Author 丨 Jiang Haicheng
Edited by 丨 Dahua
Produced 丨 Automan Media
In recent years, the mainland automobile industry has developed rapidly, and since 2009, China's automobile sales surpassed the United States to become the world's largest automobile market, and it has maintained the first place in global automobile production and sales for 13 consecutive years.
Looking back, if the Chinese auto industry is likened to a trickle from scratch, it will converge into a surging and unstoppable current of today's annual production and sales leading the world's "number one automobile power". So, where did the source of China's automobile come from?
1
The first car introduced to China
Automobiles are not Chinese inventions. For China, it is purely "imported".
After the Sino-British Opium War in 1840, with the invasion of bandits, the scientific and technological achievements of Western civilization were also imported into China. such as:
In 1846, the Frenchman Jules Ittier brought photography to Beijing, and since then the camera has been introduced to China;
In 1865, the British laid 500 meters of track along the moat outside the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing, and since then the train has been introduced to China;
In 1871, the Danish Great East Telegraph Company laid submarine cables to Shanghai, and since then the telegraph has been introduced to China;
In 1877, the American Bell Company was established in Shanghai, and since then the telephone has been transmitted to China;
In 1878, yuan shikai installed tap water in the Tianjin Governor's Palace in order to prevent fire, and since then tap water has been introduced to China;
In 1878, the Englishman Hurd asked the Guangxu Emperor to establish a post office, and since then the postal service has been introduced to China;
In 1880, Shanghai took the lead in adopting electric lamp lighting in the country, and since then electric lamps have been introduced to China;
In 1901, American missionaries used phonographs in Shanghai teaching, and since then phonographs have been introduced to China...
In 1886, in the small german city of Mannheim, engineers Karl Benz mounted a 0.8-horsepower, 250 rpm, single-cylinder four-stroke small gasoline internal combustion engine on a large tricycle and reached speeds of 15 kilometers per hour. For this purpose, Benz Engineers applied for a patent.
On 29 January 1886, the Mannheim Patent Office issued him a patent certificate for the invention (No. 37435). Since then, the world's first three-wheeled car with an internal combustion engine was born.
Interestingly, that same year, another German engineer, Gottlieb Daimler, installed a 1.1-horsepower, 900 rpm gasoline internal combustion engine on a four-wheeler, thus inventing the world's first four-wheeled car powered by an internal combustion engine.
In order to commemorate the immortal deeds of the two engineers, posterity was honored as the "Father of Modern Automobile". Since then, the automobile has been born in the world, and human land transportation has bid farewell to the "carriage era" and jumped into a new "automobile era".
According to the "History of China's Automobile Industry" and my own research: the first car introduced into the Chinese mainland can be verified from the end of 1901 to the beginning of 1902.
At the end of 1901, a Hungarian businessman, Leinz, transported american-made Osmobile cars from Hong Kong to Shanghai.
On January 30, 1902, at the regular meeting of the Ministry of Works of the Shanghai Public Concession, after discussion, it was decided to issue a "temporary license", pay two silver dollars per month, and allow driving on the right side of the street.
Since then, Chinese have seen the appearance of a car for the first time in the world. At the same time, it also shows that the car was introduced to China 15 years after its birth. It can be said that this is the "source of China's automobile" that has been well documented so far.
2
Empress Dowager Cixi's royal car
In the process of clarifying the source of Chinese cars and clarifying the "first car introduced to China", there have been different views for a long time.
Some people believe that the "Mercedes-Benz brand car presented by Yuan Shikai, a heavy minister of the late Qing Dynasty at the 60th birthday of Cixi", which is collected in the Summer Palace in Beijing today, should be the earliest car introduced to China.
Answer: No!
Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the following three issues regarding the royal car used by Empress Dowager Cixi:
Question 1: Is cixi royal car a Mercedes-Benz brand?
Question 2: Did Yuan Shikai present this car at cixi's 60th birthday celebration?
Question 3: Is the Cixi Royal Automobile "the first car introduced to China"?
Question 1:
Is cixi royal car a Mercedes-Benz brand?
Some people said: "The tribute car that Yuan Shikai presented to Empress Dowager Cixi was a Mercedes-Benz brand car made in Germany."
However, until today, no one has ever found the Mercedes-Benz logo on the body, but I found the word "DURYEA" in English on the body in 2000. After research, it can be confirmed that the car is a "Tulia" brand car made in the United States.
Jiang Haicheng (Author)
In order to verify the Tulia brand, I specially invited Mr. Xu Guozhen, the CEO of Ford Motor Company in China, to review the archives from the United States.
It follows from this that the Tulia brand car is a product of the Tulia Automobile and Spring Company in Massachusetts, USA. The company was the oldest car company in the United States and built cars three times:
First: In 1893, in Chicopee, designed and built by the brothers E. Charles and J. Frank, the first car ever built in American history (now in the collection of the National Museum of America). Obviously, the car still exists in the United States and cannot be in China.
The second time: In 1895, it was manufactured by J. Frank and personally drove it to the Thanksgiving Day National Automobile Race that year, and won the first place. It is conceivable that the car could not have come to China to attend the 60th birthday celebration of Empress Dowager Cixi held in 1894.
Third time: In 1896, E. Charles formally formed the Tulia Automobile Company and assembled 13 Tulia cars of the same model.
In 1898, Charles and the Frankish brothers had a dispute and the company was dissolved, and the production of the Turia brand car was terminated.
In view of the above circumstances, it is entirely reasonable to prove that the existing royal car of the Empress Dowager Cixi in the Summer Palace is a Tulia brand car manufactured by the American Tulia Automobile Company in 1896.
