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In the eighteenth century, the whole world was undergoing earth-shaking changes, and in 1765, starting with the invention of the "Jenny Machine" by the Englishman Hargreaves, marking the advent of the era of the British Industrial Revolution. In the short period of time that followed, under the vigorous impetus of the rapid development of the Industrial Revolution, the british Empire was thriving, and through a series of expansions, the small island nation on the edge of the earth gradually became the center of the world at that time. A vast empire of the sun never sets was established, becoming a veritable superpower.
In the east of the world, the ancient Chinese Empire, which has stood quietly for thousands of years, is also in the heyday of the last absolute monarchical society. History is called "Kangqian's prosperous life". Everything in this empire at this moment, whether by force or national strength, has reached the peak of the entire dynasty, looking at the eastern countries, the population and GDP are the highest in the world, and it is also a superpower without compromise.
But the difference between the two is that in the distant West, with the exploration of the outside world, the British Empire has long heard about this great eastern empire, and various magical legends about China have been brought to the West by countless merchants and sailors, and even set off a Chinese fever in the Western world. King George III of the United Kingdom, eager to communicate with this great eastern power and develop trade relations, began to prepare for a large-scale visit to China very early.
At the moment, the rulers of the East are tightly wrapping themselves and the empire in various ways, and they are still ignorant of the newly rising super empire in the West, which has spread all over the world.
But just a few decades later, the glorious image of the Chinese Empire quickly faded in the eyes of Westerners. How did this 180-degree turn of attitude, from an almost fanatical cult to what was later widely regarded as a barbaric and backward land, come about? If we must choose the most representative inflection point among them, then there is no doubt that it is Magalney's visit to China.
Magalni
In 1793, Qianlong fifty-eighth year. When Everything was ready, George III appointed the Special Envoy, the Duke of Magalney, to lead three large warships, shouldering the mission of friendship with China, and set off from the port of Portsmouth with great vigor and confidence. The first journey of exchange between the two Superpowers of East and West was officially initiated.
Britain attached great importance to this visit to China, sending a delegation of more than 700 people, including nobles, missionaries, scholars, doctors, painters, writers, musicians and other talents, and also carried many precious gifts, not only representing the latest technology of the British Empire, but also the world's top technology in the era of the entire Western industrial revolution.
It is said that the British have been preparing these gifts for more than a year alone, including telescopes, hot air balloons, steam engines, howitzers, burst pistols, and so on.
Before setting out, the British believed that with their sincerity and these dazzling new inventions, they would surely win the love and trust of Chinese, not only to establish good relations, but also to trade with them, and even to form an alliance.
George III
However, it was not without different voices at that time, in fact, as early as five years ago, the British East India Company in Guangzhou had issued a notice to the British government: "The Chinese government has contempt for foreigners, and its ignorance of foreign countries makes it overly believe in its own strength." It would consider sending an mission to be only an expression of allegiance". From hindsight, it is clear that this warning did not attract enough attention from George III.
Sure enough, the British underestimated the pride of this eastern empire. The Magalni mission endured many hardships along the way, and it took nearly a year to reach China. The first contact upon arrival dealt a blow to the british confidence. In the eyes of the qing officials who received them, they still wishfully believed that Britain was nothing more than a small country on the one hand, a barbarian state. This visit was nothing more than a "tribute" to a small barbarian country, but it was just an attempt to curry favor with my Great Qing.
In the minds of these officials at that time, under the whole world, a country that could be called a hero along with my Great Qing dynasty had not yet appeared, and those who came to China all admired my wealth in the Heavenly Dynasty, but they were just wings to protect them. Therefore, the reception in the whole process was extremely light, and even on the way to Beijing by the mission fleet, a flag of "English tribute envoy" was planted on the ship leading the way. After arriving in Beijing, the Chinese side even demanded that the British envoys perform a great salute of three kneeling and nine prostrations to show the "submission" of the small state. This makes this acceptable to the British, who have come with a desire for equal exchange.
In the end, the outcome of this visit is not difficult to imagine. The Magalni mission ultimately failed to visit China, and this failure had a profound impact on China's subsequent national fortunes. Let the Qing Dynasty lose the opportunity to contact the world's industrial civilization for the first time, and regretfully closed the door to embrace the world for the first time, and when it was opened again decades later, this gate had been easily beaten by the strong ships and cannons brought by Western industrial civilization.
