In July 1793, Tianjin Dagukou. A large number of porters, led by local officials, were lined up to meet a distinguished guest who had come from afar to "worship".
Soon, a large number of majestic ships sailed into the harbor, and when the envoys on board appeared, the porters who had been waiting in the harbor for a long time were startled.
The envoys of the country who came to see him this time were different from the original East Asian envoys in Korea, Vietnam and other places, but the British with curly blond hair.
Their blonde hair, pointed noses, and bustling British aristocratic costumes are very similar to the ghost images in traditional Chinese Zhiwei novels.
As soon as they appeared, they caused a commotion among the people on the shore.
After the local officials had calmed down the commotion, the porters dared to go forward and carry the vast number of gifts on board the ship to the Chinese barge and set off for Beijing.
The envoy sent by the British was named Macartney; this was his first visit to the Qing court.
He knew that this visit was of great significance to Britain, which had just begun the Industrial Revolution, and was also related to the future fate of the Qing Dynasty.
However, this diplomatic matter did not go as smoothly as the British king imagined, and the change in the Attitude of the Qing Court towards the British envoys was also very worthy of the fun of future generations.
It was also in this process that the eighty-year-old Qianlong Emperor issued a holy decree to the British king that was ridiculous and criticized by the world for a long time.
So, what was the purpose of britain's visit to the Qing court with a large number of gifts? Are their purpose really simple?
Why did the Qing Dynasty's attitude toward British envoys change dramatically? What kind of holy decree did Qianlong promulgate, and what was the mystery behind it?
(Ma Garni and his party in Tianjin Dagukou)
To answer these questions, we need to go back to the 1760s.
The Industrial Revolution drove development, and Britain tried to open up markets
In March 1603, the legendary Queen Elizabeth I, who brought the LinkedIn kingdom into the "Golden Age", passed away.
Since then, Britain has officially entered the Stuart dynasty, which has been accompanied by great turmoil.
But it was also during this period that Britain officially moved to the forefront of the world.
During this period, the "Glorious Revolution" broke out in Britain, which had almost no bloodshed, replaced the absolutist monarch that the British people did not like, abolished the monarch's personal autocracy, and embarked on the road of gradual and smooth reform.
(Glorious Revolution)
It should be known that whether a country can achieve economic take-off and start true modernization after completing the task of nation-state construction depends to a large extent on the overcoming of the authoritarian system.
Through the Glorious Revolution and the promulgation of the Bill of Rights, Britain built the best social structure and development environment in the world at that time.
It was also in this environment that Britain ushered in the first industrial revolution that could enter the annals of all mankind.
In 1733, the British mechanic Kaye invented a tool called the "shuttle", which greatly improved the speed of loom work, and the supply exceeded demand for a time.
The emergence of this gadget can be seen as the embryo of the Industrial Revolution.
Soon, 30 years later, a textile worker named Hargreaves invented the Jenny Loom, setting a precedent for the use of machines in the cotton textile industry and triggering a chain reaction of technological innovations that kicked off the Industrial Revolution.
(Jenny Spinning Machine)
In the following quite rapid period of time, the cotton textile industry has appeared screw machines, hydraulic looms and other advanced machines; coal mining, metallurgy and many other industrial sectors have also appeared machine production.
As machines enter all walks of life, efficient and convenient machine production has gradually replaced traditional manual operations.
Thanks to the fact that machines can work 24 hours a day, British society has many industrial products sufficient for trade on the basis of satisfying self-sufficiency.
Britain's traditional foreign trade market was mostly based on the spice trade of the British East India Company.
Thanks to the opening of new shipping routes and the rapid development of the navigation industry, Britain, the Netherlands and other countries have continuously opened up colonies abroad with the help of their strong naval advantages, monopolized the trade market, and carried out the original accumulation of evil capital.
The emergence of the Industrial Revolution has greatly promoted the development of industrial commodities in Britain, and people can produce a large number of complex goods with quality and quantity, both complex and precise clock instruments and fabric textiles with excellent texture, with a wide variety of varieties and many more.
(British East India Company Headquarters Building)
With the increasing productivity and the bloody plunder of the East India Company, Britain's overall national strength was even greater than that of the "Virgin Queen" Elizabeth, which can be said to have entered another peak era.
With the sharpening of fangs and the fullness of wings, Britain is no longer satisfied with the existing dumping ground for goods.
It has made sufficient preparations in secret, intending to start a bloody rise in the near future.
From its inception, the British East India Company was not a mere commodity trading company, but a seizure of unjust wealth based on violence, colonial expansion, threats of force and pirate plunder.
Along with the British East India Company, there was the Dutch East India Company and the French East India Company.
Behind them are the support of their respective governments, and their presence is a microcosm of their respective countries in this part of India.
