"Napoleon the Great tasted the male lion for example in China, saying that when the sleeping lion wakes up, the world should be frightened."
This sentence comes from the "Notes on the Tibetan Hun Room" by the modern literary master Hu Shi, quoting Napoleon's famous "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory". Napoleon's original words were: "When a male lion is asleep, the flies dare to go to its head and bark a few times, but when the male lion is awakened, the world will tremble." ”
The lion is the king of the hundred beasts, as the former hegemon of Europe, the emperor of the First French Empire, why did Napoleon evaluate China as a lion? Is he praising China?
On March 1, 1815, just one year after his exile, Napoleon escaped from the imprisoned island of Elba and led 700 men to land in the south of France. In just over 20 days, Napoleon used his prestige to assemble a force of more than 200,000 men and once again seized power in France.
When the news came, the European continent was shocked and immediately formed the Seventh Anti-French Alliance to launch an attack on the Napoleonic regime. After 100 days of bitter persistence, Napoleon was again forced to abdicate and was exiled to the Atlantic island of St. Helena further afield.
In order to prevent Napoleon from escaping again, the British stationed troops on the island of St. Helena, specifically to watch and monitor Napoleon's every move, and forbidden to visit relatives and friends, so during the exile, Napoleon rarely saw people outside the island. But one day in 1817, an Englishman came to St. Helena to visit Napoleon.
The Englishman, named Amistad, was a diplomat who had just visited China in the east as a British representative before visiting Napoleon.
At the end of the 18th century, in order to open up the Chinese market, the British sent the envoy Ma Jiaerni to China to visit the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the Qing Dynasty was in the midst of the "prosperous era of Kangqian", with strong national strength and economic prosperity, and Qianlong posed as a heavenly kingdom to the British demand for trade, and explicitly rejected their demands.
But the British were not dead-hearted, and after learning of the death of the Qianlong Emperor, the British king decided to send envoys again to China to discuss trade. It was in this context that Amistad was ordered to leave for the Qing Dynasty in 1816, hoping to persuade the new emperor to open up trade.
As a result, the newly enthroned Jiaqing Emperor did even more desperately, and after learning that the British had sent envoys to come, he issued a decree: "If you ask for the opening of a commercial port, strictly refute it, and send it back at a feast, so that it will not be allowed to enter Beijing." As a result, Amistad did not even see the face of the Jiaqing Emperor and was expelled. This greatly angered him, and when he was ready to return to England, he went to persuade the king and the army to knock on the door of China by force.
When he was passing through St. Helena, he heard that Napoleon had been exiled here, and he wanted to visit this great man who had once been a european figure, and to talk to him about trade with China. The British governor in charge of Napoleon's custody at the time happened to be acquainted with Amested, so after asking for his consent, Amistad met Napoleon in 1817.
After a moment of greeting, Amistad began to get to the point, asking Napoleon if he would succeed if Britain was prepared to open the door to trade by force. After a moment of silence, Napoleon replied, "At first you can rely on the guns of the ships to achieve victory, but they will think, they will learn from you the techniques of building ships and cannons, and then they will stand up and fight back." ”
Arguing that Napoleon overestimated China's strength, Armester argued: "The current Qing Empire, which looks powerful on the surface, has begun to decay on the inside, and it is like a mud-footed giant that can easily knock it down." Napoleon laughed: "Nowadays, China seems to be more like a sleeping lion, on the surface you can easily defeat it, but when he wakes up, he will definitely show his majesty and shock the world!" ”
Seeing that Amistad was stunned by his own words, Napoleon said the second half of the "Chinese Sleeping Lion Theory": "Thank God, let him continue to sleep!" ”
From the second half of the sentence, it can be seen that Napoleon is not praising China, he, like other colonial invaders, does not want China to be strong, and hopes that this "lion" will always sleep so that it can be slaughtered. After speaking with Napoleon, Amistad strengthened his determination to open the gates of China by force, and upon his return to England, he passed on this idea to the king and the army. Finally, in 1840, the Anglo-French coalition launched the Opium War, opening the door to China by force.