We continue to study the dynastic construction and cultural identity of the Qing Empire. In the previous articles, we have talked about the origin of the Manchurian Zhushen, expounded the nature of Nurhaci's war against the Ming Dynasty, and also focused on a series of orthodox work done by the Qing Empire after "inheriting the Mandate of Heaven". At the end of this series of articles, let's talk about a more interesting topic, the foreign exchanges of the Qing Empire, to see whether the Qing Empire was a symbol of the Chinese Empire in the eyes of the "foreigners" at that time, or whether it was the so-called barbarians.
When it comes to the foreign exchanges of the Qing Empire, we needless to say in the later period, since the Opium War in 1840, the door of the Qing Empire was completely smashed open, and it was driven into the modern nation-state system with a bayonet in ignorance, and the old empire flashed around on the international stage, the more mixed up, and by the end of the 19th century, it had been called the "two sick men" on the old continent with the Ottoman Turkey at that time; and the early period of the Qing Empire, for a long time, was also pulled out of the black object by various people on the Internet, and all kinds of true or false historical materials appeared in an endless stream, whatever "After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Korea continued to use the Chongzhen era name for hundreds of years", what "Japan never recognized the 'Chinese' nature of the Qing Empire", and the famous "Macartney Delegation visited China and found that the kangqian prosperous world was actually a 'hungry prosperity'", and so on. So, are historical facts really like this?
North Korea's attitude towards the Qing Dynasty
Let's start with Korea, after the Qing Empire entered Beijing in 1644 and the Ming Empire collapsed, although the Joseon Lee Dynasty "honored the new dynasty" on the surface and used the era name of the Qing Empire, it did privately use the Chongzhen era name of the Ming Empire. Not only that, the Li Dynasty also set up a "big newspaper altar" to commemorate the Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen Emperors of the Ming Empire. As for why the Lee dynasty of North Korea played such a "two-faced" method, relevant experts believe that there are two reasons:
Folk publications of the Lee Dynasty in Joseon still use the Chongzhen era name
First, as the main beneficiary of the Wanli War to Aid Korea, the Ming Empire drove Toyotomi Hideyoshi's forces out of Korea undoubtedly ensured the stability of the rule of the Lee Dynasty, which can be said to have "reinvented" Korea, on the contrary, the Jianzhou Jurchen repeatedly used force to force Korea to pay tribute to it, until the "Bingzi Rebellion" in 1636 was completely incorporated into the clan system by the Qing Empire. In contrast, it is completely normal for Korea to be hostile to the Qing Empire after the fall of the Ming Empire, but it still has "hometown thoughts" about the Ming Empire;
The official and civilian form of the Joseon Kingdom in the Imperial Qing Dynasty Tribute Scroll
The Erli Dynasty, also an integral part of the ancient Chinese state system, is difficult to say what their attitude was toward "undertaking the Mandate of Heaven", and honoring the "Chongzhen" era name and adding legitimacy to itself was a fairly flexible political maneuver. Therefore, at the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Empire, On the one hand, Korea was extremely obedient to the Qing Empire and could be called a model of "internal minister", on the other hand, it clung to the era name of the Ming Empire, showing the political intention of "advancing or retreating" and "one step idle chess".
A 18th-century north Korean mission painting of the street outside the Zhengyang Gate in Beijing
With the increasing stability of the Qing Empire's rule and the growing national power, the attitude of the Lee Dynasty of Korea to the Tianzi of the Central Plains was also quietly changing: in the description of the style of the Qing Empire, according to the relevant records of the Korean envoys from the Yalu River to the city of Beijing, the development of the Qing Empire's productive forces, the richness of the material level, and the prosperity of the commerce in the capital were incomparable to that of backward Korea; and the qing Empire's construction of dynastic legitimacy also made the Korean high-level have to admit that "the crown of cultural relics is still in China"; as for science and culture, Korea only has a share of admiration for the Qing Empire, such as the Korean calendar directly copied the Qing Empire's "Time Constitutional Calendar", and the astronomical calculus method was also taught by the Qing Empire. With the passage of time, the behavior of the Lee Dynasty of Korea to honor the "Chongzhen" era name has become more and more meaningless, and has become a "convention" with no specific connotation, after all, even the people have commonly used the era name of the Qing Empire.
Park Toe-won, the representative figure of the North Korean "North School"
During the Qianlong period, the "North School" began to rise among the Korean scholar class, and the representative figures of this school, such as Hong Dae-yong, Park Toe-won, and Park Qijia, all resided in Beijing as envoys of the Lee Dynasty. In the face of the situation of endless infighting among the two classes of aristocrats in the DPRK and their lifelessness, the "Beixue School" has taken a clear-cut stand and pointed out that although the DPRK claims to be "Chinese orthodox," its people's livelihood is poor and its society is poor, and "everything is not as good as China's," so it is not as good as "learning from China in the North." It is worth mentioning that at that time, the "North School" was already able to jump out of the narrow "Huayi distinction" and believe that "regardless of Huayi, you can learn it together", this kind of thinking and insight is much higher than the traditional old-style literati and doctors, and the realm is much higher, which has been unanimously praised by historians of later generations.
