Sino-Russian Border Conflict and Treaty of Nerchinsk, 1685–1689

Russian expansion through Siberia brought Cossack settlements into the Amur basin, where the Qing court claimed authority over local peoples and territory. Qing forces attacked the Russian stronghold at Albazin in 1685 and again imposed a siege in 1686.

Negotiations at Nerchinsk in 1689 established a frontier and regulated relations between the two empires. Songgotu led the Qing delegation during the Russian regency of Sophia Alekseyevna.

The final volume of The Deer and the Cauldron turns this diplomacy into farce by inserting Trinket into both Russian court politics and the treaty negotiations. The setting broadens the novel from Chinese dynastic conflict to Eurasian imperial rivalry.