In addition, the German Mercedes-Benz Automobile Company has never publicly confirmed that the car is a product of the company.
In 2013, the German Mercedes-Benz Automobile Company held a grand "Mercedes-Benz 100th Anniversary Commemorative Meeting in China" in Beijing, publicly stating that Mercedes-Benz brand cars began to enter China in 1913. According to this, it is proved that the tribute car accepted by Cixi in 1894 was not a "Mercedes-Benz brand" car.
Question 2:
Was Yuan Shikai presenting this car at Cixi's 60th birthday celebration?
According to historical records, the word "Cixi" is neither her name nor her surname, but when her six-year-old son Zaichun Tongzhi Ascended the throne and succeeded to the throne, she was named empress dowager.
Empress Dowager Cixi was a Manchu, surnamed Yehenara, full name Yehenara Xingzhen, originally from Manchuria Yehe Blue Banner (present-day Siping, Jilin Province), born on the tenth day of the first month of the fifteenth year of Daoguang in the Qing Dynasty (November 9, 1835 AD), and belonged to the sheep.
According to this calculation, Cixi's sixtieth birthday should be the 20th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (November 9, 1894).
However, the wish of "Lafayette" to organize a grand birthday ceremony in this year did not come true. Recall that on his fortieth birthday in 1874, the Sino-French War broke out; on his fiftieth birthday in 1884, his son, the Tongzhi Emperor, died young due to smallpox. I wanted to hold a grand and luxurious birthday ceremony on the occasion of my sixtieth birthday in 1894, but unexpectedly the Sino-Japanese "Sino-Japanese War" broke out.
The Qing army on the front line was gradually defeated, and on the birthday day, the Japanese army captured Dalian. Under the strong pressure of national public opinion, Empress Dowager Cixi was forced to change the birthday ceremony originally planned to be held in the newly completed Summer Palace to be held in the Forbidden City Palace.
Throughout Cixi's life, there are two major characteristics: one is the vigorous pursuit of power in politics; the other is the vigorous pursuit of enjoyment in the rule of life.
In order to emulate the 60th birthday ceremony of the Kangxi Emperor and the 80th birthday ceremony of the Qianlong Emperor's mother, he dared to brave the world's great disobedience, and did not hesitate to disregard the security of the country in the rumbling cannon of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, and insisted on embezzling 5.4 million taels of silver from the navy funds to build a large number of construction projects at the site of the Qianlong Emperor's Qingyi Garden and build a 290-hectare Summer Palace covering an area of 7 years.
The huge project was hastily completed in 1893, and it is a garden of office, residence, excursion, entertainment, and leisure, which is the palace of this majestic old woman. Because she lives here every spring, summer and autumn, it is also called her "summer palace". A grand and lavish birthday ceremony was held here five times in total.
Because Cixi automobile is a Tulia brand, manufactured in 1896, it is now connected with the five birthday celebrations of the Summer Palace:
On the 60th birthday of Cixi in 1894, the car had not yet been built, so it was impossible to present it.
On cixi's 63rd birthday in 1897, although the car had been built, there was no conclusive evidence that the car had come to China.
In 1902, the "Xinugu Treaty" was signed, and Cixi also returned to Beijing, and had the conditions to operate the birthday ceremony, so at the 68th birthday ceremony, Yuan Shikai accepted Yuan Shikai's car.
Question Three:
Was the Cixi Royal Automobile "the first car introduced to China"?
After clarifying the brand and presentation time of the empress dowager Cixi's royal car, it is no longer difficult to clarify whether it is "the first car introduced to China". Here's why:
Empress Dowager Cixi accepted Yuan Shikai's car presentation on the tenth day of the first month of October in the 28th year of Guangxu (November 9, 1902).
As mentioned above, the Hungarian Lee Enshi had transported two cars from Hong Kong to Shanghai on January 30, 1902, and received a driving license to drive on the streets of Shanghai.
The 283-day difference between January 30, 1902 and November 9, 1902, was not "the first car introduced to China" by Empress Dowager Cixi.
epilogue:
The Chinese nation has always had a long history and a splendid civilization, which is admired by the whole world.
According to historical records and the examination of excavated cultural relics, it is proved that as far back as the Xia Yu era 4,000 years ago, primitive "cars" had appeared in the land of China.
Nowadays, in the archaeological excavation of Xuecheng in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, the remains of the originator of the car, Xi Zhong, the doctor of the Xia Dynasty, have been obtained.
In addition, in the car and horse pits excavated in Shandong Province, Henan Province, Shanxi Province, Shaanxi Province and other places, a large number of ancient car cultural relics have been obtained many times, and China deserves to be called "the motherland of cars".
Invented in the Han Dynasty, the Jili drum car and the guide car invented in the Wei State in the Three Kingdoms Era show the car-making talent of The descendants of Huaxia.
And the Qin Shi Huang copper car horse unearthed in Yichuan County, Shaanxi Province, its superb car-making talent shocked the world! Today, China has reason to announce to the world that its ancient inventions should not omit its "fifth major invention" - "car civilization"!
It has been more than 4,000 years since the advent of the carriage, and 135 years since the advent of the automobile.
It should not be forgotten that in the long history of human society, horse-drawn carriages have played the role of the main force of transportation on land, and "contributions are indispensable".
However, the function of today's "car – the machine that changes the world" should not be ignored. Nowadays, no one can deny that the automobile has made human society change dramatically, with each passing day, and with each passing day!
More and more people have deeply understood: the car is strong, the country is strong!
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