There is a kind of inheritance called the poison of the dynastic system, and there is a poison called the closed country under the tributary system, which should be said to be quite accurate in the era of the Qing Dynasty, which is both far and near.
In people's minds, the Great Qing Dynasty is synonymous with a closed country. Since the Opium War, those who have been repeatedly passively beaten, signed unequal treaties, and both cut up land and paid compensation have lost all their face. In the eyes of many people, this is the Qing Emperor's closed country and insistence on feudal etiquette, which has created the fall of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, the Qing Emperor was also very aggrieved about this issue.
This is not the case, and the seclusion was not the invention of the Qing emperors. Although it is said that from the time of the Shunzhi Emperor, in order to isolate the people of the southeast coastal provinces and Zheng Chenggong's anti-Qing activities, the sea ban was regarded as a "solid wall and clear field" type action. In order to consolidate his power, the Shunzhi Emperor issued a ban on the sea in 1656. Merchants were required not to go to the sea privately, and not to trade grain and goods with thieves. Violators, beheadings, goods charged.
The qing dynasty's policy of banning the sea caused a conflict between the government and the people
Later, Zheng Chenggong expelled the Dutch colonists in Taiwan from Xiamen and established an anti-Qing regime here, and the Shunzhi Emperor further strengthened the ban on the sea. Since then, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty has begun a policy of closing the country to the outside world. In fact, the Qing Dynasty's policy of sea prohibition basically continued the situation during the Ming Dynasty and the tributary system of successive dynasties. It should be said that the Qing Dynasty was the connector of tribute and feudal etiquette in Chinese history.
During the Ming Dynasty, the main people who demanded trade with China were Portugal and Spain, and even the East India Company came to the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, their demand for trade is of a powerful nature.
Let's talk about Spain at that time, it was the first Western country to contact China. Spain's contact with China began in 1514, the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty, when the Portuguese came to Tuen Mun, Guangdong Province, on merchant ships, asking for trade and commerce, but the Ming Dynasty did not agree. After three years, the Portuguese came to China on a merchant ship, and this time the Portuguese were still known as tributes and trade. But the way of behavior surprised Zhu Houzhao, who was already very personal. When Portuguese merchant ships entered the waters of Dongguan, Guangdong, they launched artillery. In the words of Gu Yanwu, the great Confucian of the late Ming Dynasty, "The cannon is fierce and terrifying." [1]
Shunzhi Emperor
After Qin Shi Huang unified China, he fixed this system even more. However, after Qin Shi Huang unified China, he developed this system into the handling of China's relations with neighboring countries and tribes. In the two Han Dynasties, this form was enriched and developed. In the Han Dynasty's Huainan Zi (original teachings), it is said: "Overseas Binfu, Siyi Na Duty." This is the story of Yu that shows that the Han Dynasty's use of enders made the Foreign Yi have a sense of identification with the tributary system of ancient China, which caused them to come to pay tribute. By the Sui and Tang dynasties, this tributary system developed more actively. During the reign of the Sui Dynasty, he once sent troops to conquer Linyi, and in order to show the orthodoxy of the Sui Dynasty as the Central Plains Dynasty, the Sui Emperor even sent emissaries to the countries of Chitu, Chenla, and Boli to preach the broadness and kindness of Middle-earth and attract the southeast coastal countries to pay tribute.
Stage plays that embodied the tributary system during the Ming and Qing dynasties
What kind of situation was the tributary system of the Tang Dynasty, we all know that it was a very prosperous and powerful period in Chinese history. To use a saying, the rich have distant relatives in the mountains, let alone the rich and powerful Tang Dynasty? Moreover, in the tang dynasty in the life of Li Shimin, he paid attention to opening up to the outside world and strengthened exchanges and contacts with other countries in the world, which made it so that "after the Tang Dynasty Zhenguan, the sound religion was far away, and since ancient times, it has been retranslated by those who have not understood it, and there are more than Liang and Sui Yan." [2] Needless to say, the Prosperous Tang Dynasty was like a rich man who had accumulated great wealth, with many friends and relatives, and even countries that had not paid tribute to China in history competed to establish tribute relations in China.
During the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the tributary system was continuously enriched and improved. On the basis of the Tang Dynasty's management of tributary affairs and the establishment of a special "Hongxu Temple", the Song Dynasty also set up a "Laiyuanyi" similar to the guest house for foreign guests along the coast; Yuan Dynasty China was a dynasty with a vast territory, spanning Europe and Asia, and flourished for a time, coupled with the fact that the Yuan Dynasty ancestors attached great importance to opening up to the outside world, and the perfect tributary system was an important measure to attract neighboring countries to establish relations, in order to attract neighboring countries to establish tributary relations with China. Yuan Shizu issued such an edict to the magistrates of the southeast coast, "Those who live in the southeastern islands of the various kingdoms have the heart of righteousness, but because the people of the country have declared their will, they can come to the dynasty, and they will be favored, and their exchanges with the city will be whatever they want." ”[3]
Portuguese merchant ships sailing in Chinese waters in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties
This edict of the Yuan Dynasty ancestors is very clear, requiring southeastern countries to come to pay tribute. At that time, the Son of Heaven will give grace and allow trade between the two markets, and this edict also shows that the Yuan Dynasty ancestors hope to reflect the Yuan Dynasty's status as a heavenly kingdom through the tributes of various countries. For those who provoked this supremacy, Yuan Shizu also said that he would crack down and punish him. Yuan Shizu's will to welcome the "coming to the dynasty" and allowing free mutual markets really attracted Southeast Asian countries to pay tribute, and successively sent envoys from Ma Ba'er, Julan, Java and other countries to come to the Yuan, and carried out frequent diplomatic activities with the Yuan Dynasty.