Before 1746, the three countries maintained a delicate relationship of checks and balances and reciprocity in The Indian region, which was quite three-legged.
But as Britain took the lead in the Industrial Revolution, Britain's national power quickly rose and surpassed the other two countries, and the balance of power began to tilt.
The Karnatic region in southern India is one of the few richest areas in India because of its proximity to the coastline and a large area of fertile plains, and has thus become the focus of contention between the three countries.
However, after entering the 18th century, the Netherlands was repeatedly defeated and suffered heavy losses in the three Anglo-Dutch wars, and inevitably fell into a whirlpool of decline.
As a result, the battle for the Karnatic region became a battleground for overseas colonization between Britain and France.
(Anglo-Dutch Naval Battle)
The protracted Kanatic War lasted from 1746 to 1763.
Britain won the final victory with the deep financial resources accumulated during the Industrial Revolution and the gunpowder weapons technology that had advanced accordingly.
The victory of this war not only represented Britain's heavy blow to France's power in southern India, but also announced the smooth rise of Britain as the dominant force in the entire Indian region.
The wealth of blood made Britain taste sweet, and greed gradually became out of control.
Beginning in 1757, the British took the initiative to provoke the Battle of Prassi, and defeated the Mughal Army for the Bengal region in the war, successfully reducing it to a British colony.
At this point, the development of the British overseas market has reached a peak, and the entire Indian region has become a dumping ground for British goods and heavy taxes have been levied on the Indian people.
Between 1757 and 1815 alone, the British plundered billions of pounds of wealth in India.
(British colonization of India)
The high wealth and the existing scope of trade did not satisfy the greedy British government, which intended to open up larger overseas markets.
This time, they focused on China, which has the largest market in Asia.
When Ma Jiaerni visited the Qing court, Qianlong's attitude changed three times
While Britain was undergoing a vigorous Industrial Revolution and seafaring discoveries, on the other side of the world, the ancient Eastern Empire still followed the small-scale peasant economy of the ancient men and women.
But this did not prevent the Qing court from having the largest land area and the largest population base in the world at that time.
Since the late Ming Dynasty, Chinese tea, porcelain, silk and other commodities have been highly loved by the Western aristocracy.
However, due to the self-sufficient small peasant economy of feudal society, this huge market in the land of China has never been opened to Western countries.
(Export porcelain in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties)
Faced with the huge cake in front of them, the hungry prisoner had a hard time exercising restraint.
For this huge market to be explored, the British government will soon put trade with China on the agenda.
Once, because the British mainland was far away from China, britain wanted to trade with China but was not enough.
But now with the East India Company, based on India as a medium, distance will no longer be difficult.
In September 1792, the British government officially appointed Macartney, who had been in charge of negotiations with Catherine the Great of Russia, as a plenipotentiary envoy to China to negotiate trade matters, visited China on the grounds of celebrating the eightieth birthday of the Qianlong Emperor, and carefully selected more than 80 missions composed of astronomers, scientists, mathematicians, and doctors.
in Macartney
Since the British government used the celebration of Qianlong's birthday as an excuse for a visit, carrying gifts became an important part.
For the selection of gifts, the British government can also be described as painstaking.
In order to arouse Chinese interest in the British visit to China, Macartney repeatedly discussed with the East India Company objects that might arouse Qianlong's interest before the mission, and held many debates.
In the end, the British government agreed that industrial products that reflected the achievements of the British Industrial Revolution at that time were very likely to arouse Qianlong's interest.
So Macartney sent men to collect industrial products from Birmingham, Manchester, and the industrial towns of England as part of the state service.
According to Macartney's own book "The Visit of qianlong envoys in 1793", at that time, Britain prepared more than 60 kinds of gift categories, including astronomical instruments, optical instruments, advanced production equipment and battleship weapons, which represented the most advanced production level of various industries in Britain at that time.
As Macartney embarked on his journey full of gifts and triumphant, he knew that there was an unknown dilemma waiting for him in the mysterious East.
(The big ship on which Macartney was sent)
When Qianlong learned that Ma Garni and his party had come to congratulate him at the beginning of his birthday, he was quite enthusiastic and enthusiastic, and had been asking for specific gifts from the officials in charge of docking.
According to the Records of Emperor Gaozong of the Qing Dynasty, Qianlong also deliberately allowed large objects such as astronomical instruments and chandeliers brought by the Macartney Mission to be exhibited in the Zhengda Guangming Hall of the Yuanmingyuan, and even allowed Western craftsmen to enter the main hall first to guide the installation.
All these show that the initial attitude of the upper echelons of the Qing government, represented by Qianlong, towards the visit of the Macartney mission and the state gifts it gave was both attaching importance to it and renewing its hopes, which can be said to be a positive attitude of complete welcome.