Since ancient times, backwardness is bound to be beaten, and since then it has brought humiliation to our nation for nearly a century in modern times. The long sadness brought to our entire nation, and the vigilance brought to our descendants, are far from being able to be summed up in one word!!!
Of course, today for many friends, this sad ending is already familiar. Moreover, in this event that had a far-reaching impact on China that year, there must have been many factors that contributed to the final failure, and the arrogance and arrogance of the Qing government and its self-sufficiency could not be denied to be the absolute main cause, but for such a major event, it was impossible to have only this one factor, and we will talk about one of the little-known factors here. From the side, we can fully understand the reasons for the failure of this big event that year.
This was the impact of the translations of the two sides on the events, and it later seemed that in the collision of two unfamiliar civilizations, its impact was not insignificant. It can even be said to be an important factor in failure. Here is an in-depth understanding of the translation and exchange process between China and Britain in that year, and I believe that it will be of great help and great sobering significance for our understanding of the major events in the history of Sino-foreign exchanges.
Many scholars today believe that the lack of excellent and qualified translators was an important factor in the failure of the Magalney mission's visit to China that year. Let's not judge whether such an evaluation is exaggerated or not. But as an exchange between countries, translation should never be overlooked, and it is also a key factor in the smoothness of the exchange.
But unfortunately, due to the limitations of the history and geography of the two countries, and even the limitations of the national conditions, both sides cannot select the most suitable translator from their own people, and finally in desperation, both sides can only hire foreigners as translators, and without understanding the national conditions and culture of the other party, they unconsciously affect and even change the entire course of history, so that our descendants can only leave endless sighs and a long sigh.
Let's look at the British side first.
In 1793, Britain sent a large mission, headed by Magalney, to China. The aim is to try to open a new chapter in trade with China and establish diplomatic relations. The large number of emissaries in the entire mission, together with the sailors, formed a huge team of nearly 700 people.
At this moment, the national strength of the British Empire has been at its peak, and the preparation of personnel and goods is not a problem in the end, but the only difficult thing is that it seems to be a small thing, and the envoy to China must be qualified and reliable, because of the geographical isolation of the two empires, the whole of England at that time really could not find a suitable translator, as the deputy envoy of the mission, Staunton, said at that time: "There is an absolutely necessary, but very difficult to find candidate, that is, Chinese translation." It caused the great British Empire a headache in this matter for a long time.
At that time, the situation between the two countries was that due to the distance between the oceans, China and Britain had never had any formal foreign exchanges before, except for some compradors of the East India Company who knew Chinese, but they did not have enough language skills to rise to the diplomatic level. In the Chinese Empire in the East, the government has always had strict restrictions on the Chinese foreigners to learn, and in a closed environment, most Chinese lack interest in learning foreign languages.
We can also look at The following two things to see China's attitude toward foreign exchanges at that time.
In fact, as early as 1617, when China was still in the Ming Dynasty, King James I of England wrote a letter to the Ming Emperor, hoping that the two sides could carry out trade, but when the letter was sent to China, there was no Chinese dare to help translate and submit it, because according to the Law of the Great Ming Dynasty at that time, this was completely a capital offense, and finally it could only be stopped.
In 1759, that is, the twenty-fourth year of Qianlong, there was also a major event in the history of trade between the two countries, that is, the "Hong Renhui Incident", Hong Renhui was a Britishman, an agent of the British East India Company stationed in China, because of the difficulties of the Guangdong customs officials, he entrusted someone to write a complaint into Beijing and send it to Qianlong to file a royal complaint.
The final result was that Qianlong punished the officials involved in accepting bribes, but also issued a clear decree: "Mainlanders must be strictly punished for helping foreigners write such things on behalf of foreigners", and finally Liu Yazai, the Chinese who helped Hong Renhui write the complaint paper, was executed in public by Caishikou, and Hong Renhui was also sentenced to three years in prison, one of the crimes was: learning Chinese without authorization. After the expiration of the term, he was expelled back to China and told that he would never come to China again for life. Since then, it has also created the era of "single-mouth business" in which the Qing Dynasty only opened guangzhou to the outside world.
So, under such circumstances, a high-level and responsible translator, under the huge geographical, political, cultural, and linguistic patterns of the two countries at that time, turned what we see as a small problem on this mission into a big problem that was extremely troublesome for the British.