It can also be seen from the edicts of the Yuan Dynasty that the tributary system of the feudal dynasty and the tributary trade system are accompanied. Before the Yuan Dynasty, there were two main types of foreign trade, one was the non-governmental mutual market trade, and the other was the tribute trade, both of which had a certain political color. Relations between the two countries can be said to be a barometer of tributary trade. When the tributary relationship was good, trade was strengthened, and when the tributary relationship was not good, trade also stagnated, which should be a retreat, but the retreat at that time was not as complete as the closed country in the complete sense of the later Qing Dynasty. For example, in the Song Dynasty, the retreat ban was targeted. During the time of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, due to his decay and absurdity, society was already very chaotic, and foreign insults were a hundred times greater than before. In order to stabilize the Jiangshan, he proposed the prohibition of "forbidding the smuggling of private goods and adulterers to go to the sea"; in the Southern Song Dynasty, the national strength and territory were even worse than before, and the Southern Song Dynasty, in order to prevent foreign invasion and stabilize the Jiangshan, even proposed a ban on foreign trade "prohibiting the sale of gold and silver" and prohibiting the outflow of copper and metal. It seems that foreign trade is carried out on the basis of maintaining the status of the Heavenly Dynasty.
The Thirteen Lines Of Treaty Port in Guangzhou during the Qing Dynasty by European painters
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the national strength was strong, the tributary system and foreign trade were strengthened, and at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was a diplomatic event led by zheng he, a eunuch of the Three Treasures, who led a fleet of ships to the West seven times. At that time, the Western Ocean referred to the present-day South China Sea and the Indian Ocean. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, foreign trade also had two kinds of trade: mutual market trade and tribute trade. What needs to be explained here is that most of the tributary system before this was based on the relationship between the clan and the clan, because at that time, China did not have large-scale relations with the West, but only established relations with neighboring countries, and the tributary system was a form of expression of the clan relationship. Since China's dynasties have surpassed neighboring countries in terms of national strength, culture and economy, they have established relations with these countries, and China has always regarded itself as a "heavenly kingdom". Moreover, many Asian countries at that time also hoped to be protected by China in order to avoid being invaded by other countries. In this way, the Nagan established relations, and the relationship between the protectorate and the protected clan was established with the implementation of the tributary system.
After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, this clan relationship, which took the form of the tributary system, was gradually broken. The development of industrialization in Western countries has made them eager to expand into Asia, looking for new markets and raw material supply sources. Even as they expand into China and use China as their base for plunder, this new trend has gradually lost China's dominance in its neighboring countries. However, in this process of transformation, the feudal rulers did not agree, still regarded themselves as the upper country, and even adopted a policy of closing the door to the West, so that contradictions and conflicts between China and the West inevitably occurred, so that the Opium War later occurred.
Thirteen lines from the Qing Dynasty
Speaking of which, we still have to go back to the time of Emperor Zhu Houzhao of the Ming Dynasty. In 1517, when the Portuguese demanded trade and commerce in the name of tribute, it was both shelling and luring. The young emperor, who was obsessed with female color and did not like the government, was very resolute at this moment, and he refused on the grounds that there was no tribute between China and Portugal. Needless to say, Zhu Houzhao was going to close the door to the Portuguese, but the Portuguese were not willing, and simply engaged in pirate activities and plundered everywhere in the Guangdong sea frontier. Such a move, Zhu Houzhao, who has a lot of personality, of course had to react, so he sent troops to recruit. This side of the conquest, but the Portuguese over there played a game of "hide-and-seek" with the Ming Dynasty army. When the Ming army arrived in Guangdong, the Portuguese ran to Zhejiang; when the Ming army came to Zhejiang, the Portuguese ran to Fujian. Later, the Portuguese simply colluded with Japanese pirates, which became a major hidden danger in the southeastern sea frontier of the Ming Dynasty. In 1553, the thirty-second year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty, the Portuguese finally broke through the customs ban of the Ming Dynasty, and they forcibly rented Macau under the pretext of "the boat touches the wind and the waves, and they are willing to borrow the haojing (Macao) to storm the waters and pay tribute". Macau, China, became the forefront of their colonial aggression, and later developed into a bridgehead for Western trade with China.
