Chief Officers, Foreign Office, Peking,

Three men, two older with beards, one younger with a moustache, sitting in a garden. A building behind them to the left, a rockery to the right. The men are three Chinese Ministers at the Office of Foreign Affairs in the late Qing: (left to right) Shen Guifeng, Dong Xun and Mao Changxi. A native of Jiangsu, Shen Guifeng (1818-1881) was best known for his anti-opium policy and for his contributions to the state-run modernizing movement _$1_ __(B the 'yangwu movement'. In this portrait, Thomson intended to show that Chinese officials did not spend their time in idleness and luxury; rather, they led laborious lives and dressed in simple robes. But more importantly, for him these three individuals 'were as fine-looking men as ever our own Cabinet can boast. All of them had an air of quiet,

3 members of Tsungli (Yamin ?) or Foreign Office, China. Chief Officers, Foreign Office, Peking, Mau Ta Jin, Tung Ta Jin, Shen Ta Jin. Bears Thomson's negative number: "694"