But this problem must be solved!
Since French missionaries came to China very early, some people initially proposed to find them from the French. However, it was not long before the haze of the Hundred Years' War between Britain and France dissipated from the hearts of the two peoples, and between 1689 and 1763, Britain and France began to fight for colonies again. At the same time, the British policy toward foreign countries has always been "glorious isolation", that is, you in europe are tossing and turning at will, but don't take the lead, who dares to beat whom. The British Empire has always had this attitude since it left home, and since it became the boss of Europe, it has always been to unite other allies to fight against the second eldest.
Therefore, for the old French who wanted to emerge at that time, even if many of the French missionaries who returned from China were proficient in Chinese, it was impossible for the British to believe and use them. And there is also a vague purpose behind Britain's mission to China this time, that is, if possible, to ally with China against France. So how can such an envoy be translated by the French?
The same is true of the Portuguese, although the Portuguese have had a lot of communication with China for a long time, and there is no shortage of Portuguese who are proficient in Chinese. However, at that time, in the process of expanding its colonies in Africa, Britain seriously affected Portugal's interests in the area, and the two countries had begun to clash and gradually became inseparable. And Portugal at that time was also secretly inextricably linked to France. Using the Portuguese is also planting an unstable time bomb for yourself.
George Staunton
In the end, after some discussion, the British government decided to use Chinese, and it happened that sir George Staunton, one of the leaders of the mission, met two Chinese priests Li Jacob and Paul Zhou at the local seminary in Naples, Italy. At the same time, Staunton also promised two other Chinese priests, Father An and Father Wang, to take a boat back to China. Finally, Staunton moved Jacob Lee and Paul Chow to become Chinese interpreters for the mission.
History to this day, there is not much information about the lives of these priests, only that Li Yaguohan's name is Li Zibiao, a native of Wuwei, Gansu, born in 1760, went to Italy in 1773 with 7 other Chinese students who went to Europe, and Zhou Paul's place of origin and origin in the materials are unknown, and he should have gone abroad privately.
The two priests who took the boat, Father Wang and Father Ann, are said to be not only able to write beautiful Chinese, but also familiar with English, as a price for returning home for free, they often help the British to do some translation and writing work when they are on the ship. However, because they were familiar with the laws of the Qing Dynasty, they refused magalni's offer and quickly left the mission after setting foot on Chinese soil, and did not participate in the later translation work.
And Li Jacob and Paul Zhou, although they are very familiar with Latin, they are not familiar with English. But at this point, the British had little to do, and in order to find the most suitable translator for this damn person, Staunton had traveled several countries and was already exhausted. Fortunately, Staunton is also familiar with Latin. So it can also be expressed through double translation.
At the same time, in the eyes of the British, these two people are both faithful to God and Chinese, and can only be the most suitable candidates in the helpless.
Thomas Staunton
At that time, there was another figure on the ship who had a major influence on the ship that must be said, that is, Thomas Staunton, the son of Staunton. At that time, he was only 12 years old, very intelligent, never forget, Staundong loved him very much, had high expectations for him, in order to better raise his son, Staundong decided to take him on the ship and go to China to meet the world.
In this way, as the youngest member of this mission, Little Staunton had the privilege of being the full experiencer and participant of this great event in history. Later, he even became an important figure in determining the direction of Sino-British relations. Later, Staunton Street in Central, Hong Kong, was named after him in English.
Later, in the imperial palace in Beijing, qianlong was also quite fond of such a clever and clever foreign child who could speak Chinese in the mission, and personally gave him the purse he had worn for many years. This is a very high grace in the Qing Dynasty. But what the 83-year-old grandfather of Qianlong, who was now sitting on a high dragon chair, did not know that it was this child, who later promoted him to finally promote the outbreak of the Opium War. The Great Qing ruled by his grandson was devastated. Since then, the pattern of the East proudly looking at the West has completely ended, and the East has since been in an absolute disadvantage to the West.
Qianlong received Xiao Stangdong's painting
Back on the boat of the year.
It was a long and difficult voyage, when the mission, from portsmouth, went south through the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, then into the Indian Ocean, and then through the Strait of Malacca to Southeast Asia, and on the way almost lost a ship because of the storm, after a long and arduous journey through three oceans, and finally came to Macau, China. The entire voyage was more than 10,000 kilometers, which took nearly a year.
