{"record":{"affiliations":[{"polityId":"polity-752125d979e200bf190546c6","role":"Foreign Office official and special envoy","sourceIds":["a-qing-commission","s09-a-qing-credentials"],"validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"year","value":"1867"},{"precision":"year","value":"1868"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"aliases":["Sun Chia-ku","Sun Chia Ku","Sun Kia-kuh","孫家穀","孙家谷"],"appointmentIds":[],"appointmentsDataset":"https://chanceries.org/diplomats.json","archivalSources":[],"canonicalUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-5776f5a54b5ba8f6c60e6ecd-d96e85881b/","countrySlug":null,"countrySlugs":["china"],"documentedRoles":[{"assertionId":"assert-445685e0c74111662b38c155","associationBasis":"documented-participant","evidenceClass":"direct","note":"Signed the additional treaty articles in Washington on 28 July 1868 under the name Sun Chia-Ku.","predicate":"participated_in","role":"commissioned envoy and treaty signatory","sourceIds":["a-qing-treaty"],"targetId":"event-8eb389f49994f259f1370e02","targetType":"event","title":"China and the United States sign the Burlingame-Seward Treaty","url":"/research/history/china-burlingame-8eb389f499/","validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"day","value":"1868-07-28"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"entityId":"https://chanceries.org/diplopedia/people/person-5776f5a54b5ba8f6c60e6ecd-d96e85881b/#person","eventIds":[],"expandedParagraphs":["Sun Jiagu signed the 1868 treaty at Washington as Sun Chia-Ku, one of the Qing government’s three accredited envoys. His commission arose from the court’s decision to send its own Foreign Office officials alongside Anson Burlingame. Sun joined Zhi Gang and Burlingame in announcing their arrival to Secretary of State William H. Seward on June 2.","The court expected Sun and Zhi Gang to learn diplomatic practice and consult over reports to Beijing, while Burlingame directed negotiations. Their names nevertheless appeared beside his on the July 28 agreement.","Sun described the journey in Shi xi shu lüe, preserved in a later printed collection. He recalled presenting credentials in the American capital before continuing to Britain and continental Europe. At the end of the account, he described visiting eleven countries and keeping private notes beyond the official papers, which he intended to arrange into a volume."],"id":"global:person-5776f5a54b5ba8f6c60e6ecd","identifiers":{},"identityScope":"global","legacyPersonIds":[],"legacyUrl":"https://chanceries.org/diplomat-d96e85881bfb449bbb06.html","name":"Sun Jiagu","notes":[],"paragraphSources":[["a-qing-commission","s09-a-qing-credentials","a-qing-treaty"],["s09-a-qing-credentials","a-qing-treaty"],["a-sun-1891-scan"]],"profileUrl":"diplomat-d96e85881bfb449bbb06.html","relatedEvents":[],"relatedPeople":[{"certainty":"documented","name":"Zhi Gang","note":"Zhi’s later edited account places both envoys behind Burlingame as the delegation entered the White House to present Qing credentials in 1868.","profileUrl":"diplomat-fc91e000ab88f5d38560.html","sourceIds":["a-zhi-jiyao-scan"],"targetId":"global:person-de0800336750fdccc72acb0e","type":"co_participant","validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"year","value":"1868"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"relationships":[{"certainty":"documented","note":"Zhi’s later edited account places both envoys behind Burlingame as the delegation entered the White House to present Qing credentials in 1868.","sourceIds":["a-zhi-jiyao-scan"],"targetId":"global:person-de0800336750fdccc72acb0e","type":"co_participant","validTime":{"attestations":[{"precision":"year","value":"1868"}],"continuity":"attestation","end":null,"endInclusive":true,"start":null}}],"researchStatus":"limited","reviewedOn":"2026-11-02","revision":"dc8500fbfc228c63","sources":[{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"1867-11-28","id":"a-qing-commission","locator":"FRUS 1868, Part I, document 265, enclosure C and enclosure E","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"Williams to Seward, with Qing commissions and instructions, 28 November 