Spain was also a great power at the time, and it saw that the Portuguese had gained benefits, forcibly rented Macau, and in 1575 also demanded trade with China. At first, Spain's request, the Fujian magistrate agreed, allowing them to come to Fujian to trade with each other. However, the Spanish colonial authorities, which had already occupied the Philippines at that time, did not allow Chinese merchant ships to travel to the Philippines and massacred Chinese expatriates in the Philippines. The Ming government, out of war against Spain, had to suspend the Fujian inter-market trade. The Spaniards were not satisfied with this move, and in 1598 they made a request for mutual trade in Guangdong, which was rejected by the Guangdong authorities. Later, the Spaniards simply built their own houses in Guangdong Tiger Jumping Gate, did not go to live in groups, and were driven away by the Ming Army before leaving. In this way, China's trade relations with Spain also came to a standstill.
The East India Company's opium warehouse
After Spain, the Netherlands also made a request for trade and commerce with China. At that time, the Netherlands was known as the overlord of the seas, but the Dutch trade requirements were also a bit coercive. It also came in a big boat with a huge cannon. Later, the Dutch army invaded the mainland Penghu, invaded Gulangyu Island, and illegally occupied Taiwan, and was expelled by Zheng Chenggong before leaving.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Britain also demanded trade with China, at which time Britain had replaced the Dutch as maritime hegemony. But its trade demands with China are no different from those of force. In 1637, an armed British merchant ship came to China and asked for trade and commerce. After the British merchant ships entered Guangdong, they fired artillery shells at the Guangdong Fort, "seizing it, burning the official office, and intercepting the merchant boat two and the small boat one." [4] The Ming army was forced to return fire and repelled the British invasion, and trade and commerce were rejected.
Judging from the situation in which these countries threatened to trade and trade with China by force, the Western countries demanded the import of goods into China by force, and china's feudal dynasty had to guard against this kind of aggression, and the closure became a means. Especially after Shunzhi entered the customs, on the one hand, he had to guard against the anti-Qing forces along the domestic coast, and on the other hand, he had to resist the colonial trade of the West, so he expanded the closed policy.
Zheng He went to Western painting
During the Kangxi Dynasty, Zheng Keshuang, the grandson of Zheng Chenggong, who dominated Taiwan, descended to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty's most troublesome confidant was the collapse of the anti-Qing regime in Taiwan. If we still insist on the prohibition of "anti-thieves", such a reason is already very far-fetched. Moreover, after decades of civil rule and martial arts, the Kangxi Emperor's comprehensive national strength was also constantly strengthening, and he was fully equipped to resist foreign insults. The Kangxi Emperor officially opened the sea ban in response to the situation and set up four customs offices in Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Jianghai (Yuntai Mountain, Jiangsu). As soon as the sea ban was lifted, trade between China and the West began to become frequent.
The Kangxi Emperor opened the sea ban and enlivened foreign trade. So when the Qianlong Emperor was in power, why did he shut up again? Since Qianlong succeeded to the throne, although it is still known as a prosperous world, its national strength is no longer the same as that of the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties, showing a trend of declining rivers and rivers. In Qianlong's later years, he flaunted his exploits everywhere with a good face, and patched together the "Ten Complete Martial Arts" to decorate the façade of the prosperous world. His act of great achievement and pursuit of false fame not only wasted a lot of national wealth, but also aggravated the corruption of the imperial court officials. It can be said that the officials at that time were corrupt and greedy, which is no exaggeration. Officials engage in fraud for personal gain and bribe public officials. The army is also a fly camp dog, corruption is rampant, resulting in the collapse of armaments. Whether it was the Eight Banners or the Green Battalion, they did not practice diligently and were wasted on martial arts, which made the army lose its combat effectiveness. In this case, the Qianlong Emperor, who had been immersed in the false prosperity of "singing and dancing" for a long time, of course knew, let's talk about the corruption of the gentry, he knew very well in his heart, and the gentleman had become a heinous and corrupt official under his protection, but the good face and vanity psychology made him reluctant to open the lid.
Merchant ships of the British East India Company
With the fortunes of the Qing Dynasty and the rapid changes in the industrialization of the West, the Qianlong Emperor could not have been ignorant. The impact of the modernization development from the West on the consciousness of traditional small farmers in China should also be aware of it. However, instead of actively studying and absorbing advanced Western science and technology, he used the closed country as a means to avoid this threat. Since then, the Qianlong Emperor, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng, and Tongzhi Emperors have all adopted an established policy of closing off the country, which not only imprisoned people's minds, but also caused a retrogression in Sino-foreign trade, but also a great retrogression in Chinese civilization.
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It was rewritten according to the work "Seventy Years of Diplomacy in the Late Qing Dynasty". For details, see "Seventy Years of Diplomacy in the Late Qing Dynasty".
[1] Shen Weibin, Nineteen Years of Daoguang: From Smoking Ban to War, East China Normal University Press, 2014, p. 69.
[2] General Classics, vol. 188, Preface to Hainan, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1984.
[3] Song Lian et al.: History of the Yuan, vol. 10, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1976.
[4] Xia Xie: Chronicle of China and the West, Vol. 1, Photocopy of The Beginning of Tongfan, No. 16, published by Wenhai Publishing House.
[5] Shen Weibin, Nineteen Years of Daoguang: From Smoking Ban to War, East China Normal University Press, 2014, p. 81.