During the long time on the ship, little Staunton, under the arrangement of his father, followed the four Chinese priests every day, eagerly learning Chinese.
As soon as the convoy arrived in Macau, Father Ann and Father Wang offered to leave. Although Magalni had tried desperately to keep them and made many gestures of goodwill, the two were determined to leave. However, this was to be expected, but to the surprise of the British, Father Paul Chow also changed his mind and was determined to leave. Staunton tried his best to persuade him to stay, but in the end Zhou he resolutely left.
The first reason why he left was because he had left the country without permission, and according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty at that time, he would be severely punished. The second is that, like the two priests, they are afraid of being not tolerated by the Qing Dynasty because they work for foreigners, and from this transformation process, we can guess that the two priests of An Wang must have blown the wind in his ears on the boat on the way.
Thus, in June 1793, when the huge British fleet had just arrived in Macau and had not yet officially started its work, an important translator, Zhou Paul, broke the contract and left.
We can understand the departure of Father Ann and Father Wang, after all, there is no contract signed. Purely two hitchhikers, they left when they wanted to go, and there was nothing to blame. Here we mainly talk about Father Zhou, whether from the moral standards of that time or today's moral standards, it is indeed a bit of a little authentic.
Let's first look at the salary that people gave To Father Zhou at that time, and as soon as the eldest brother got on the boat, it was the standard of 150 pounds a year. Here's how much the pound sterling was worth at the time? We can see that the Duke of Magalney's annual salary at that time was £15,000. This translates to 9 million francs in 1990. Then we can calculate that the annual salary of the week is 90,000 francs in 1990.
What is the concept of 90,000 francs in 1990, you can check it out! I have to say that the British guys of the year were still generous enough!
Zhou tore up the contract, which is indeed an unacceptable behavior in the eyes of Westerners who believe in the spirit of the contract. But the British didn't have much to do. And then the evil consequences came out.
The remaining Father Jacobs was quite contractual and risked his life to agree to stay, mainly because he looked a bit like a foreigner and believed that the mission could keep him safe. But he was Manchu, and Staunton later recalled: "His court language skills were too poor." It should be referred to as his poor literary ability.
But this can not be blamed on Li Yage, who went to Europe when he was only 13 years old, walked for more than 20 years, and returned to China when he returned to China, his childhood memories have been blurred, and his family is still Manchu, and he already has limited knowledge of those obscure literary texts, let alone familiar with the genre of Qing court diplomacy. At the same time, because he left at an early age, Li Jacob also had no experience in the Chinese official arena.
In his recollections, Staunton unceremoniously criticized Li Yage: not only did he not understand the style of writing in the Chinese officialdom, but he could not satisfactorily complete the translation work. He is also not familiar with the way of speaking in the official field, and often understands some polite and euphemistic remarks of other officials as serious commitments of the other party.
According to his recollections, Zhou Paul, who left, was very knowledgeable, not only wrote a good handwriting, but also had a deep foundation in Chinese culture, because his family had been an official for generations, his grandfather and father were both masters, and his official experience was also very rich. It is really a rare and best translator candidate. But unfortunately, Zhou Paul eventually tore up the contract and left the mission for safety, which also cast a shadow over the exchange between the two empires, and finally affected the opportunity for China to embrace the world from one side.
Many years later, I often wondered if Zhou Paul had not left, if he could rely on his profound Chinese skills and rich official experience to help the British mission to move around in this mission, to make good relations with he and many other high-ranking officials such as Hezhen, so that the communication between the two sides would be smoother, and if daqing could understand the outside world more objectively, would it be possible to change the impression of daqing on the outside world?
This result seemed to be very hopeless under the closed arrogance of the Qing Dynasty at that time, but as he yan and others who had a great influence on Qianlong, if they could support it, I believe it was not possible at all, at least the outcome of the incident would not be as unturned as later, and it would fall into a complete and utter stalemate.
If that were the case, then the Qing Dynasty might not have had the Opium War behind it, and would have ushered in an opportunity to take off under the influence of the world's most advanced industrial civilization at that time. If so, what would be the situation with the material and financial resources of the Great Qing? But the lament is that history cannot be assumed, and our descendants can only imagine it here. By the time it was completely awakened and the foreign affairs movement was catching up again, it was already too late.
