Examing his legacy

Mark O'Neill, Hong Kong-based Irish author. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Part of the funds went to the founding of Tong Wen Guan, the translation service for the Qing government, and sending the first 120 Chinese children to study in the United States.

Hart also proposed and helped minister Li Hongzhang to purchase the first two steel-plated warships which led to the founding of Qing government's Beiyang Navy.

The book contains details of many of Hart's works in China, including his negotiation with France to end the Sino-French War in Vietnam in the mid-1880s, and the founding of the imperial post office.

After Hart's departure for Hong Kong from his homeland in 1854, he went back to Europe just twice－once to get married in 1866 and then to oversee the Chinese pavilion at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889.

Hart left China at the age of 73 in 1908.