Qishan was a Khalkha Mongol by birth and was from the Borjigit clan. His 7th generator ancestor Enggeder had led his followers to submit to the Manchu-led Qing Empire and received a hereditary first class marquis peerage in return. Qishan inherited the peerage from his ancestor. His father, Chengde, served as a general in Hangzhou and dutong in Rehe Province. In 1806, Qishan obtained the position of a yinsheng in the entry-level imperial examination and was recruited into the civil service as a yuanwailang in the Ministry of Justice. In 1819, he was promoted to xunfu of Henan Province but was later demoted to zhushi and put in charge of river works. Since then, he served in a number of appointments, including Viceroy of Liangjiang, Sichuan and Zhili, and Grand Scholar of Wenyuan Cabinet. In 1840, during the First Opium War, the Daoguang Emperor ordered Qishan to replace Lin Zexu as the acting Viceroy of Liangguang. Qishan was also tasked with negotiating for peace with the British. Upon witnessing British naval power, he ordered his troops to evacuate from the artillery batteries, and sent Bao Peng to meet the British at Chuanbi and call for a peace settlement. On 20 January 1841, without seeking approval from the Qing imperial court, Qishan agreed to the Convention of Chuanbi with the British. Among other things, the convention required the Qing Empire to pay the British an indemnity of six million silver coins and cede Hong Kong Island. The Daoguang Emperor was furious when he found out later that Qishan had agreed to the convention without his permission. He ordered Qishan to be arrested and escorted as a criminal to Beijing for trial; Qishan had his properties and assets confiscated and was sentenced to military service. Qishan was pardoned later and reinstated as an official in 1842. He was subsequently appointed as Imperial Resident in Tibet, a second term as Viceroy of Sichuan, and Viceroy of Shaan-Gan. In 1852, during the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, Qishan was appointed as an Imperial Commissioner to oversee Qing imperial forces in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. He set up the "Jiangbei Camp" on the northern bank of the Yangtze River at Yangzhou, with 18,000 troops stationed there. He died in the autumn of 1854 in camp. The Qing government granted him the posthumous name "Wenqin".