In the end, history left us with the result that Paul Zhou finally left. During this nearly year-long journey, the only harvest of the British mission was that the 12-year-old Little Staunton quickly learned to speak Chinese and learn Chinese characters quickly with his brilliant intelligence and learning ability, becoming a "translator" of the mission's unexpected gains.
However, Chinese culture is vast and profound, and the written language of the imperial court is the use of the script of the crooked teeth. Even if there are very few Chinese young people who specialize in linguistics today who can really read through, how can Li Jacob translate perfectly? And even if this British child is smart, even if he is a rare language genius, in such a short period of time, we can imagine that it is even more impossible to peek into his doorway.
In this way, when the mission entered China, this huge mission with an important mission could only rely on this Li Jacob and a 12-year-old British child to communicate with China.
In this way, the two superpowers of the Qing Empire and the British Empire met for the first time in such a state. And the regimental commander Magalni could only accept the reality helplessly.
Let's look at the Daqing side.
In fact, although the Qing Dynasty was relatively closed to the outside world, due to the needs of state affairs, there were still foreign affairs institutions that trained translators. For example, in the early Qing Dynasty, the Huitongguan was set up, and there were four translation halls taken over from the Ming Dynasty, which were responsible for tributary diplomacy and translation affairs respectively, but they were mainly used for the tributary countries in the surrounding east. Therefore, these institutions are simply not competent for the foreign affairs of Western countries.
By the beginning of the 18th century, there were more and more negotiations between China and Russia, the Qing court established the Russian Language Museum in 1708, and later merged into the Tongwen Museum in 1862; later in 1729, the translation hall was established, the main purpose was to teach the children of the flag book Latin, the main person was the Manchu Badomin, and the recruitment of students was limited to the flag people, the purpose was to serve as an interpreter in the Sino-Russian negotiations.
The same as the Same Bunken Museum of that year
But then the museum only survived for 15 years, and the students who came out of the museum never performed the job of translator. This is true of the bordering Russia, not to mention Britain, which would be far away. We can also see the short-sightedness of the Qing Dynasty and the ignorance of the outside world. Such a vast empire has not been able to cultivate a diplomatic translator in English.
Therefore, when the Magalhany mission knocked on the door of China, the Qing Dynasty did not have a suitable Chinese translator who was fluent in English and familiar with the British conditions.
In the end, the Chinese side had to appoint a foreign missionary to be the "general leader" in charge of the translation work, and this person Chinese named Sodchao.
Suo Dechao, a Portuguese, Qianlong came to Beijing in twenty-four years, Suo Dechao was a missionary, erudite, not only proficient in astronomy, but also had a deep study of medicine, and at the same time had a set of people, deeply loved and trusted by Qianlong, not only served as the Qin Tianjian supervisor of the Qing court, but also served as Qianlong's favorite minister and personal doctor, died in 1806.
Unfortunately, although Sodchao has been familiar with the diplomatic texts of Chinese in China for many years, he is also unfamiliar with English and familiar with Latin, so the two sides can only use third-party languages as intermediaries to build this bridge of communication between the two. In this process, the workload of translation between the two sides is extremely increased, not to mention, and errors are often made.
Friends familiar with the complexity of the language-to-language transition should know that after Staunton's inspection of Lee Jacob, he thought that he was "fully competent in translating between his native language and Latin", but the facts later proved that his evaluation was too optimistic.
And another point, Soderchao is Portuguese. As mentioned earlier, this was also one of the countries that the British tried to avoid when they were looking for a translator. The Portuguese was also the chief translator, not only responsible for the translation work, but even the reception of the mission, and most fatally, the Portuguese was also hostile to the British.
Before Magalney met with Soderchao, he knew Sodchao's attitude towards the British from another French missionary, and in order to get rid of the chief translator, Magalney deliberately used French and English when communicating with Sodchao, in order to make the Portuguese unable to complete the translation work, and then achieve the result of replacing the Qing court.
However, Soderchao was deeply trusted by the Chinese emperor, and Magalni's small abacus was all empty, and when Qianlong received Magalni at Rehe, Soderchao was appointed to be responsible for all the reception work. In the Qing court archives left later, it is also recorded that Soodchao's important position in the entire mission visit was also recorded. For example, the archives of the Qing Military Aircraft Department that remained recorded that the national letter submitted by Magalni was translated by Soderchao, and even qianlong's later holy will to the British king was translated by him. Not only that, but he is also responsible for checking the accuracy of the translation of other people's documents in the translation team.