(Part of the national ceremony restoration picture sent by the United Kingdom)
But soon, things took a turn for the better after Qianlong received the "Tribute List" presented by the British mission.
According to existing historical records, the Qianlong Emperor was furious after seeing the specific gift list, and even reprimanded the official in charge of supervising the matter in court.
There was no reason for Qianlong Longxing's great hair, only because Qianlong believed that the British envoys had no humble words in the "Tribute List", but blindly marked the gifts they brought to the advanced, and there was no shortage of exaggerations.
More importantly, Qianlong did not see from this "Tribute List" that there was not a single bit of the attitude that the "small country of Qi'er" should have in attaching itself to the heavenly kingdom.
Compared with those vassal states of the Qing court in East Asia, britain's attitude was too arrogant and had the intention of sitting on an equal footing with the Qing court.
These reasons boil down to the fact that the two countries have different positions for this diplomatic activity.
The Qing court, which had always enjoyed the title of heavenly kingdom, took it for granted that the British envoys had come from thousands of miles only to show their submission.
But in fact, the British visit is an independent country to seek to establish equal diplomatic and foreign trade relations.
This contradiction was soon exacerbated by the etiquette of Magalni's meeting with Qianlong, and eventually broke out.
In August 1793, Macartney set out from the port of Tianjin to prepare for Beijing to meet Qianlong, and on the ship there was a dispute with the officials of the Ministry of Etiquette over the issue of etiquette.
The Qing government headed by Qianlong firmly believed in the traditional concept that "under the whole world, there is no royal land", believing that there was no country in the world that could sit on an equal footing with the Qing court, and naturally there was no equal relationship of visitation.
Therefore, the officials of the Ministry of Ceremonies insisted that Macartney and his party confess to performing three kneeling and nine prayers to receive the great ceremony.
However, according to the concept of Macartney and the British government, they were sending to China as a fully sovereign state, and there was no relationship of dependence or subordination.
And as a British envoy, he represents the dignity of the British king outside, if he really kneels three times and nine worships, it will greatly insult the dignity of the British royal family.
Therefore, Macartney and his party insisted on practicing only the one-knee etiquette of meeting the king.
(Traditional British one-knee etiquette)
The dispute over etiquette between the two sides ran from Tianjin to Beijing, and neither side refused to back down.
After this incident reached Qianlong's ears, he once again aroused great anger and ordered that the reception standard be lowered.
In the end, the incident was decided by the British envoys to perform the ritual of kneeling on one knee, and Qianlong received Macartney and his party informally as the final solution.
The so-called informal form was to go to the Rehe Mountain Resort to meet the emperor on the day of Qianlong's eightieth birthday, together with envoys from various countries and civil and military officials who came to pay homage to Shou.
At 3 o'clock at dawn that day, Ma Garni and his party were urged by the Reception Officials of the Qing Dynasty to get up and wash up and prepare, and walked nearly 4 kilometers in the dark.
After walking for nearly an hour, the crowd finally arrived at the brightly lit palace, and then waited in the boundless darkness for Qianlong to get up and wash up.
It was also the first time that the British had seen and experienced China's early dynasty system.
Taking the opportunity to send a birthday gift to Qianlong, Macartney presented the letter and the letter of state written by the British king himself.
According to the historical records of the Qing Dynasty, the British government directly proposed in the letter of state to establish equal diplomatic relations with the Qing court, and asked Qianlong to reduce its taxes and formulate fixed customs collection standards, and even asked Qianlong to cede an island in the Zhoushan area for the British to live and manage.
(The Westerners painted the Macartney to see Qianlong)
Obviously, some of these british demands are legitimate demands for the establishment of equal trade exchanges, but the other part is unreasonable demands with the nature of colonial invasion, such as the cession of islands, which purely put the wolf ambitions of the invaders on the surface.
Qianlong ignored these demands of the British government, and believed that the matter of Ma Garni's birthday celebration had been completed, and demanded that the British envoys and his party immediately leave for China.
However, the most important purpose of Macartney's trip is to open up the Chinese market, and at present, this purpose has not been promoted at all, and naturally he is not willing to return home.
Ma Jiaerni wrote to Qianlong, asking for a suspension of his return to China and to start negotiations on the issue of trade between the two countries.
In order to be able to successfully stay in China to negotiate, Macartney even told Hezhen that the entire cost of the British mission in China was borne by the British themselves, and there was no need for the Qing court to spend money.
However, Qianlong considered the British demands to be all "non-sub-demands" and did not negotiate with Macartney.
(Wako image)
Seeing that the Qianlong Emperor was so resolute, Ma Jiaerni knew that this trip had no hope of achieving its goal.
So, without holding negotiations, receiving no formal reception, and not completing their mission, Macartney and his party embarked on their return journey.
