History of Chinese Stamps · Volume 2

Author: Editorial Committee of the History of Chinese Stamps, Ministry of Information Industry of the People's Republic of China
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-12-01
Features: The History of Chinese Stamps, Volume 2 records the issuance of stamps during the period of the Imperial Chinese Postal Service under the Qing Dynasty, covering the years from 1896 to 1911. It includes items such as the Wan Shou and Xiao Long overprinted value stamps, the Hong Yang overprinted temporary value stamps, the Japanese and London editions of the Dragon stamps, the Xuantong commemorative stamps, as well as postal items like unpaid postage stamps, express mail stamps, prepaid postcards, and the Dragon overprinted for Tibet usage. When the Imperial Chinese Postal Service was established on March 20, 1896 (the seventh day of the second lunar month in the 22nd year of the Guangxu reign), China was in the midst of a crisis-ridden semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The major powers were engaged in a frenzy of carving up China, and the Qing Dynasty was facing internal and external turmoil, teetering on the brink of collapse. Shortly after its establishment, Britain and France fiercely competed over the appointment of postal officials, directly affecting China's entry into the Universal Postal Union. The political instability and frequent institutional changes during the late Qing Dynasty, with the department overseeing customs (and postal affairs) shifting from the Imperial Household Department to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, then to the Customs Supervision Office, and finally to the Ministry of Posts and Communications, introduced numerous uncertainties into postal development. The issuance of stamps for China's modern national postal service began under these complex circumstances.
The Imperial Chinese Postal Service was established by emulating the relevant systems of Western countries (primarily Britain). For over a decade after its founding, it was still managed by customs officials. Under the historical conditions of the time, it was through the organizational framework and necessary resources provided by customs that the national postal service managed to survive and gradually grow, competing against foreign "guest posts" and domestic private letter carriers, despite lacking dedicated funding and professional expertise. From the perspective of stamp issuance and management, the Imperial Chinese Postal Service had three significant impacts on later generations:
First, it established a vertical, centralized management system. This mechanism, derived from the customs organization, facilitated the planning of postal expansion nationwide, laying a foundation for the orderly and effective conduct of stamp issuance, which aligns with the inherent requirements of stamp issuance—information transparency and strict adherence to orders.
Second, it formulated relatively comprehensive rules and regulations. The Imperial Chinese Postal Service drafted the Regulations for the Imperial Household Department Stamps and participated in drafting the Criminal Code for Counterfeiting Stamps, establishing specific rules for stamp storage, preservation, issuance, accounting, and use, which were later adopted by postal authorities in subsequent periods.
Third, it issued stamps and postal items based on postal service needs. The Imperial Chinese Postal Service created many "firsts" in the history of Chinese stamps, such as the first batch of overprinted value stamps, the first official commemorative stamp series with issuance regulations, the first set of unpaid postage stamps, the first express mail stamps, and the first set of prepaid postcards. The successes and failures in the issuance of Imperial Chinese Postal Service stamps provided valuable lessons for later generations to learn from.
The editorial style of this volume is similar to that of Volume 1.
Chapter 1 introduces the postal situation, briefly outlining the establishment of the Imperial Chinese Postal Service and the background of postal development necessary for understanding stamp issuance, such as the official operation dates of postal offices in various regions, the strategies employed by postal offices against "guest posts" and private carriers, an overview of postal expansion, and the evolution of postal management. This chapter also dedicates a section to introducing and analyzing the regulations of the Imperial Chinese Postal Service regarding stamp management and use.
Chapters 2 to 8 describe the various stamp series and postal items in chronological order, covering the reasons for their issuance, design characteristics, printing processes, and issuance and usage details. Issues closely related to stamp issuance, such as currency value changes, postal rate adjustments, and printing techniques, are discussed in each chapter in the context of specific stamps. The features of stamp formats, perforation differences, and paper variations are generally not elaborated on excessively.
The overprinted value stamps issued starting in 1897 are rich in content and are introduced in two chapters (Chapters 2 and 3). The Dragon stamps, officially commissioned by the Imperial Chinese Postal Service after its establishment, were printed in Japan and Britain with different printing techniques, leading to greater differences in issuance and usage, so they are also discussed in two chapters (Chapters 4 and 5). The Xuantong commemorative stamps, unpaid postage stamps, express mail stamps, prepaid postcards, and Dragon overprinted for Tibet usage are relatively independent in content and are described in Chapters 6, 7, and 8, respectively.
The stamps issued by the Imperial Chinese Postal Service have been nearly a century old. Although some official documents have been published, their quantity is far insufficient to meet the needs of compiling the history of stamps. During the preparation of this volume, a number of previously unused archival documents were discovered, including private and official correspondence of individuals involved in the printing of the Japanese Dragon stamps and the late Qing prepaid postcards, as well as exchanges of official documents between the Customs Registration Office regarding the printing techniques and prices of the London Dragon stamps, changes in ink colors, the addition of new values, and the overprinting of unpaid postage stamps. These archival materials provide rich details about the printing and issuance of the Dragon stamps, allowing for the correction of long-standing misconceptions.
For stamps from this period, especially the Wan Shou, Xiao Long overprinted value stamps, Hong Yang overprinted temporary value stamps, and late Qing postal items, stamp collectors and researchers from China and abroad have extensively collected physical materials and historical records, conducting meticulous research that has yielded substantial and convincing results. The relevant sections of this volume have incorporated these findings as much as possible.
Additionally, this volume has extracted a wealth of related materials from old stamp catalogs, letter collections, scholarly works, and articles in postal journals to cross-reference with archival documents and existing artifacts, providing a more detailed and comprehensive discussion of long-standing issues in stamp and postal history research, such as the relationship between "IPC" and "PIC," the 110 watermarked paper stored by the Customs Registration Office, the "Beihai stamps," "Morandoff stamps," and "Hurricane stamps," as well as the ink colors of the London Dragon 5-cent stamp.