Such an important position was thus given to a Portuguese who was hostile to the British, and the result we can imagine. Perhaps out of hostility to the British, he hoped to disgrace the British. Perhaps under the years of experience in the Chinese officialdom, deeply familiar with the rules of the Chinese officialdom, the national letter submitted by Magalni was translated by Soderchao in an extremely flattering and humble tone.
For example, there are a few sentences in the internet that are explained in vernacular, excerpted as follows:
On behalf of Great Britain, Ireland and India, I, George III, wish long live the Great Emperor of China. Only you deserve to rule the world for thousands of years. I know that China's place is too big, there are many people in charge, the emperor you worry about the world's major affairs, not only China, even foreign countries, you want you to protect, these countries are satisfied, the emperor you are too worried. Nowadays, all countries in the world say that there is only one place in the world ruled by the great emperor of China, the system is more perfect, and everyone is convinced and praised, so I am more and more fascinated. Emperor, this year is your eightieth birthday, and I offer you a tribute, hoping that you will sympathize with us.
Speechless, this does not look like a state document, but more like a poor little state crawling in front of the court begging for submission. Seeing a lot of online information that this is George III's original words, it is pure nonsense. Yes, in order for this visit to be smooth, the tone of the British is more humble, but it is definitely not humble, in fact, the real version of the English national book was completed under the guidance of George III himself, the wording is very rigorous and rational, and there is no humility to such a point.
We can also see the admonition of the British Interior Minister TunDas to Magalni before the mission departed: "When you arrive, you must respect the etiquette of the Chinese court, but do it, neither by the small matters of etiquette, nor by damaging the dignity of your own monarch."
So this is the real attitude and bottom line of the British. Therefore, we can believe that this translated national letter should be Done by Sodchao. Perhaps out of hostility to the British, deliberately laying a fuse to create a gap between the two sides, or perhaps for the benefit of Portugal, did not want one more trade competitor. Of course, we can only guess that although there is certainly a reverence for imperial power, I believe that Soderchao does not want the two sides to succeed in negotiations. At least, as such an important position, he was completely capable of creating some trouble.
Therefore, this translated "national letter" made Qianlong read it and the dragon was overjoyed, and he decided to receive the mission at Rehe. Even the British had previously let him go because they refused to "kneel three times and knock nine times". But whoever ever wanted to meet, the other party's attitude was completely different, just because the difference between the gifts in the national book was "tribute" or "gift" did not budge. A completely equal posture with me made the old man extremely disappointed.
So we can understand that in the face of such a huge psychological gap. It definitely affected the old man's later emotions. In the subsequent negotiations, in Magalni's request for negotiations, in fact, except for one of the islands allocated to Zhoushan for the British to live and damage China's sovereignty, the other terms were objectively reasonable conditions under equal trade.
Besides, since ancient times, negotiations have been all about asking for prices and paying back money on the spot. Even if it doesn't work, we can negotiate with each other. However, Qianlong, who was in a displeased mood, left no room for negotiation at all, coupled with my mentality of being rich in heaven and the world, so he directly refused with a wave of his big hand and categorically closed the door to negotiations.
Afterwards, all the officials praised His Majesty for his wisdom, not only teaching the "small state" a lesson, but also safeguarding the dignity of the Heavenly Dynasty. The sound of clapping horses continues. Throughout the Qing Dynasty, because of the arrogance caused by the closure and the limitations of the times caused by the closure, no one realized that the Qing Dynasty had lost an opportunity to take off. It's a pity.
Personally, I have always liked Yue Guan's book "Back to the Ming Dynasty as a Prince", because it is the protagonist's crossing that brings advanced and open ideas and ideas to that backward era, and finally makes China a great empire that is proud of the world, satisfying all the crooked fantasies in his heart. But unfortunately, this can only be a conjecture, and history has not developed in this way.
However, at that time, there was actually a person who understood, that is, the military minister Song Jun, who knew that it was beneficial and harmless for the two sides to open trade with each other, and promoting trade would eventually increase taxes and prosperity for the Qing Dynasty, which was a win-win treaty. However, the imperial court had already made up its mind, and Song Yun could not do anything about it, but regretted it. When Magani left, it was Songjun who was ordered to accompany him, and in Magalni's last days in China, Songjun not only accompanied and comforted, but also expressed countless sympathies and regrets.
