The first unofficial Russian embassy, which was sent to Peking on September 1, 1618, was headed by the Tomsk Cossack Ivan Petlin and had as members two Buddhist lamas of Mongolian origin, was well as two Buryats – Kyzylov and Mundov. Thus, the first direct Russian-Chinese negotiations were held in Mongolian and Turkic. Ivan Petlin’s expedition became, in fact, the only relatively successful attempt to establish direct relations with the Chinese empire itself, which was then under the control of the Ming dynasty. We say the attempt was “relatively successful” because there were still problems with written documents. Although the parties understood one another at the talks, the message sent by the Chinese Emperor Wanli (1553-1620) and brought to Tomsk lay untranslated for nearly sixty years! Only in 1675, was Spafary, who had been sent to Peking as an ambassador, able to find a man in Tobolsk who could translate the general meaning of the letters. In the letter, the Chinese emperor proposed that Basil Shuisky open “green” bilateral trade between the two countries. This step was important given that China remained entirely closed to Europeans at the time...
Sources :
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https://russkiymir.ru/en/magazines/article/144506/
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https://akarlin.com/2014/05/a-very-brief-history-of-chinese-russian-relations/