A holy will is ridiculous, and the attitude behind it is mysterious
It is worth mentioning that after Qianlong ordered Macartney to return to China immediately, he also issued a "holy will" to the British royal family, that is, the "Edict of the Qianlong Emperor to King George III".
One of the passages reads: "In fact, the Heavenly Dynasty Dewei Yuan quilt, the king of all nations, all kinds of valuable things, the ladder voyage is complete, everything ... However, it is never expensive and coincidental, and there is no more need for the state to buy things. ”
This passage is actually Qianlong's response to britain's request for trade, which means that as a heavenly kingdom, the Qing court sits on all things under the heavens, and it is not unusual to have rare treasures, and there is no need to trade with small countries such as you to fill the vacancy.
Later generations have always regarded this passage as proof of the Qing Dynasty's isolation and arrogance, and have repeatedly attacked it, and even more extremely mocking it.
But in fact, behind Qianlong's series of reactions that have been criticized by later generations, there are multiple political considerations.
(The Edict of the Qianlong Emperor george iii)
According to the Qing Shilu, the day after asking Macartney to leave for England, Qianlong personally issued an edict to the governors of the coastal provinces, warning them:
"England is stronger among the Western nations, and now it has attempted to do whatever it wants or caused some trouble."
This was to urge the governors everywhere to strengthen their defenses and instruct canton officials not to give the British any excuse for military action.
According to the existing British historical records on this event, the purpose of the British government's visit is not a commercial purpose.
When choosing gifts, the British king demanded that a large number of advanced weapons be added to the original gifts, and directly asked the British envoys to make China jealous of Britain's military strength.
(Records of the Qing Dynasty)
It can be seen that another important purpose of Britain's visit is to deeply examine China's actual national conditions and calculate the possibility of turning China into a second India.
Qianlong had previously learned about the British war in India and the sea, and smelled dangerous in the relevant documents submitted by the British.
In order to completely eliminate the possibility of Ma Jiaerni provoking trouble in China, Qianlong specially sent the military minister Song Jun and Ai Xinjue Luo Changlin to escort the mission out of the country.
Intertwined with these edicts in the Qing ShiLu, there are also edicts written by Qianlong to his military ministers.
Qianlong made it clear that there was absolutely no possibility of negotiation on matters such as the cession of the islands proposed by the British mission, and constantly ordered the strengthening of coastal defense construction to avoid the British from using force to seize it.
(Military Aircraft Division - the de facto central authority after Qing Yongzheng)
The overall impression given by these archives is that, in the minds of the Qianlong Emperor, an effective military and diplomatic response to Britain was far more important than the ceremonial issues such as prostration discussed before the Macartney mission arrived in Beijing.
It can be seen that behind Qianlong's holy will, which has been criticized by posterity for a long time, there are still very delicate political considerations and diplomatic games hidden.
However, the naïve Qianlong thought that the British would not dare to invade again after this incident, but unexpectedly, in the Opium War in 1840, the British forcibly opened the door of the country by force and opened the history of modern humiliation.
(Opium Wars)
After the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, in order to beautify its own acts of aggression, the British wantonly took the "Edict of the Qianlong Emperor and King George III" out of context, in order to publicize the ignorance of the Qing court and try to rationalize its own aggression in this way.
His Sima Zhao's heart is known to the world.
epilogue
What has to be admitted is that Qianlong's letter to the British king, the "Edict of the Qianlong Emperor george III", to a certain extent, exposed the arrogant ignorance of the Qing court's firm belief that "the heavens are on the kingdom, and the eight parties come to congratulate".
But the political considerations behind it and the importance attached to British coastal defence cannot be ignored.
What is even more undeniable is that the demise of the Qing court and the opening of the history of modern humiliation are by no means the reason for its isolation from the country, but more often because of the inevitable trend of the demise of the feudal system and the illegal acts of aggression of the Western powers.
(Anglo-French coalition army burning the Yuanmingyuan)
Civilization never needs to be driven by acts of war, and the progress of society does not have to be at the cost of blood.
The aggressors headed by Britain, France, Russia, and Japan must not justify their criminal acts of aggression because the Qing court is closed to the outside world, and still less can they wash away the accumulated blood debts committed on Chinese soil.
bibliography:
[1] Zhu Bolin,Wang Dongdong,Chen Kunlong. A preliminary study of the state gifts presented by the Macartney delegation during its visit to China and the changes in attitude of the Qing government before and after. Journal of Henan Museum.2021(03):118-126
[2] WANG Hongzhi. How to "open his words to show off his kit-chic" ?—— on the newly discovered 1793 Ma Garni Mission Gift List translation [J]. Foreign Chinese And Culture.2021(04):58-79
[3] Shen Aidi,Zhang Li,Yang Yang. The Qianlong Emperor's Edict to King George III and the formation of views on traditional Chinese foreign relations in the early 20th century. Global History Review.2021(01):30-56+340