People · Shanghai daotai, Qing diplomat
Liu Ruifen
刘瑞芬Liú Ruìfēn · 1827–1892
Qing official who arrived in Shanghai with Li Hongzhang's army in 1862, became Shanghai daotai in 1877 and later served as minister in Europe.
Liu Ruifen (刘瑞芬, Liú Ruìfēn) was a Qing official who came to Shanghai with Li Hongzhang’s (李鸿章) Anhui army in 1862 and returned as Shanghai daotai in 1877. The daotai was the senior Chinese official who negotiated with the foreign consuls and the Municipal Council.
The Shanghai Concessions Gazetteer says he arrived as a student and ran the army’s supply of weapons and equipment, and also supervised the Songhu lijin, a transit tax. He became daotai in May 1877. During that term he negotiated with the Municipal Council over extending Markham Road. He left briefly the next year and then came back.
In 1882 he moved to Jiangxi as judicial commissioner. He then served as Qing minister to Britain, Russia, France, Belgium and Italy, returned to China in 1889 as governor of Guangdong, and died in that post in 1892. His collected works are titled Yangyun shanzhuang quanji.