At that time, it was completely normal for scholars and emperors not to attach importance to the book "Chart of the Sea Kingdom".
The Atlas of the Sea Kingdom is a book compiled by Wei Yuan at the behest of Lin Zexu, which is based on the nearly 90,000-word "Four Continents Chronicle" compiled by Lin Zexu, expanding other documents collected at that time and some papers written by Wei Yuan himself, and by the second year of Xianfeng, it was expanded into one hundred volumes. In the past, whenever we mentioned the "Atlas of the Sea Country" in history textbooks, we would mention "mastering the art of mastering the art to control the yi." Indeed, the "Atlas of the Sea Country" describes in detail the world geography and the historical political system, customs and customs of various countries, advocates learning from Western science and technology, and also puts forward a set of national salvation strategies centered on "mastering the art of mastering the art of mastering the art of the master and controlling the yi" as the center.
However, if we carefully read the "Atlas of the Sea Country", we will find that this book is more like a compilation of materials.
The first half of the "Chart of the Sea Kingdom" is to introduce the situation in the West, the second half is "Shi Yi long skill to control Yi", and the second half is also the most valued by people today, especially the contents of volumes 84 to 95. This part of the content is compiled by Wei Yuan, and the authors include Westerners, magistrates, central officials, local supervisors, etc., mainly talking about Western ships and artillery, including warships, steamship casting cannon models, bombs, artillery surveys, forts, guns (guns), mines, etc., almost all of which are "long skills" in Western military artifacts. Wei Yuan believed that "Yi Zhi's long skills are three: one battleship, two firearms, and three methods of training troops." However, through the "Atlas of the Sea Country", most of the long skills contained in it are battleships and firearms, and there are very few methods for raising troops and training troops.
Wei Yuan put forward the slogan of "Shiyi Long Skill to Control Yi" in the book, but if we push our eyes further, we will find that the Qing Dynasty has actually been "Shi Yi Long Skill to Control Yi".
For example, artillery. Before the Manchus entered the customs, they learned the firearms of the Koreans and the Ming Army, and after the Manchus entered the Central Plains, they also learned the firearms of the Central Asians and the Russians, and the more famous flowering cannons and watermelon cannons were learned from Russia. Speaking of warships, if you know the Qing Dynasty's marine divisions, people know that the Qing Dynasty's sailor warships have a process of evolution, but also a process of learning from the Yi people or pirates, Dr. Qi Lei, who specifically examined the evolution of the Qing Dynasty's naval divisions before the Opium War, once pointed out that the internal logic of the evolution of the naval division warships: "The successive construction of the naval division warships is based on the enemy warships as imitation objects, and its purpose is to make up for the gap in weapons with the enemy in a short period of time and change the passive situation on the battlefield. That is to say, before the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty had always been in the Shiyi long skill, "Shiyi long skill to control Yi" is not new, (but it just so happens that this "Yi" is the advanced industrial country in the West, England rather than the fan state under the imperial court system) Therefore, it is also normal that the book "Chart of the Sea Country" was not valued by the people at that time after Wei Yuan compiled it.
However, the author does not mean to deny Wei Yuan and the Chart of the Sea Kingdom. In fact, Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan were willing to understand the Yingyi at that time, willing to understand the world outside of China, which was already very good at that time.
bibliography:
Qi Lei, "The Evolution of Qing Dynasty Sailor Warships Before the Opium War", Historical Archives, No. 1, 2018.