Japan's attitude towards the Qing Dynasty
The attitude of the Japanese Edo shogunate toward the Qing Dynasty was generally contradictory. On the one hand, the Edo shogunate never had official contact with the Qing Dynasty, and also ideologically regarded the Qing Dynasty's rule of China as "changing the summer with yi", but on the other hand, the Japanese in the Edo period were very much in awe and admiration for the Qing Dynasty. In the book "Huayi Perversion", we can see that in the early days of the Qing Dynasty, the Edo shogunate always called the Qing Dynasty "Tatar", but after the Qing Dynasty completed the great cause of unification, the Edo shogunate's title of the Qing Dynasty quietly changed from contemptuous "Tatar" to neutral and even a little respectful "Daqing". At the same time, the Edo shogunate also greatly respected the Kangxi Emperor, revering him as a "saint of the upper kingdom", and translated the Sixteen Articles of the Sacred Sayings issued by the Kangxi Emperor into Japanese, which was widely promulgated in Japan.
Part of the Nagasaki Tang Ship Trade Scroll of the Edo Period in Japan shows the scene of Qing Dynasty merchants holding a Chinese-style celebration in Nagasaki, when the Japanese called Qing Dynasty merchant ships "Tang ships"
In the Qianlong era, japanese cultural circles also began to learn from the Qing Dynasty's "School of Examination Evidence", which was subjugated to the solid and rigorous academic atmosphere of Qing Scholars, and even believed that "a hundred volumes of the Ming Dynasty's books are not as good as the qing's books." Throughout the Edo period, the Qing Dynasty was still a powerful country for the Japanese to look up to, and the culture of the Qing Dynasty also had a great influence on Japan.
Once a year in Nagasaki, Japan, the Chinese Emperor and Empress tour is held during the Spring Festival, and the winner of the Miss Nagasaki beauty pageant of that year plays the Chinese empress
Especially in Nagasaki, the only port in Japan at that time, which was open to the outside world, a large number of Qing Dynasty merchant ships and merchants arrived every year, which also brought a strong Cultural Atmosphere of the Qing Dynasty. So far, every spring in Nagasaki also holds a tour ceremony for the emperors and empresses of the Qing Dynasty, and the influence of Qing Dynasty culture on Nagasaki can be seen.
Western attitude towards the Qing Dynasty
Having said that we have North Korea and Japan, let's talk about the West. Now when it comes to the relationship between the Qing Empire and Western countries, many people first think of impressions such as "closed country", "no knowing", "where is England", etc., but this is not the case. According to the research of modern historians, although the relationship between the Qing Empire and the major Western kingdoms at that time was not very close, it was far from the point of "knowing nothing", and even a considerable number of Western missionaries became the bridge between the Qing Empire and the Western world.
John Tang
For example, the "Chronicle calendar" promulgated by the Holy Roman Empire missionary Tang John wang in the late Ming Dynasty and the "ShiXian Calendar" promulgated by the Shunzhi Emperor in the early Qing Dynasty are excellent achievements; and the "Complete Map of The King's Kunyu" drawn by the Belgian missionary Nan Huairen in the thirteenth year of the Qing Dynasty (1674) and promulgated by the Kangxi Emperor is the first time in ancient Chinese history to use the Western modern geographical coordinate system to draw a colored map of the world, and in the forty-seventh year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1708), the French and The Qing Dynasty The "Imperial Public Opinion Overview Map" jointly drawn by scientists and Chinese scholars in Italy and other countries is the first national map in Chinese history to use triangulation and trapezoidal projection method, covering the north to Lake Baikal, the south to Hainan Island, the east to Taiwan Island, and the west to the Ili River Valley;
CCTV"National Treasure" program broadcast "Qianlong farming business map export hand-painted wallpaper"
At the same time, the relationship between the Qing Empire and the Bourbon Dynasty of the French Kingdom has been good, starting from King Louis XIV of France, France has sent envoys, missionaries, etc. to the Qing Empire up to 86 people, and the Qing Empire has also sent missions to France, and even during the French Revolution, the Qianlong Emperor got the news that "the French Emperor was cut off his head" (in January 1793, the Jacobins executed King Louis XVI of France), and napoleon, the "little general" who rose in the French Revolution, said Napoleon" China is a sleeping lion", but it is not exactly a brain supplement.