1867","type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1868p1/d265"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-01","date":"1868-07-28","id":"a-qing-treaty","locator":"Preamble; Articles V–VIII; concluding Washington date and signatures; source edition pp. 992–996","publisher":"GRIPS and University of Tokyo, The World and Japan Database","title":"Additional articles to the United States–Qing treaty, signed at Washington, 28 July 1868","type":"primary-record","url":"https://worldjpn.net/documents/texts/pw/18680728.T1E.html"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","date":"1868-06-02","id":"s09-a-qing-credentials","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"en","representation":"published_translation","scope":"Complete displayed document: joint notification and published English translations of the imperial credentials and explanatory instructions.","status":"document_inspected"},"locator":"FRUS 1868, Part I, document 289, pp. 601–603: opening joint letter, imperial credentials, and Prince Kung’s explanatory communication","publisher":"Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State","title":"The Chinese Embassy to Seward, with credentials and instructions, 2 June 1868","translation":{"edition":"FRUS 1868, Part I, document 289, pp. 601–603","language":"en","originalLanguage":"zh","translator":"J. M. L. Brown (credentials); translator not identified in the displayed explanatory communication"},"type":"primary-record","url":"https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1868p1/d289"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","archivalReference":"NLC403-312001014954-322; NLC shelfmark 地14/914; 第十一帙 leaf 144","date":"1891","edition":"王錫祺 collection, Guangxu 17 [1891], lead-type edition; 第十一帙, printed leaf 一百四十四. Facsimile PDF combines several bound fascicles.","id":"a-sun-1891-scan","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"zh-Hant","representation":"original_document","scope":"Cover and contents checked; entire short work on PDF p. 151 visually inspected, ending enlarged to verify 公牘之外私有記載; next page checked for the boundary of the work.","status":"document_inspected"},"itemUrl":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/NLC403-312001014954-322_%E5%B0%8F%E6%96%B9%E5%A3%BA%E9%BD%8B%E8%BC%BF%E5%9C%B0%E5%8F%A2%E9%88%94_%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%80.pdf","locator":"Complete 使西書略 on printed leaf 144, PDF p. 151; following leaf 145 / PDF p. 152 begins 使法事略","publisher":"上海著易堂 (Shanghai Zhuyitang); National Library of China facsimile via Wikimedia Commons","title":"孫家穀, 使西書略, in 小方壺齋輿地叢鈔, 第十一帙","type":"primary-record","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NLC403-312001014954-322_%E5%B0%8F%E6%96%B9%E5%A3%BA%E9%BD%8B%E8%BC%BF%E5%9C%B0%E5%8F%A2%E9%88%94_%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80%E5%8D%81%E4%B8%80.pdf"},{"accessedOn":"2026-11-02","archivalReference":"NLC403-312001069108-15851; NLC shelfmark 地980/893.1","date":"","edition":"Cataloged as Guangxu 14–16 [1888–1890], two volumes; this file is volume 1. Distinct from the 1877 初使泰西記 and the 1981 edited edition.","id":"a-zhi-jiyao-scan","inspection":{"inspectedOn":"2026-11-02","language":"zh-Hant","representation":"original_document","scope":"Original printed-page facsimiles visually inspected at PDF pp. 5–7, 25, 28–31, 35, 40; claims use pp. 5–6 and 28. Full 45-page volume downloaded; no claim of reading every page.","status":"document_inspected"},"itemUrl":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/NLC403-312001069108-15851_%E5%88%9D%E4%BD%BF%E6%B3%B0%E8%A5%BF%E7%B4%80%E8%A6%81_%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80.pdf","locator":"Volume 1, printed leaves 1–2 and 24–25 (PDF pp. 5–6, 28–29); treaty closing line leaf 31 (PDF p. 35)","publisher":"Historical Chinese printed edition; National Library of China facsimile via Wikimedia Commons","title":"初使泰西紀要, 卷一, later edited edition of Zhi Gang’s mission account","type":"primary-record","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NLC403-312001069108-15851_%E5%88%9D%E4%BD%BF%E6%B3%B0%E8%A5%BF%E7%B4%80%E8%A6%81_%E5%8D%B7%E4%B8%80.pdf"}],"topics":["Qing diplomacy","Diplomatic correspondence"]},"schemaVersion":1}