Portuguese merchants made huge profits from maritime trade in East Asia, setting off a great deal of enthusiasm for direct trade between the Portuguese royal family and China. The King of Portugal wanted to penetrate into this extravagant, pompous country, wanted its goods to flow into Europe like a tidal wave, and at the same time open markets for European goods, so he planned to send a formal mission, carrying the king's letter, to Beijing to negotiate with the Chinese emperor, hoping to reach a trade agreement.
Among the Portuguese who came to the East at that time was a pharmacist named Tommé Pires, who was initially responsible for gathering relevant information. According to his observations, he wrote a report to China on the possibility of Portuguese-Chinese trade exchanges, which was intended to pour cold water on the burning heart of the Portuguese royal family. He said: Without the approval of the governor of Guangzhou, no Chinese can go to the kingdoms of Siam, Java, Malacca and Parson. The ratification process was so cumbersome and unbearable that he had to give up going abroad. Foreigners could not leave after coming to China unless approved by the emperor. In order to get approval, the rich also lose their homes. Any vessel that violated the berthing rules was confiscated and handed over to the Emperor and its personnel were put to death.
But the Portuguese royal family ignored Pires's painstaking efforts. They are far away from thousands of mountains and rivers, and since they have come to China, they must follow the western practice, choose an appropriate envoy, and first conduct a normal diplomatic exchange. A suitable candidate is crucial. This man must not only faithfully carry out the interests of the Portuguese royal family, but also be familiar with the situation in China. Pires has both conditions. However, Tomei Pires also had serious deficiencies that the Portuguese side could not be satisfied with, that is, his social status was too low, and he was only a pharmacist of the East India Company. But given his close relationship with the Portuguese royal family, as well as his investigation of China's national conditions and his reports, he was selected among the few candidates to serve as head of the mission.
How to send Pires to China is another problem. Since the envoy was already in India, it was obviously not appropriate to send a ship escort from Europe, and it was ideal for the European colonists who paid attention to cost and efficiency to find a downwind ship. At that time, Portugal had two colonies in the Far East, one in India and one in Malacca, and it was convenient to send Pires from India to Malacca. Fernand Andrade, the head of the Portuguese navy in Malacca, happened to be planning to take a ship of pepper to China to sell. Pires took this ship to China, doing business and diplomacy, and the Portuguese had already made a wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking is often to be frustrated. The process of Portugal's diplomatic trip was not only exhausting, the result of asking for trade and requesting diplomacy was simply rejected by the Ming Dynasty, which greatly surprised the Portuguese, and eventually led to a series of military conflicts between the two sides.
Before Pires came to China, there were also some Portuguese who had been to China. These people were all merchants, and they left after selling their goods, and only the Portuguese side recorded this according to the needs of the business, and the Chinese side did not record this. However, when Pires went to China, he met with high-ranking local officials and even tributed the emperor in Beijing, so in China, whether it is a canonical history or a private collection of essays, the Portuguese envoys' envoys to China are recorded.
The most authoritative account comes from the official document "Records of Emperor Mingwuzong", to the effect that the Flang Machine Kingdom (the Ming Dynasty called Portugal the Flang Machine) sent envoys such as Kabi Danmu (that is, the transliteration of the captain) to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty for local specialties, requesting tribute, and the well was given to kanhe trade. Officials such as Zhenfu of Guangdong believed that there was no so-called Flang machine country among the Hainan zhufan, and that this envoy did not have his own documents and was not necessarily credible, so he temporarily left the emissary to ask the imperial court for instructions. This matter is discussed under the Ministry of Etiquette. They were ordered to return to Their homeland without having to enter Beijing to pay tribute, and the specialties they carried were paid for.
This official document is briefly recorded, and it just so happens that there is a party named Gu Yingxiang, who in his "Record of Respecting the Void and Cherishing the Yin", from the chinese side's standpoint, recorded his affairs in detail: During the Zhengde period, I served as the Guangdong Inspector Of Gold, and just when Wang Feng, the deputy envoy of the sea patrol, went to Beijing to enter the table, I temporarily took the management of the sea route. At this time, three large ships suddenly broke into the city of Guangzhou, and fired three cannons, and the sound was loud and the city was full of shock. In the past, such ships were docked in Hai'ao Bay, a thousand households in Dongguan, and never sailed directly to the city of Guangzhou.
Wu Hongyu, who was raised by the city party, personally came to Huaiyuanyi to inspect this matter. Foreigners do not speak the language, and the translator with the ship is a Jiangxi Fuliang person. According to him, this was an envoy sent by the Flang Machine Kingdom to pay tribute to the imperial court, and the envoy was called Kapitan, who had never seen each other before. I hurriedly sent someone to Wuzhou to report that the two Guangdong members were there at that time. After receiving my report, Ning Cheng, the eunuch of the Three Halls, and Guo Xun, the chief soldier of Wuding, came. But these foreigners just greeted each other from afar, and they did not kneel down to meet each other. The governor, Du Yushi Chen Jin, was the last to come, and he was very angry when he saw this situation, and he beat the translator with twenty sticks, and then he divided it into tijue and said: These foreigners came from afar, originally admiring Chinese culture, but they did not know the etiquette of the Heavenly Dynasty. I am a courtier, see must follow Chinese etiquette. He was ordered to go to Guangxiao Temple for three days before he could see him regularly. Soon, the governor Yamen also paid a message, saying that the "Great Ming Hui Code" did not contain this country, so that they could rest in the inn, and wait until we had cleared the court and then discuss the matter of receiving.
Later, the imperial court ordered them to enter the capital to pay tribute to the emperor. When they arrived in Beijing, they did not kneel when they saw the officials of the Ministry of Ceremonies. At that time, Emperor Wuzong was on a tour of the south and could not receive him, so he stayed in the huitongguan for half a year. After the Jiajing Emperor ascended the throne, he questioned the interpreters, sent them back to Guangdong, and then deported them.
The above paragraphs are translated according to the original text. Obviously, as soon as the Portuguese mission arrived in China, the two sides clashed and beat people. However, this kind of conflict does not belong to the era of colonial expansion, the struggle between the interests of the strong countries bullying the weak countries, and the big countries bullying the small countries, but the cultural disputes with obvious "Chinese characteristics". China's concerns have their own characteristics, emphasizing the etiquette of tribute reception, which is completely different from the commercial interests that Portugal cares about, which also leads to contradictions between the two sides on a series of issues such as diplomatic concepts, reception methods, and the nature of the mission, which have become a collision between two different cultures.
The diplomatic contradiction between China and Portugal, because it is the first time to deal with modern European countries, both sides have insufficient understanding of the reasons. European countries were also the first to interact with the Chinese imperial court, and they were completely ignorant of China's national policy. In such a situation, it is inevitable that there will be misunderstandings and frictions, not to mention the problems caused by the habits of life and communication. Friction has arisen, disputes have arisen, and in the end who has the final say is what the Chinese side cares about. After the dispute, the lonely Portuguese envoys were forced to adopt China's "diplomatic rules and tributary system."