would not reply.

桂良等疏聞，詔責宗漢捕偽造諭旨之人，罷其通商大臣，改授何桂清。 Guiliang reported to the throne; an edict ordered Zonghan to arrest those who forged imperial edicts, stripped him of the trade superintendency, and gave the post to He Guiqing.