William Woodville Rockhill (April 1, 1854 – December 8, 1914) was a United Statesdiplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China, the first American to learn to speak Tibetan, and one of the West's leading experts on the modern political history of China.[1]
In 1876, Rockhill returned to the United States, and on December 14, 1876, he married his childhood sweetheart, Caroline Tyson, daughter of J. Washington Tyson and Marie Louise (Hewling) Tyson of Philadelphia.[3] The couple purchased a cattle ranch in New Mexico, but Rockhill concluded that ranching was not to his liking.[3] By 1880, he had completed a French language translation of the Tibetan version of the Udanavarga, which was published in 1881.[4]
The Rockhills sold the ranch in 1881 and moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where William's mother lived.[3] He spent the next three years in Europe studying Tibetan, Sanskrit, and Chinese.[2] During this period, he co-authored a biography of the Buddha with Nanjo Bunyu and Ernst Leumann, and completed a French language translation of the Prātimokṣasūtra, published in 1884 under the title Prâtimoksha sutra; ou, Le traité d'émancipation selon la version tibétaine: avec notes et extraits du Dulva (Vinaya).[2]
Four Westerners in Tatsienlu, 1890, photographed by Prince Henri d'Orléans. From left: Father Déjean, Bishop Félix Biet, the American Tibetologist William Woodville Rockhill and Father Jean André Soulié
In 1897, President William McKinley named Rockhill U.S. Minister to Greece, a position he held from September 25, 1897, to April 27, 1899.[11] He concurrently served as Minister to Serbia from May 7, 1898, to April 27, 1899, and as Minister to Romania from May 18, 1898, to April 27, 1899.[11] From 1899 to 1905, he served as Director-General of the International Union of American Republics.[citation needed]
With the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay, who knew little of the Far East, turned to Rockhill for guidance.[4] As such, Rockhill drafted a memorandum that spelled out the famous Open Door Policy towards China; this memorandum was circulated to Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, and Italy and in March 1900, Secretary Hay announced that all the Great Powers had signed off on the Open Door Policy.[4] Rockhill was then despatched as President McKinley's special envoy, where he represented the U.S. in the Conference of Ministers that followed the ending of the Boxer Rebellion. During the negotiations surrounding the Boxer Protocol, Rockhill argued against full war reparations and instead encouraging the Great Powers to settle for a lump sum of $333 million in reparations to be divided amongst themselves in proportion to their expenses incurred in intervening in China.[4] At Rockhill's urging, the American share of war reparations was used to establish the Boxer Indemnity Scholarship Program.[4]
Rockhill at Washington, D. C. in 1902
In 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Rockhill as United States Ambassador to China, a position he held from June 17, 1905 to June 1, 1909.[11] This appointment came in the wake of the British Expedition to Tibet (1903–1904) that had forced Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama into isolation.[4] Learning that Rockhill spoke Tibetan, the Dalai Lama entered into a correspondence that was to last until Rockhill's death.[4] In June 1908, Rockhill made a five-day on-foot trek to Mount Wutai to meet the Dalai Lama and successfully convinced the Dalai Lama to seek peace with China and Britain.[4]
Appointed Advisor to the President of China, Yuan Shikai, in 1914, Rockhill sailed from San Francisco for China via Japan aboard the SS Chiyo Maru.[12] Afflicted by a severe cold he contracted in San Francisco, he developed pleurisy on the voyage, and had to leave the ship on arrival at Honolulu for treatment. Four days later, the pleurisy overcome, the ordeal occasioned him heart failure and he died in hospital on 8 December 1914, aged 60.[3] Rockhill is buried in the East Cemetery in Litchfield, Connecticut.[13]
^"Archived copy"(PDF). altaica.ru. Archived from the original(PDF) on 16 March 2012. Retrieved 15 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^William Woodville ROCKHILL, Diary of a Journey through hlongolia and Tibet in 1891 and 189g, City of Washington, 1894, pp. 373-376.
^Rockhill, W. W.. 1892. "[letter from W. W. Rockhill]". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 598–602. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25197112.
^Rockhill, W. W (1892). "[Letter from W. W. Rockhill]". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland: 598–602. JSTOR25197112.
.jpg)
