Abstract
On February 12, 1910, a Chinese expeditionary army marched into Lhasa and fired on unarmed civilians, overturned the Tibetan government, and forced the thirteenth Dalai Lama to flee to India. Many have condemned the invasion as a breaking point in Sino-Tibetan relations, but its origins remain murky. If it was not the handiwork of “Butcher” Zhao Erfeng, as many have supposed, then what happened on that fateful winter day, and why? This article examines late-Qing forward policy in Tibet through four key officials: Zhang Yintang, the diplomat who called for reforms and a Tibetan standing army; Zhao Erfeng, the ruthless frontier commissioner in Kham; Lianyu, the last amban of Tibet; and Zhong Ying, the neophyte who led the 1910 Lhasa expedition. Their stories reveal not a monolithic Qing policy but a contest of policy and personality that exploded into bloody strife, with aftershocks that are felt to this day.
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