Matsumi
Returning to the translation, as for the holy will to the King translated by Soodchao, today it has been quietly lying in the British Museum for countless future generations to see. But unfortunately, its main role is to become the laughing stock of tourists. We can see that in this "holy will" descended on the king, Qianlong's tone is even more surprising, and the beginning is: "Reading the expression, the meaning of the words is earnest, and the sincerity of the king is seen, which is deeply praised." ”
In this short text of more than 900 words, nearly half of the content is tirelessly showing the wealth and generosity and benevolence of the Heavenly Dynasty, and the grandeur of the arrogance, expressing the "unreasonableness" of the other party, and still giving the British the right to trade in Guangzhou, which is already a great "gift", but I hope that the other party will "learn from it". In the whole divine decree, we see a scene of a parent teaching a child and a teacher reprimanding a student.
However, what Qianlong did not know, or that the whole Qing Dynasty did not know at that time, was that the British Empire at this moment was already an empire that was enough to sit on an equal footing with the Qing Dynasty, and its national strength and civilization were even far beyond the Qing Dynasty. The arrogance of this. The closed ignorance in this makes our descendants look at it today with great shame, and indeed can only become the laughing stock of others.
Qianlong's holy will to the King
Since the information is difficult to find, it is not known whether this holy will is completely Qianlong's meaning, or whether Suodchao has added some oil and vinegar to it. It is said that the King of England at that time could not help but laugh when he saw it on the spot. However, we can analyze that from the perspective of Qianlong's ruling performance, it has always been relatively rational, especially in terms of major state affairs.
For example, during the conquest of Burma, the Qing army suffered heavy losses, and even several leading generals were killed in battle, and the two governors of Yungui committed suicide, but in the end, when the Burmese king begged, Qianlong was able to suppress this evil breath and crown him as the king of Burma, and since then the two countries have never exchanged troops. When an ann nam was conquered, in the face of Nguyen Hue, an Annam rebel general, and caused a large number of Casualties of the Qing Army, it was reasonable that it should not be supported. But in the end, under the judgment of the situation, Qianlong was also able to let him go and support him instead.
Therefore, Qianlong is still quite measured in dealing with major state affairs, and the scale is also very good. Treat small, poor and small countries such as Burma and Annan so rationally, let alone Britain, which has been so generous and has come from afar. We can also see that even after the failure of the negotiations, Qianlong still gave relatively high treatment and respect to the British mission, and personally assigned the military minister Song Junxiang to send it when the Magalni mission returned home. It shows that he is still more measured in foreign etiquette.
Therefore, people have to wonder whether this "national book" with an arrogant tone and full of contemptuous words is not qianlong's meaning at all? Or how many are the real expressions of Qianlong's meaning? Or did Soderchao carry some "bootleg goods" in it because of personal factors? It is indeed a mystery. But the lament is that today, we can only guess and guess.
But in any case, the final outcome of the visit is already there. Later, Magalni, accompanied by Song Jun, finally left the country from Guangzhou, and after returning to China, he wrote a lot of memories about the matter with the people in the mission, which became a valuable material for Westerners to study and understand China. In summarizing the reasons for the failure of the visit, he also regrettably admitted that the low level of translation was one of the important factors.
In this way, the failure of the Magalney Mission's visit to China deprived China of a timely opportunity to contact The Civilization of the Western World, and also allowed the Qing Empire to be completely left behind by the West. The saddest of these was that at the same time, Magalni thoroughly saw through the backwardness and weakness behind the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty, and in his later memories he made a classic and vivid summary of it: "The Qing Dynasty is like a dilapidated first-class warship."
Magalney was right, and only a few decades later, when the British returned, the proud empire was already vulnerable.
In the course of this great event that has had a profound impact on our history, what we see is one of the most critical fatal crux of the final outcome of the Qing Dynasty: closure. It is precisely because of the closure that even the small diplomatic problem of translation has become a major problem that ultimately affects the fortunes of the country. It is precisely because of the closure. This led to the later overall backwardness. Backwardness can only be beaten, which is an indisputable truth that history has told us countless times.
And more importantly, please don't think it's just a historical story! I hope that in the hereafter we will always be vigilant!!