Portrait of the Kangxi Emperor painted by Western missionaries
However, the British, because they often ran amok along the coast of China in the early period of the Qing Empire's rule, and intervened in the Qing-Burma War and the Gurkha War in many ways, left a very bad impression on the Qing Empire, the so-called Qianlong Emperor posed in front of the Macartney Mission, and General Fukang'an refused to watch the demonstration of British firearms. The exchanges between the Qing Empire and Western European countries, especially the Kingdom of France, even once set off a "Chinese fever" in Western Europe, when Europe from the court to the people, from the king to the scholar, and even once became a fan of the Qing Empire, in various works full of praise for the Qing Empire.
In 1810, four hand-painted wall panels in King George IV's palace reflected the image of Chinese in the minds of Europeans at that time
For example, the Frenchman De Lange said in the book "Journey to Asia From St. Petersburg": "The late Chinese emperor (that is, the Kangxi Emperor) is taller than the average Chinese, and his Tatar blood cannot be seen from his face and countenance"; and the "Biography of the Kangxi Emperor" written by the French missionary Bai Jin is very famous in Europe, in which he praises the Kangxi Emperor to the greatest extent, and even calls the Kangxi Emperor "the most holy monarch among the emperors who ruled the world since ancient times." In the French 1735 masterpiece on the historical, cultural and geographical geography of China, the author Duhd spoke highly of the kangxi emperor's merits in uniting all nationalities: "The Kangxi Emperor was respected not only by the people of Asia but also by the people of Europe at that time. He implemented the policy of the Manchu and Han dynasties, integrating Manchuria, Mongolia, and the Central Plains into one, and he united Mongolia with the united Mongolian policy of combining the political strategy of Manchu-Mongolian marriage with the military skill of armed counterinsurgency." As for the French philosopher and naturalist Voltaire, he was even more full of yearning for the political system and customs and customs of ancient China, and the extent of his touting flesh and blood and detachment from reality has reached the point where we Chinese ourselves find unbearable.
By September 1793, when the Qianlong Emperor officially received the Macartney mission from Britain, the grandeur of the Qing Empire had gradually come to an end, and with the increasing inversion of society, the powerful Qing Empire seemed to have only the afterglow left. But even though many people have come up with the "Ma Jiaerni Diary" that proves that the "Kangqian Prosperous Age" is the so-called "Hungry Prosperity", there are still many praises for the Qing Empire.
For example, when Ma Garni passed through the town of Qinghe in Zhili Province, he once sighed and said: "The people's thriftiness and honesty are similar to those of the British people." At this point, I felt as if I were in the middle of British territory, and I couldn't help but feel that I was in the middle of it. After Arriving in Jiangnan, Macartney was even more impressed by the prosperity and richness of Jiangnan, he wrote: "When Fang Yu first arrived outside Hangzhou, he watched the scene of Hangyuan on the boat, knowing that this city would be one of the famous cities in Southern Province, and that after entering the city today, he knew that the prosperity of this city was greater than my previous ideals." "It is very interesting that, according to Macartney's records, the development of the Qing Empire became more and more developed the further south, while the northern cities were generally more desolate and dilapidated. The reason for this can only be left for us to understand in detail.
The scene of the Envoys of wanshuyuan, a summer resort in the Rehe Palace ,(the author, William Alexander, accompanied the Macartney mission to China and left behind many paintings, recording the style of urban and rural officials and people in the Qing Dynasty at the end of the 18th century. ）
However, Macartney made a very objective comment on the scientific and cultural level of the Qing Empire, pointing out: "Although there are several kinds of Chinese industry, far above the Wu'ou people, in terms of the whole, the knowledge of chemistry and medicine is really in a very naïve position. The overall evaluation is: "My generation has read Chinese historical evidence to witness, and chinese society seems to have no significant shortcomings." It can be argued that Macartney's evaluation of the Qing Empire was not as fleshy as that of the French, but it was by no means as serious as the so-called "false prosperity". Through the above contents, we can fully see that the foreign exchanges in the early and middle periods of the Qing Empire were not at all what some people think, "two eyes and one black" and "closed country", but not only maintained a certain degree of contact with major European countries such as the Kingdom of France, the British Empire, and the Russian Empire, but even once realized the last "cultural export" in ancient Chinese history, so that Western Europeans really admired what is called "heavenly kingdom".
Qing soldiers painted by William Alexander
In the eyes of foreigners represented by Westerners, although there was already a Westphalian system at that time, Westerners still did not hesitate to think that "the Qing Empire is the representative of the Chinese Empire", and as for the great changes in the attitude of Western Europe and other countries due to the decline of the Qing Empire after the Opium War, it is another matter of later.